Travel Insurance FAQ
Discover Croatia AU recommends that all clients purchase travel insurance.
Most basic travel insurance will cover you if you have an accident before you go and you can’t make your trip. However, what if something happens while you’re away? What if something happens to your travelling companion and you no longer want to travel without them? See below for some information on how to check what you’re covered for.
We highly recommend that you procure travel insurance the day you pay any money to anyone for your trip (including deposits). All deposits are non-refundable for cancellation by client, for any reason, at any time after booking confirmation. Please see your Payment Conditions in your email, and our T&C page for more info.
We do not sell or recommend any particular travel insurance, as each client has their own priorities and not all insurance policies cover the same things. Please, take the time to get the right cover for you, so that you can enjoy your holiday with peace of mind. Thank you.
Here are a few sites where someone else has done some research for you for travel insurance. We are not affiliated with these sites, we just think this info might be useful for our clients.
https://smartraveller.gov.au/CHOICE-travel-insurance-guide-COVID-19
https://choice.com.au/travel-insurance-pandemic#which-insurers-cover-you-for-an-epidemic-or-pandemic
https://allianztravelinsurance.com/travel/planning/how-insurance-covers-travel-companion.htm
https://insurancecouncil.com.au/
Here are some questions to ask your travel insurance company. Do they cover….
• Cruises on small ships that sail ‘foreign’ domestic waters (Croatian coastal cruises sail within Croatian domestic waters only). Not all insurance automatically covers you when you are at sea. Please check! What happens if you injure yourself while at sea? The Croatian islands don’t have hospitals, so there is limited emergency care in each port.
• Cruises on larger ships that sail in international waters? (Croatian coastal cruises do not sail in international waters, but you might be doing additional travelling during your holiday)
• COVID / pandemic related medical insurance? Are you covered if you need to stay in government mandated quarantine on your way in or out of your country or while you are overseas? Is your holiday covered if you get sick before you leave home and need to cancel? What if you get sick upon arrival to your holiday destination?
• Border closures. What if your country of residence border closes, or what if the country you’re visiting closes their borders? Are you covered for cancellation fees? If it’s your country that closes, the vendors aren’t legally obligated to refund you.
• Medical Insurance for other issues (accident/ regular illness)? For you and/or your family members; if you need to cancel your holiday if your parent/child gets ill and you need to stay home to take care of them; or, if you get sick while you are away and need to go home urgently, are you covered?
• Travelling with companions who are not relatives? Are you covered if your travelling companion gets COVID, or has to go home due to their family member becoming ill or injured and you don’t want to continue alone? What if you want to leave with them and you need to buy new plane tickets home? What’s covered for you in this case if your travelling companion is not your immediate family member? They’re likely covered under their own insurance, but you might not be covered under your own.
• Flight delays (whether you miss your flights or its cancelled)? If you miss your flight or your flight is delayed and you miss your cruise or tour, are you covered for the full cancellation costs of your cruise or tour? If you can’t make your cruise or tour, they consider you a ‘no show’ and charge 100% cancellation fee. There is no refund if you can’t make your cruise through no fault of the cruise or tour company.
• Car Hire Excess Insurance?
• Lost luggage? Stolen luggage? Electronics?
• Travel delays? (either your fault or your airline/train/bus company’s fault)
• Adventure travel cover? (some companies won’t cover the more ‘risky’ type of sports, or motorcycle riding, or even being a pillion on a scooter)
• What do they cover if something goes wrong on your cruise or tour? (say your cruise ship breaks down or everyone gets sick, or your tour bus is delayed and you miss your flight.. these kinds of things)
• Are you covered for your private yacht or gulet charter? Private charter is not automatically covered under regular travel insurance. Will they pay for a replacement boat for the week if there’s any issues or accidents rendering your ship unusable?
• Airline / tour / cruise operator financial default or failure to provide contracted services? (end supplier failure)
• Anything else that is a possibility for you in particular?
Your style of travel might differ greatly from the person next to you on the plane. You might be skydiving, they might be going on a cruise. There is no one travel insurance policy that will cover everyone for what they need. Don’t be afraid to ask questions of your insurer.
Most insurance policies only cover you if you have to cancel your trip because of something happening on your end. Please speak to your insurance company and ensure that you are going to be covered for what is important to you. We act as an Agent only, we are not the end supplier (cruise or tour operator) of the travel products on this website.
We are registered with IATA under TIDS (Travel Industry Designator Service), a world-wide registration scheme for agents who don’t sell flights.
TIDS Code: 9684-6385
What is TIDS? https://iata.org/en/services/accreditation/tids/
Check the code: https://store.iata.org/ieccacfree
We have been operating in Australia as a travel intermediary booking Croatia holidays since 2007. Your money is safe in our Australian bank account while it’s with us. Once we pay the end supplier (the actual provider of your booked services), it leaves our hands entirely and is beyond our control. Your own travel insurance then covers you for anything after that point, especially if it’s a special deal where you pay early to obtain a discount. Getting cash back from an overseas vendor can be a long and difficult process. We want you to be safe when you travel, we want you to be able to get home safely if something goes wrong and we want you to be covered if there’s a random ‘force majeure’ event. Please, get travel insurance and ensure you have the best protection for what you need. 🙂
For comprehensive travel insurance that covers most things, we can suggest you look at a Health Fund (NIB/Medibank etc), NRMA / RACQ / RACV etc or someone like Go Travel Insurance. They seem to have a wide coverage, but please get it in writing exactly what they cover and if it’s relevant to your holiday and the products you are booking.
Some insurers have a ‘cancel for any reason’ insurance (including insolvency, mopeds, high risk adventures, cancelled tours etc), but you need to read the PDS really carefully to ensure your ‘any reason’ is covered and that you have added the selected cover as an option.
For basic insurance that covers car hire excess, medical, annual multi-trips, cover when you’re already overseas and group policies, you could look at 1Cover Travel Insurance. They seem to cover Emergency Companion Cover, but please check.
Another well known insurance company is Allianz Travel Insurance. They seem to have good cover for you, and also perhaps cover you if it’s your companion with an issue and you don’t want to, or can’t, continue travel without them.
For Adventure Travel insurance, or insurance for the basics after you leave home, we can suggest you look at World Nomads Travel Insurance. They say they cover emergency medical expenses, baggage, trip cancellation (that’s if you have to cancel for reasons they cover), and technical equipment. You can extend your cover while you travel and they cover heaps of sports like scuba diving, skiing, bungee-jumping, surfing and mountain-biking to name just a few.
For Private Charter insurance, you can look at Go Travel Insurance for Sailing Holidays. This insurance should cover you both at sea and on land and covers private charters. Private charter insurance is not required for our regular small ship cruises, only those where you book out the entire ship for yourself.
You really do need to decide exactly what cover is most important to you based on your style of travel, your responsibilities at home, the possibility that you might need to cancel your trip to take care of a loved one, or whether you’re going to hire a car or going on a cruise. Please read all the Product Disclosure Statements thoroughly and carefully and ensure that the cover they entail is exactly what you need. If you’re not sure, phone the insurance company and check with them that you’re going to be covered.
If you’re hiring a car, you can also look at a Car Hire Excess Insurance Policy, such as this one https://icarhireinsurance.com/car-hire-insurance-products/excess-worldwide. Car Hire Excess is usually expensive, so it can pay to take out a separate policy if your other travel insurance doesn’t cover it.
Medjet provides insurance for medical transport costs that might not be covered under your normal travel insurance policy. You can check them out here: https://medjetassist.com/
If you are going to use your credit card insurance (which we do not recommend unless you only want the absolute basics), then please read the PDS very, very carefully so that you know exactly what it covers and then contact them to double check the legal-speak. Some will not cover you if you don’t have a return ticket booked. Some won’t cover you unless you pay for the entire holiday with your credit card. Be careful, we cannot stress this enough.
If you are using your credit card travel insurance, please read this carefully and ensure that you are covered for all eventualities before relying on it. You need to take responsibility and check with them and go through the PDS carefully to see what you are covered for in the event of a claim with them. Not just medical claims, but what happens if something else goes awry when you’re already on your holiday? Please, be careful and get proper travel insurance if you are not sure your credit card will cover you.
Again, please do your research thoroughly and ensure you get the right cover for you, so that you can enjoy your holiday with peace of mind. Thank you.
If you have any questions, give us a call/WhatsApp on +612-9212-1507 or email us at [email protected]
