One of the most important benefits of a travel policy is trip cancellation and interruption coverage. This protects your travel purchase against unforeseen illness or accident that keep you from traveling. When you are considering purchasing a policy be sure and look at the trip interruption portion. Will it reimburse your unused, non-refundable portion of the trip? If an unfortunate situation arises where you will have to return home for a covered reason, it can help cover the increased transportation costs of traveling home on short notice. The policy many also cover you for missed connections, travel delays and even work/business related reasons.

In the unlikely event you become sick or injured during your trip, emergency medical and dental coverage is important to have. It is surprising, the number of health insurance policies that do not cover medical services when you are traveling internationally. It is a good idea to check with your health insurance provider to see what kind of out-of-country coverage you have.

I hate it when my luggage is lost or delayed. It is so irritating to lose your personal items only to find out the airline covers virtually nothing. Your travel insurance Baggage Protection will help replace lost or damaged items, and if you have to wait for your bags to catch up, it is somewhat comforting to know that you will be reimbursed for items that fail to make it intact.

When should you buy travel insurance? I would suggest buying your insurance right after booking your trip. The price is the same whether you buy it a year before the trip or the day before you leave, but buying it early gives you the most coverage time, and sometimes gives you bonuses such as covering pre-existing medical conditions and supplier default.

Make sure to use a reputable insurance company. Over the years, we have offered several different companies and have found Access America to have the best coverage, also the most fair when it comes time to pay a claim. We highly recommend using them for all of your travel insurance needs whether traveling on your own or traveling with us.

Be sure and know what your insurance covers. Read your policy ahead of time and don’t hesitate to ask questions. Most of the time you will find that you are covered for more things than you thought.

No one wants to think about the “what ifs” so let travel insurance take away some of these worries. Even though the odds are low that you might have to file a claim, the security and peace of mind provided with travel insurance is worth every penny.

This issues feature stories include:

REVISITING PERU’S NAZCA LINES

The desert markings, believed to have been made thousands of years ago, made little impression on occasional travelers who viewed them from ground level, but when they were spotted by aircraft in the 1930’s they caught the world’s attention. They have since been surveyed, mapped and studied. Only two questions remain—who made them, and why?

RAPID TRANSIT: COSTA RICA STYLE

Costa Rica has long been a favorite destination for both the beginner and the experienced river runner. With ample annual rainfall, mountainous landscapes, and plenty of road-to-river access, the country prides itself on being a whitewater paradise.

GHOSTS OF THE GALAPAGOS

Packing a pearl-handled revolver, a riding crop and three lovers, the Baroness Eloisa von Wagner Bosquet disembarked on the Island of Floreana, in 1932, and declared herself “Empress of the Galapagos.”

COPPER CANYON’S LOST TREASURES

In 1880, Alexander “Boss” Shepherd, the last territorial governor of the District of Columbia, packed up his family and, in the remote village of Batopilas, at the bottom of Copper Canyon, developed one of the richest silver mining operations in the world.

THERE’S MORE TO CHINA THAN BEIJING

Because the Olympics were hosted in Beijing, chances are that you learned more about China in 2008 than at any previous time. On the other end of the country, far from bustling Beijing is Yunnan Province—home to the largest variety of ethnic groups in China.

CALIFORNIA NATIVE ADVENTURES
The newsletter also includes schedules, prices and descriptions of California Native’s tours to Mexico’s Copper Canyon, Peru, the Galapagos, Patagonia, Costa Rica, Yucatan and Chiapas, Myanmar (Burma) and Laos, Bhutan, Yunnan, China, and Ireland.

But on a long trip, after days or weeks of eating the local dishes, I always develop a craving for the universal comfort food—pizza. And so, I make it a part of each of my journeys to try the local pizza, the one food, besides a ham-and-cheese sandwich, that can be found almost everywhere.

In Mandalay, Myanmar (Burma), we found excellent pizza at the Rudyard Kipling Bar & Grill. In LeJiang, Yunnan Province, China, after many days of Chinese banquets for lunch and dinner, in spite of protests by our Chinese host, we headed for the nearest pizza parlor and enjoyed our pizza and beer feast.

Traveling through Thailand, we discovered excellent pizza was at the Slow Food Italian Restaurant in Chang Mei, where the proprietor, an Italian expat in a wheelchair, greeted each guest. All of his staff were also wheelchair bound or disabled.

On a dark and stormy night, in a remote corner of Mexico’s Sierra Madre Mountains, Doug Rhodes, the owner of the Paraiso del Oso Lodge, outside of the little village of Cerocahui, in Mexico’s Copper Canyon, proudly served us what he declared was the “best pizza in Northern Mexico.” Kerosene lanterns lighted the dining room and the pizza was covered in generous portions of olives, which my wife, Ellen, hates, and had great difficulty trying to remove in the dim light. I, however, tended to agree with Doug’s assessment.

Last year, while visiting Budapest, Hungary, we enjoyed the pizza at Al Capone’s, a chain of pizza parlors in Eastern and Western Europe, which is now owned by Australian pizza giant Domino’s Pizza.

Wherever in the world we go we are not that far from home when we can take a break from the ethnic food and enjoy a great pizza. My favorite toppings are ham, pineapple, mushrooms and olives. What are yours?