Going on a vacation offers a great opportunity to learn and explore different countries and cultures. Traveling with a group, no matter how large or small can be an eye-opening experience and add variety and perspective to any trip. When planning a trip, consider looking into any group tours or excursions are available.
Group travel involves a team of travelers with similar interests and appetite for travel and sight-seeing. Schools, clubs, families, companies, and senior citizen organizations can organize a trip for their group; usually there are group discounts available, depending on the size of the group. When choosing a destination for a club or large group, consider the general interests of the group and find a location that follows along with those interests.
Other than enjoying the sights and activities, group travelers have many opportunities to bond, and develop lasting friendships.
When participating in group travel, there’s usually a leader who handles the bookings and schedule of the group. Otherwise known as an organized tour, this type of traveling is usually structured; the focus is not on for self-exploration. The group leader can arrange organized tours or a tour agent can take on the job. Due to the increased number of travelers, a group can usually expect to get some savings on air tickets, accommodations, meals, and tours. Group travelers would also get better deals for travel insurance.
When traveling with a large group, it is still important to pay attention to your surroundings and remain alert. Group travelers may get a false sense of security simply because they assume that they would be able to look out for one another. It is certainly true in many instances, but there is no guarantee that the risks of traveling will be withdrawn from group travelers.
When people travel in a group, there is going to be more luggage and other items to account for. The risk of losing luggage increases, especially when the airline personnel are rushing to check-in all the passengers to ensure that everybody gets on the plane. Travel insurance provides coverage for loss luggage so travelers do not have to worry about losing their luggage.
For active groups who are going on a trip involving some other strenuous activity like skiing, snowboarding or rock climbing, it is highly recommended that they look into travel medical insurance.
Generally, a basic travel insurance policy will not provide coverage for more hazardous sports since the incidence of injury is higher. Compared to travelers who are going on a sightseeing trip in London, travelers who engage in the more dangerous sports would have to pay for another travel insurance scheme.
No matter the activity, travel medical insurance is beneficial for everybody because it provides greater medical coverage than basic travel insurance. If a traveler suffers an injury that requires complicated surgery or long-term medical treatment, the maximum amount of compensation from basic travel insurance will most likely be insufficient to cover the full costs.
It may appear as a simple exercise but group traveling requires extensive preparation and planning. In the case of an extremely large group, the leaders have to attend to every small detail. What happens if some of members of the group cannot make the trip? In a family, it is quite unlikely that the group will continue on the trip, especially if the person who cannot travel is the parent.
Fortunately, there is something known as any cancellation trip insurance which provides coverage for the cancellation of trips, with or without a valid reason. Any cancellation trip insurance is very suitable for group travel because it provides greater flexibility when some members of the group cannot go on the trip for some reason or another. The members would be able to get compensation for the amount that they had spent, and the rest of the party can proceed, peacefully.
With adequate preparations, organized tours can be a lot of fun. Getting the necessary travel insurance for the group would further ensure that everybody could travel with some much needed peace of mind.
Damian Tysdal is the founder of CoverTrip, and is a licensed agent for travel insurance (MA 1883287). He believes travel insurance should be easier to understand, and started the first travel insurance blog in 2006.