Should you travel without travel health insurance international? To answer this question, you should first determine where the destination is. Some countries are really safe, and you can leave your belongings on a table in a public place, and it will be there when you get back. This is more of the exception than the norm. Most places are not like this, or else there would be no need for any kind of international trip cancellation insurance.

Visit any airport, bus, or train terminal, and you will hear amazing stories about items being returned. But that would be a small percent of the number of lost items that were never found again.

Imagine if you were one of those who lost something valuable and never got it back. Your case would have a 5% recovery rate, so this means possibly going back home ahead of schedule.

Another possible problem would be a delay or cancelled flight, for whatever reason. It snowballs because your trip hinges on everything going according to your plan. You might not even get a refund on your ticket and suffer enormous inconveniences.

Dealing with scenarios like these happen on a daily basis. No one is exempt from such occurrences.

Part of traveling is having sufficient funds to cover for incidental expenses. Some call it emergency funds and you could tap into this to fund your international travel cancellation insurance. Without international travel insurance, you could end up spending much more in case you get sick. If you don’t have the ready cash, this would mean borrowing to pay for your unexpected medical expenses, even from loan sharks.

Have you ever dealt with loan sharks? They take everything you’ve got, and then some. It’s a nasty situation to find yourself in, even worst than a credit card debt. There is an Asian saying about grabbing on to a knife because you have no other choice. This is what it means to resort to using a loan shark.

If you get international travel health insurance, you can expect a less stressful vacation, no matter what happens.

Dan Miller frequently writes about international trip cancellation insurance