Practical Travel Advice – Trip Insurance

I normally purchase trip insurance through my travel agent (a close friend) when big ticket vacations are booked – such a river cruise or other cruise travel.  The insurance has some trip-wires, but in general it will refund some or the majority of your investment for the trip if, for some reason, such a health or death in your close family, prevents you from travel.  I had never thought about the cost of the insurance, since my agent did this at very modest cost.

Today I read that the typical cost is between 4% and 10 % of the trip, which is a good  bit more than I have been paying.  And I read that it is probably best to buy the insurance directly from the cruise ship company or from an on-line provider such as “Insure My Trip” website suggests. (see  http://www.insuremytrip.com) 

If your travel agent that is new to you, and offers trip insurance, perhaps you should recheck their price against buying the insurance directly from the provider (say, a cruise line). There is a possibility the agent commission can approach 50% of the actual insurance cost.  And of course most travel agencies of all types probably lay off the risk by buying the policy (wholesale) from some insurance company that is in that kind of business.  You would end up dealing with the 3^rd. party insurance company, not the travel agent, in case of a claim.

Some high level credit card owners can get special travel insurance that will even do medical fly back to the USA should you encounter a problem in a foreign country.  Sometimes by private jet, with a doctor on board (if, for example, you had a heart attack in a 3^rd. world country). I have heard of one friend of a friend who had that happen, and got the free flight back to a USA hospital for heart by-pass surgery.

iPhone 6 quality photos

https://www.apple.com/iphone/world-gallery/

Take a look at these great iPhone 6 photos posted in the World Gallery

While all new Android (Samsung) and Apple iPhones take great photos, I think the magazine reviewers give Apple a slight edge most of the time (maybe not all of the time).  This collection surely makes a believer of anyone who thinks smart phone cameras can’t compete with point and shoot “real cameras”.

I converted to digital photos so many years ago, I forget when it was, 1980’s probably, with a Kodak brand camera, a point and shoot.  It had maybe 2 MP, and yet, with the great lens it had, I got amazing photos, some of my best “ever”.  I loved the camera, and subsequent Canon point and shoot cameras were good, and smaller, but not always did the photos look dramatically better than the Kodak camera.  It was a convenience factor.  Then, later and smaller Canon point-and-shoot cameras (with great reviews) became my next acquisitions.   But, I think their photos are not as good as the first generation Canon’s. And the wide angle and full feel of the old Kodak is still a miracle in my mind == I never bought a roll of conventional film after I mastered the Kodak camera battery life problem (using rechargeable AA batteries) and the methods to print the photos on quality paper with an old HP color printer.  By the way, it was not a cheap printer (ink jet) but it produced the best glossy prints I have ever had.  I saved them all as proof.  Subsequent printers, of HP or Canon brands have done less and less well, the last one, a well rated Canon make terrible prints, unacceptable. So I quit printing glossy photos. And my favorite Kodak photo editor that fed those great prints was once acquired by Microsoft and put on the Office Suite CD.  Microsoft then dropped it and on-line downloads from other sources are now incompatible with Windows 7, or I would still be using it. It was the best, and easiest to use, and most logical of the several photo editors I have used.  Microsoft now offers a lesser quality editor, I believe, but I haven't tried it since the interface didn't appeal to me. 

I say all that to say that not all advances really “advances” in my book.  I think software and cameras are sometimes pushed into clever niches by marketing, and engineering and quality suffer. The iPhone interface has, with IOS-8, been better in most respects than their prior operating systems.  But the screen views are now pale and less easy to read (in my opinion) that prior IOS versions.  When they get a winner, why not just add quality and features, and not disturb a wonderful user graphical interface?   I keep my old phones just so I can compare them side by side, to prove my point.  The old screen graphical interface and font choices are clearer and easier to read.

PS – Apples 6 cameras have some super exotic focusing system, almost down to the last pixel.  Watch the introduction videos (September 2014) on YouTube to see Tim Cook explain it.  Certainly it is hard to conceive of such a complicated system being put in such a small package and in a phone, no less.  Miracles never cease.  Ansel Adams would be impressed.