Last month my wife and I booked a weeks holiday on the lovely Scottish Isle of Lewis. A two day drive up to Skye and then park the car up and take a ferry over to Lewis and the village of Steornabhagh. Wonderful scenery, bird watching and plenty of peace and quiet. Time to unwind.

You can imagine my surprise when my friendly local travel agent presumed I wanted travel insurance for an extra £27.50. Not on your Nellie the Lock Ness monster, I thought. Who needs a travel insurance policy for a holiday in Scotland? Even in the far north, the National Health Service is free and in an emergency, my son or daughter could drive up and get us home.

Later in the day whilst relaxing in my lounge I started thinking …………..

Holiday misfortunes can happen anywhere, not just abroad. So I jotted down the some of risks I could think of:

· The car might break down or, even worse, we might have an accident. No problem. My car insurance and breakdown cover would get us home and sort that out.
· Some thief might steal away with our luggage
· Last weekend I bought an all singing and dancing digital camera. Bought it on the Internet especially for the trip. What would happen if I lost it whilst on holiday?
· If either of us were taken seriously ill we wouldn’t want to be marooned on Lewis or Skye. Don’t know even whether they have a hospital on Lewis. Anyway, we’d want to be transferred back to our local hospital in Yorkshire.
· My in-laws are getting on, a bit frail now. God forbid, but I’d have to cancel the holiday if something happened to them just before we were due to leave.
· My wife or I could be taken ill before we depart. Then we’d have to cancel. As the ferry and the hotel were non-cancellable, we’d lose everything we’ve paid.
· There could be a big delay at the ferry sailing over to the Isle of Lewis. Besides the inconvenience, we have to sort out overnight accommodation on Skye.
· One of us might be called for jury service.

Then I had a thought. If I were in the UK, my existing Home & Contents insurance policy should cover me for loss of my precious camera or luggage. I nipped upstairs and dug out the policy. That was fortunate. We were only insured for “personal possessions” if they were listed and as I’d just bought my digital camera I hadn’t got round to listing it as a valuable item on my policy.

Another point struck me. I’d built up a good no claims discount on my Home & Contents policy. Not a claim in ten years! If I made a holiday related claim I’d lose my discount and that would throw a big saving down the pan. Not a good idea! Even after the discount the annual premium is £310 a year. I jotted down a another note – when my Home & Contents insurance comes up for renewal, see if I could get it cheaper on the Internet.

By now the travel agents’ policy at £27.50 for was beginning to look worthwhile after all.

Now my wife says I’m a bit of an old scrooge. So protect the image! I know, go back online and check out if the travel agents’ policy at £27.50 is competitive.

Not all the web sites I looked at offered me a stand alone travel insurance for a UK holiday but within five minutes I’d found what I wanted - plus a saving of over £10. Great!

Time to study the small print to ensure I had the cover I needed. Yes, apart from the car, all the risks I had noted were insured. The insurance company would even pay out £30 if the ferry to Lewis was delayed for up to 12 hours. Any longer and I’d the option to cancel my trip to Lewis and get my money back.

Now what wouldn’t the insurance company pay for? I wasn’t covered if my holiday was for less than two nights or my hotel was less than 25 miles away from home. No problems there. I also had to meet the first £30 of any claim I made. All seemed fair to me.

So the decision was made. Time to enter in my credit card details and with a CLICK I was insured.

Peace of mind again!