If you’ve been following along on our Facebook page, you may have noticed that we’ve started a bit of a tradition in the past couple of years.

As the calendar winds down each December, we get to dreaming about the next year. Rather than talk about resolutions, we talk about travel dreams, and we typically dream quite big. Our damn-we-hope-to-get-there-list for 2014 saw countries the likes of Mongolia, Japan, and Hungary. We stated our deep longing to eat egg tart pastries in Portugal, swim off the coast of the Maldives, take in some wildlife in Zimbabwe, and more.

Photos credit to various sources on 500px. See description for details.

And as we sat in wintery Alberta the last couple of months and started plotting our adventures, we did all the ordinary stuff that comes with preparing for travel: we renewed our passports, topped up our travel clothing, and bought travel insurance.

Except that we were surprised to recently learn that buying travel insurance isn’t so ordinary.  59%* of Canadians admitted to not purchasing insurance on their last trip, and less than half (44%*) plan to purchase it ahead of their next vacation.

Many people email us asking about whether we purchase travelers insurance and we are glad they do, so that we can advise them that insurance is something we would never, ever travel without. Even though we have been lucky and never had to make a claim, chances are we will fall under one of these statistics someday:

— 18%* of Canadians have experienced sudden illness

— 19%* have experienced flight delays/cancellation

— 23%* of Canadians have lost luggage

And we’ll be grateful to be covered, and spared some potentially big expenses. Because all it takes is one incident or illness to prove how valuable it is.

We want to enjoy THIS, without worry!

It is just as important then, for us to find the right insurance. Some of the things we look for:

— We want world-wide assistance, around the clock. (Obviously! We are rarely in one place for long and need flexibility.)

— For us gypsy types, we need our insurance in big long-term chunks, but for those of our readers who travel in shorter spurts (most of you!), consider the flexibility offered in available insurance programs. If you vacation just once a year, look for coverage in single-trip plans. For frequent travellers, multi-trip plans definitely provide better value!

– You know that we live by the concept of having “no possessions”, right? Therefore, the things that we do have are very valuable to us! Have you seen what is offered by airlines if you lose your bags? It is incredibly limited, and we’ve heard more than one horror story of costs not being recouped. We don’t want to take that chance.

Your dream trip should be just that – everything you envisioned it to be. And while it likely will be smooth sailing, there is always the chance of something happening to alter the best-made plans. We would never travel without the assurance that “we are covered”, and would highly recommend that you don’t either.

So that you can effortlessly enjoy cruising the fjords in Norway and diving into the Mediterranean blues in Greece. (At least, those are on our damn-we-hope-to-get-there-list.)

What’s on yours?

To learn more about travel Insurance and find out what type is best for you, check out the AMEX Travel Insurance website.

This post was sponsored by Amex Bank of Canada. The views and opinions expressed in this blog, however, are purely my own.

*Source: National survey conducted by a third party on behalf of American Express Canada in July 2013. Sample size included 1006 respondents from across Canada.