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U.K. Travel Insurer: Cuba as Dangerous as Afghanistan
U.K travel insurance company Direct Travel Insurance Services has a blacklist. If a traveler is headed to Sudan or Afghanistan, they will need to seek their insurance elsewhere. But Cuba?That's right, Cuba. The insurer will not cover British travelers headed to Cuba. Perhaps someone in the company thinks that it is still the 1950s. Or perhaps someone in the company was robbed during a recent vacation in Havana. But that's unlikely. Cuba is, arguably, one of the safest destinations in the entire Caribbean. Crime is virtually not-existent. It is much more dangerous to vacation on more popular islands like Jamaica.
But there is a more probable reason that English travelers are not able to get coverage for Cuba: AIG. The American firm took over Direct Travel Insurance Services and has extended its practices of not insuring Americans in Cuba to its new British customers.
Because of an archaic trade embargo, US citizens are not allowed to visit Cuba. thus AIG does not cover them. But there is no such law in England. Luckily for UK residents, there are many other travel insurers willing to cover tourists on their trip to Cuba.
[Via Havana Journal]
Filed under: United Kingdom, Cuba, Caribbean
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Larry Nov 25th 2008 1:47PM
The Travel Ban you mention is indeed archaic in the sense that it has been in place a long time. It is well to remember how it came to be in the first place and been so long lived. In a case of, that time the Weapons of Mass Destruction were real, Fidel Castro sought nuclear weapons installations in Cuba and, if some historians are to be believed, urged the Kremlin to use them during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. Well, Castro (and his brother) are still there and so is the travel ban. No "let bygones be bygones" till something resembling a free government with no Castro(s) is established there. If we were, say, the Russians, or as bad as many say we are, we would have long ago crushed that government. The Cuban exile community in the US has also been in the forefront of support for the ban and embargo. And, the next time you look down your nose at archaic US policies, you should also remember the WMD's that were, for so long, a daily threat to Europe and that it was some of those "archaic policies" that now allow you to sit in your armchair going tsk tsk at those know-nothing, crazy American swine. Enjoy your holiday in Cuba.
James Nov 28th 2008 1:07AM
Having just got back from a week in Cuba I have to say its one of the safest "feeling" developing world countries I have ever been to. I spent a day wandering around Havana alone and felt far safer then days I have spent in Guatemala City or even Mexico City. American official attitude to Cuba is very confusing to me. With Fidel Castro gone and the government making moves to reform it seems to be time for a rapprochement.
Brenda Nov 26th 2008 3:02PM
hi James and Josh!
My friend and I are planning a trip to Cuba in the fall. We initially wanted to spend a week volunteering for hurricane relief, but my hour-long online research came up empty. Any tips on volunteering or traveling there in general?
aloha,
Brenda
Auriette Dec 2nd 2008 3:33PM
What I don't get is why we are holding on to the past and the Cuba embargoes and doing all kinds of business with Communist China. What's the difference?