One of the top reasons to get travel insurance for your summer vacation is protection for emergencies. If you get sick, or get injured, or are affected by a natural disaster or other crisis, travel insurance is there to help.

But that’s the worst-case scenario—it’s much better to avoid those emergencies in the first place. Keep yourself and your family out of trouble with these safety tips for summer travel.

Summer travel safety tips for beach vacations

Learn how to recognize when someone’s drowning.

People who are drowning generally don’t yell, thrash, and splash. So what does drowning actually look like?  These are the signs:

• Hovering upright at the surface of the water
• Head tilted back and facing the shore
• Mouth at water level, gasping for air
• “Climbing ladder” motion

Check safety features at your vacation rental.

Vacation rental swimming pools are a particular hazard for young children: adults are distracted, children are attracted to the water, and pools often don’t have childproof safety features.¹

When booking a vacation rental with a pool, ask the owner about the pool enclosure. A removable mesh barrier isn’t enough. Use the National Drowning Prevention Alliance’s Vacation Rental Safety Checklist to identify hazards and prevent kids from drowning.

Always designate a “water watcher” to keep kids safe.

Never assume that someone is watching the kids. About half of child drownings take place within 25 yards of an adult.² A sober adult should be assigned at all times (in rotating shifts) to watch all children swimming or playing in or around water. For little kids who can’t swim, practice “touch supervision,” which means being close enough to reach the child at all times.

Know shark warning signs.

Compared to other summer vacation safety threats, shark attacks are extremely unlikely. However, they do happen. Here are a few tips for avoiding sharks:

• Don't swim at dawn or dusk, or after heavy rains.
• Don't swim near fishing piers, where sharks may be attracted by bait.
• If you see small fish schooling and jumping out of the water, or seabirds circling and diving, a shark may be nearby.
• Sharks are attracted to mouths of rivers, channels, deep drops and areas between sandbars.
• Blue or purple flags indicate sharks, jellyfish or other dangerous marine life.

Summer travel safety tips for international trips

Make a safety plan.

A travel safety plan is a document that outlines what to do in case of an emergency on your trip.

• Identify emergency contacts, and make sure to carry their contact info with you.
• Download the Allyz® app for easy access to your travel insurance plan and 24-hour assistance.
• Sign up for the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program — a free service that can help family and friends get in touch with you in an emergency.
• If you’re traveling with children or other family members, review what to do if there’s a crisis.
  
  

Avoid vacation activities with a high risk of injury.

This might seem like common sense—of course you’re not going to go bungee jumping or cliff diving. (Right?) But travelers often fail to recognize some of the riskiest vacation activities: riding mopeds, motorbikes, and motorcycles; riding ATVs; traveling in unsafe vehicles without a seatbelt; and driving in countries known for chaotic or dangerous roads. Also, be aware that your travel insurance plan excludes losses caused by certain high-risk sports and activities, as well as any loss resulting from the use or abuse of alcohol or drugs. Read your plan for details.

Never go overseas without emergency medical travel insurance.

If your summer travel plans take you on a cruise, out of the country, or to more remote areas of the United States, you should have travel insurance with emergency medical benefits and emergency medical transportation benefits. These benefits can cover your medical care and/or emergency transportation if you experience a covered medical emergency while traveling, protecting you from unexpected (and enormous) medical bills.

Some of the best travel insurance options offered by Allianz Partners include OneTrip Prime (up to $50K in emergency medical benefits and up to $500K in emergency transportation) and OneTrip Premier (up to $75K for emergency medical and up to $1 million for emergency transportation.) Get a quote.

Summer vacation safety tips for extreme heat and extreme weather

Plan your summer vacation with high temperatures in mind. 

Extreme heat waves are the new normal for summer travel in many parts of the world. It’s gotten to the point that many American travelers are opting out of visiting western Europe in summer, opting for cooler destinations or shoulder season travel instead.

High heat can be harmful to your health. If you are traveling to Europe or elsewhere during a heat wave, plan ahead for ways to stay cool. Make sure your hotel has air conditioning, if possible. Bring a personal fan, misting bottle, and cooling neck wrap. Visit attractions early in the day—in the Louvre, for instance, heat builds up in the afternoon from an influx of visitors.³

Learn the basics of wildfire safety.

If there’s any risk of wildfires at your destination, take some precautions to stay safe.

• Sign up for emergency alerts from local authorities. The Allyz® app also can send destination-specific safety and security alerts, as well as making it easy to find local emergency numbers when you’re overseas.
• Pack N95 masks to protect your lungs from smoke.
• If you’re planning to explore any remote areas, consider getting a personal locator beacon or satellite communicator, so that rescuers can find you in an emergency. A free option: Download the free what3words app, which makes it simple to share a precise location.
  
  

Always follow official evacuation orders.

Play it safe. If there’s an official order to evacuate because of extreme weather, leave immediately. Even if there isn’t an official order, use common sense and head to a safe place if a wildfire or a dangerous storm is approaching.

Remember that your travel insurance can assist you. Use the app to contact 24-hour assistance for help if you need to change your travel plans in an emergency. Natural disasters can also be a covered reason for trip cancellation and trip interruption.

Summer travel safety tips for road trips

Use the “teddy bear trick” to keep kids safe in hot cars.

No parent ever thinks they would leave a child locked in a car. But tragically, children die from heatstroke in hot cars every year, often because a distracted parent simply forgets the child's in the back seat. To prevent this, keep a teddy bear in the child's safety seat. When the child's buckled in, move the teddy to the front seat as a reminder that the back seat is occupied.

Plan ahead to keep pets safe from intense heat.

Like young children, pets are vulnerable to injury when left in hot cars. If your dog is coming along on your summer vacation road trip, plan ahead for how you'll keep your pup cool. Can you pack picnic lunches, or find restaurants that allow dogs on the patio? What will you do if you need to run an emergency errand? If you need to find an emergency petsitter or kennel while traveling, contact your Allianz Travel Insurance concierge (if your plan includes the concierge benefit).

Know your vehicle load limits.

Can't fit the kids, the beach chairs and all the suitcases in your vehicle? A rooftop carrier makes packing for your summer vacation much easier. But don't stuff it to the gills. Read the car's manual first to figure out the dynamic weight limit for the roof rack. It’s probably less than you think; on average, 100-165 pounds is the max.⁴ And remember that adding rooftop cargo raises the center of gravity, which can cause an SUV to sway or become less stable on the road.

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