Most students get a winter break of around two weeks. Some students go home to visit their families; others would like to skip all that and explore a foreign destination.

For either situation, students should consider purchasing winter break travel insurance.

If you like it cold, you could visit Europe and ski in the Alps in Switzerland or in Colorado in the USA. If you like it warm, you could take a cruise to the Caribbean. You may even decide to volunteer in Mexico or Costa Rica.

If you want to protect your prepaid, nonrefundable trip costs, you can purchase trip cancellation insurance, which provides trip cancellation benefits in case you can't go for any covered reason. For example, if your school semester gets extended, trip cancellation coverage will refund your prepaid costs.

Once you are on your winter break, if you were to get unexpectedly sick or injured at your destination, you could relax knowing your emergency medical expenses are covered. If your parent or other relative were to pass away while you were on holiday, trip insurance would also pay for the trip interruption benefit.

Let's say you travel to a remote destination and get seriously sick or injured with no adequate medical care around. Emergency medical evacuation coverage would take you to the nearest place where you can receive adequate care.

Use this web site to get instant quotes on multiple insurance products and compare them side by side before making an instant purchase online. What if you want to save money? If you are not looking for trip cancellation benefits, you can simply purchase a travel medical insurance plan, which is significantly cheaper.

If you are planning to participate in any hazardous activities, such as adventure sports, check the details of your travel insurance to make sure it covers such activities. Many extreme activities are not covered by default; additional optional coverage is required to include such activities. This is an important step in the process of buying insurance as treatment costs for injuries from hazardous activities may be expensive.