Here we go!?

Well we think we’ve booked a hotel in Italy. I say think as we’ve had no message of confirmation either by post or e-mail. Despite the fact we paid with a card there is no sign of any moneys being taken out. This has left us feeling a little uncertain, especially when we’ve had so many difficulties with Saga so far.

Saga is only able to book the hotel, as we want to go from a northern airport, not Gatwick as they do. We’re reluctant to book the flights until we have had confirmation about the hotel.

The flights from Manchester only go to Verona on Sundays & Wednesdays, not the Monday the hotel booking starts from. Now we’re contemplating whether it would be better to fly to Venice, even though it is a bit further to the lake area, and maybe having a couple of nights in Venice itself. That way we could fly on the Monday to Italy. The flight back would mean setting off at some pre-dawn hour. If we stayed a night or two in Venice itself it would mean we could have the long drive on the Monday, see a bit of Venice, somewhere I’ve never been but always dreamed of going, leave that hotel at a more reasonable hour as it would only be a short distance to go to the airport on the Wednesday, or whatever day we chose.

Now we’re looking into hotels in Venice. There prices are a bit off-putting – exorbitantly high but that’s the price of staying somewhere as unique & such a tourist attraction as Venice.

But first we await the confirmation of the Saga booking. That could be cancelled & money refunded, unlike flights.

Meanwhile we’ve also got to face the dilemma of travel insurance. Saga insists we must have insurance. After last year’s difficulties, especially when we know I’ve had yet more health issues this last year, makes us wonder what to do. If we declare our pre-existing conditions, the premiums are likely to shoot sky high. If we don’t, we will get an inexpensive insurance, sufficient to satisfy the holiday company, but which is invalidated by or pre-existing conditions. In other words we would be paying for nothing except to keep the travel company happy. Much as I appreciate the company feels the need to advise that travel insurance is desirable, I don’t think they should make it a condition of the holiday. Admittedly Saga doesn’t ask to see your insurance document or even ask for the policy number, so I don’t see how they will know whether we’ve got some or not.

It’s the principle that gets to me. We had decided that, as we are covered medically by our EHIC card, we were prepared to take the risk of going without insurance. We don’t expect any accident to happen & if they did we would just pay for it at the time.

This policy regarding insurance is not just the case with Saga. We were also thinking of going to France later in the year. That company also has the same policy & even demand insurance details; otherwise you must buy insurance from them.

Ooh it gets to me! We’ll think further on this one.