As I may have mentioned, I take advantage of a high-deductible health insurance plan one can find on ehealthinsurance.com (a great deal, provided you are young, healthy and unlikely to get sick…). Planning our epic Peru trip, I called Aetna to see if my coverage would apply out of country. It does, the chap on the phone told me, but any care I receive would be considered out of network and reimbursed at a lower rate.

Just for fun (and what’s more exciting than a little risk management?), I checked the rates for health insurance at bootsnall.com, where I found health insurance for my ’round the world trip. To my pleasant surprise, the cost for a 10-day policy that covers full medical evacuation and a raft of other terrifying emergency-related things costs only $13.
Even with my existing policy in force, that’s a good deal and I’ll likely take them up on it. One of my friends once broke his leg climbing in Ecuador. While surgery there would only have cost $50, he, probably wisely, elected to change his ticket and fly back to the U.S. for the operation. Things happen, and for $13 I’ll sleep a little better in my developing-world hotel room knowing that any unfortunate mishaps on my trip at least won’t set me back the price of a mid-sized sedan.

Don’t confuse travel insurance policies focused on medical coverage with those that insure the costs of the entire trip, though. Policies designed to cover committed expenses like plane tickets or guided trips in the event you have to cancel are a lot more expensive and rarely worth it. As Budget Travel magazine notes in its October issue this month, only 2 percent of policies result in a claim, while insurance companies take in an average $1.6 billion each year for travel insurance.

Looking for more resort-focused hotel deals? Try bidding on a room at Sky Auction or Luxury Link. According to Budget Travel, it’s pretty easy to find rooms at 40 to 50 percent off the rack rate. Just be sure to avoid the the “buy now” option.

Live in Phoenix? Want to go to Hawaii? Hawaiian Air has some good package deals right now. I found a round-trip flight plus six nights in a Waikiki hotel for two for $667.09 per person.

Is the mild Houston fall driving you nuts? Head to points north with these last minute deals:

Houston to Seattle – $218

Houston to Chicago – $188

Houston to Boston: $206

This is wild – 747s touch down not 50 feet from this beach in St. Maarten. The local bars even post flight times so tourists can experience the runway Wayne and Garth style.

Two thoughts on air travel today:

- The Times has an interesting piece pointing out that passengers are allowed to use their cell phones during 15,000 flights a month, it just happens that none of those are in the United States. As wireless Internet and other technologies make cell usage technically feasible for more and more airlines, Congress is considering a bill that would outlaw phone chatter before it even has a chance to disrupt its first domestic U.S. flight.

- Buying a couple of tickets between cities in Peru, I realized airlines like El Salvador-based Taca charge more for tickets issued to people in the United States. I don’t know if it’s the English language selection or the IP address that tips them off, but if you plan to fly around South America, you might check out in-country travel sites that can buy tickets at the local rate. For Peru specifically, we went through traficoperu.com, which booked an internal flight for $40 less than the airline’s price, even when taking into account the commission charged by the agency.

This time last year, I was humping a backpack on my own round-the-world adventure. It was no small feat, but this guy has me beat hands down:

Around the world in 174 days: British cyclist breaks trans-globe bike record

Fast company summarized the innovative, if slightly impractical, finalists of a contest to revive the hospitality industry’s repertoire of predictable poolside retreats. The results are pretty interesting.

Since I’m just linking to someone else’s content today, I may as well throw this in, too.

I’m the first to admit, a GPS should not be an impulse buy. There are a lot of choices on the market, a range of proprietary maps to consider, as well as memory, battery life, durability and cost. That said, I found a Magellan Triton 400 half off at REI for $100 and asked the staff to show it to me just for kicks while my SO shopped for items related to our coming trip to Peru. When I realized it was discounted again to $55, I seriously considered buying it. Then, after I was told I had $35 in “dividend” credit on my REI membership, I couldn’t resist snapping one up for a grand total of $30.

Admittedly, these aren’t the best handhelds out there. The base map only shows major highways. And while it has room for a flash card, the unit is only compatible with expensive National Geographic and Magellan-branded topo maps. Cheapness is the mother of invention, though, and I eventually found this page to create free raster maps. For anyone out there who has one of these, you can convert your own maps into the Triton’s proprietary format using this software.

If you ever have the chance to fly on a state-subsidized airline based in an oil-rich country, you really should. Of the 15-odd flights I took last year, my journeys on Qatar Airways were the most memorable. The food was restaurant quality, the on-demand in-flight entertainment introduced me to Flight of the Conchords, and they even served free Armagnac after dinner. Yet the airline consistently has the cheapest flights on many routes requiring a stopover in the Middle East.

What I experienced, though, is apparently for the mere proles. Etihad Airways, Abu Dhabi’s state-backed airline, now offers first-class passengers self-enclosed cabins like one would find on a train. Each features a good-sized flat screen TV. The seat turns into a bed for when you’ve tired of its massage function. The lavatory is still down the aisle, but in “Diamond First Class” you can at least sit with a view out two windows.

The cheapest Etihad first-class flight from New York to Dubai for a sunny getaway over Christmas? Try $13,527.11.  That doesn’t actually include a flight to Dubai, mind you. Rather the plane lands in Abu Dhabi and a limo shuttles you to the Florida of the Middle East 1 1/2 hours away.

Virtual Tour