Civil Unrest, War, Natural Disasters and International Travel

We’re asking for your opinion…

I think Clint Eastwood said it best; “If you’re looking for a guarantee in life, buy a toaster.”

We have, over the years, visited over one hundred countries and on a few occasions we’ve found ourselves in some touchy situations, but we have always been cautious in selecting when and where to travel. We also have always carried what we believe is the right insurance from “trip cancellation” to “medical evacuation” but even with insurance there are still no guarantees.

One of our bucket list items has been to visit the wonders of ancient Egypt and over the past few years our attempts have been frustrated:

One trip was cancelled by Covid travel restrictions but we did recover most of our expenses with a portion being credits.

The next trip would have been less than a week after Hamas attacked Israel and major fighting broke out. The U.S. Embassy in Cairo was recommending not to travel (threat level of 3). We cancelled and did eventually got much of our travel package expense posted as a credit (no refunds) but even that was a struggle. Cancelling that trip did cost us about $1,000.00 because our travel insurance held that our excuse was not a covered event? The U. S. Embassy cautioning not to travel isn’t apparently a covered excuse?

You see most insurance policies clearly state that they do not cover you for “war, insurrection, civil unrest and natural disasters” and with most travel insurance not paying if you just change your mind (newer policies now offer canceling “for any reason” as an option).

Now it’s February 28^th 2026 and we’re traveling to Egypt and Dubai with our flight in six days. We believe that considering the “war” and an increased risk of radical elements seeking to attack Westerners, particularly Americans, there is considerable new risk in traveling to Egypt and Dubai (Iran has already attacked Dubai with Americans told to stay in place).

The U.S. State Department has today raised the Egypt travel advisory to a 4 (risk Red/High) for many areas (S…, Red Sea coast and western desert). The current statement suggests that traveling in Egypt with a licensed guide in a group and staying mostly in high tourist areas has a reduced risk (level 2) as the Egyptian government will be providing additional security to tourist areas.

After the war in Gaza I asked for advice and a majority of respondents voted not to go. Right now we are just sitting and watching things unfold and no matter what decision we make the next few days it doesn’t impact the chance of refunds. We would still like to get some input from our followers?? Please add comments below…

The images above were AI generated