Health & Insurance

Travel Insurance

The cost of travel insurance varies widely, depending on the cost and length of your trip, your age and health, and the type of trip you're taking, but expect to pay between 5% and 8% of the vacation itself. You can get estimates from various providers through Insuremytrip.com. Enter your trip cost and dates, your age, and other information for prices from more than a dozen companies.

Trip-Cancellation Insurance -- Trip-cancellation insurance will help you retrieve your money if you have to back out of a trip or depart early, or if your travel supplier goes bankrupt. Permissible reasons for trip cancellation can range from sickness to natural disasters to the State Department declaring a destination unsafe for travel.

For more information, contact one of the following recommended insurers: Access America (tel. 866/807-3982; www.accessamerica.com); Travel Guard International (tel. 800/826-4919; www.travelguard.com); Travel Insured International (tel. 800/243-3174; www.travelinsured.com); or Travelex Insurance Services (tel. 888/457-4602; www.travelex-insurance.com).

Medical Insurance -- For travel overseas, most U.S. health plans (including Medicare and Medicaid) don't provide coverage, and the ones that do often require you to pay for services upfront and reimburse you only after you return home. As a safety net, you may want to buy travel medical insurance.

Whether your plan does or doesn't cover overseas treatment, be advised that hospitals in Belgium and Holland do not make you pay your bills upfront, but send the bill either to your insurance company directly or to you at home; in some circumstances, you might be asked for a down payment. Hospitals in Luxembourg require payment as soon as treatments are completed; should this be a problem, they might be willing to accept payment later. In all three countries, the process will be smoother if you can show the hospital that you have current and recognized medical insurance coverage.

If you require additional medical insurance, try MEDEX Assistance (tel. 410/453-6300; www.medexassist.com) or Travel Assistance International (tel. 800/821-2828; www.travelassistance.com; for general information on services, call the company's Worldwide Assistance Services, Inc., at tel. 800/777-8710).

Lost-Luggage Insurance -- On flights within the United States, checked baggage is covered up to $2,500 per ticketed passenger. On international flights (including U.S. portions of international trips), baggage coverage is limited to approximately $9.07 per pound, up to approximately $635 per checked bag. If you plan to check items more valuable than what's covered by the standard liability, see if your homeowner's policy covers your valuables, get baggage insurance as part of your comprehensive travel-insurance package, or buy Travel Guard's "BagTrak" product.

If your luggage is lost, immediately file a lost-luggage claim at the airport, detailing the luggage contents. Most airlines require that you report delayed, damaged, or lost baggage within 4 hours of arrival. The airlines are required to deliver luggage, once found, directly to your house or destination free of charge.

Staying Healthy

There are no particular health concerns in the Benelux -- if you don't count the "risk" in Amsterdam and other Dutch towns of occasionally breathing in a whiff of someone else's legally tolerated hashish smoke (and of course they'd likely argue that it's perfectly healthy). You will encounter few other health problems when traveling. The tap water is safe to drink, the milk is pasteurized, and healthcare is excellent.

No health and vaccination certificates are required. You don't need any shots before your trip, but if you suffer from a chronic illness, consult your doctor before your departure. Pack prescription medications in your carry-on luggage, and carry them in their original containers, with pharmacy labels -- otherwise they won't make it through airport security. (Also, in light of recent events, travelers might want to visit www.tsa.com for up-to-date regulations on what is and isn't permissible to pack in carry-on baggage.) Carry the generic name of prescription medicines, in case a local pharmacist is unfamiliar with the brand name. Don't forget an extra pair of contact lenses or prescription eyeglasses.

Contact the International Association for Medical Assistance to Travelers (IAMAT; tel. 716/754-4883 or, in Canada, 416/652-0137; www.iamat.org) for tips on travel and health concerns in the countries you're visiting, and for lists of local, English-speaking doctors.

What to Do If You Get Sick -- If a medical emergency arises, your hotel staff can usually put you in touch with a reliable doctor. Most hospitals have walk-in clinics for emergency cases that are not life-threatening; you may not get immediate attention, but you won't pay the high price of an emergency room visit. Embassies in Brussels and The Hague can provide a list of area doctors who speak English (meaning just about any doctor).

The state-owned healthcare systems in the Benelux lands are among the world's best, even if they have begun to show signs of the strain of universal healthcare for all. It's easy to get over-the-counter medicines for minor ailments, and both local brands and generic equivalents of most common prescription drugs are available. Many doctors speak English (though the words they use might be a little disturbing, like the doctor who told me he knew what "disease" I had when I reported a minor ailment).

Staying Safe

In Holland, be wary of pickpockets on trams, buses, and Metro trains; in rail and Metro stations; on busy shopping streets and in busy stores; and even in your hotel lobby. The rest of the Netherlands is not as bad in this respect as the capital, though Rotterdam and The Hague are not so far behind.

Belgium is generally safe -- even the big cities are low-crime areas. However, like many countries, Belgium has experienced a creeping spread of drug-related crime. In Brussels, the Métro has been plagued by muggers, and though increased police presence and video surveillance have brought this under control, it's still better not to venture alone into deserted Métro access corridors after dark; when other people are around, it's generally safe.

Both Holland and Belgium are showing an increase in votes for right-wing political parties that are ideologically opposed, to one degree or another, to immigration, or even to the continued presence of immigrant communities. Rising levels of some crimes -- muggings, break-ins, pickpocketing, bag snatching, and auto theft -- attributed to legal and illegal immigrants and to ethnic minorities, appear to be fueling this trend. Indigenous Dutch and Belgian criminals are quite capable of generating trouble of their own, of course, as demonstrated by the violent hooligans associated with some Dutch soccer clubs, and by homicidal pedophilia cases in Belgium during the '90s.

Both Brussels and Antwerp have well-defined red light zones, in which more than a little caution is in order. Don't confuse these places with the Red Light District up the road in Amsterdam, which is a pretty big tourist attraction in its own right, and mostly safe for casual visitors. Brussels's red light zone in particular is a down-and-dirty, creepy, low-life zone, and though Antwerp's is not quite so bad it's still not really a place to go for sightseeing. Bruges and Ghent have only minimal facilities of this kind, so this is not a factor there.

And then there's Luxembourg. In the unlikely event that you become a victim of any kind of crime in the squeaky-clean Grand Duchy, watch out -- you'll likely be stuffed and placed in a museum for the astonishment of future generations.

Dealing with Discrimination -- U.S. visitors might -- and I emphasize might -- encounter some hostility, due primarily to current (late 2006) circumstances in Iraq and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Among other local pet beefs could be the U.S.'s refusal to sign up for both the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and the International Criminal Court in The Hague; and its "support" for gene-modified ("Frankenstein") foods and the death penalty. (Some Europeans aren't all that keen on apple pie either.) Some native Belgians and some of the country's significant Muslim population might want to take issue with you on one or more of these topics, in ways ranging from open discussion, to surly service, to the cold shoulder, or even to verbal aggression. I know of no cases of physical aggression and would guess that it's vanishing or nonexistent.

Flemish Belgians are showing an increasing propensity to vote for the extreme right-wing (some commentators say neo-fascist) nationalist Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) political party, which is opposed to allowing more economic migrants and political refugees into Belgium, and to the continued presence of ethnic minorities who don't accept "European values." They get 25% of the vote across the region and more than a third in Antwerp. Rising levels of some crimes -- muggings, break-ins, pickpocketing, bag snatching, and auto theft -- attributed to immigrants, legal and illegal, and ethnic minorities, appear to be fueling this trend. This attitude could easily translate into discrimination against non-white visitors -- but note that the overwhelming majority of Belgians would be appalled by this.

Antwerp has both an Orthodox Jewish minority and a significant minority of North African (Arab) origin. Tensions caused by the Israeli/Palestinian conflict have led to a spate of anti-Semitic attacks. Jewish visitors who dress in a way that clearly identifies them as Jewish should be aware of this, even though the chances of being a victim of such an attack are very small. In neighborhoods with a big proportion of North African immigrants, radical Arab youths have staged vigilante patrols, but these are directed more at imaginary enemies, and at occasional real ones in the shape of right-wing, white racist thugs, than against members of the Jewish community (who in any case have other things to do with their time than wander around these neighborhoods).

Note: Listing some of the possible dangers together like this can give a false impression of the threat from crime or discrimination in the Benelux lands. None of these dangers is statistically significant, and by no stretch of the imagination can any Benelux city be described as dangerous. The overwhelming probability is that you will not notice any of these problems, far less encounter one of them. But it can't hurt to be aware of them.