My father is 89. He has a new girlfriend - 76. They want to go to Europe. I don't know if they'll go to Europe (I am not encouraging the trip) - but I have suggested that if they wind up going - that their trip should be to the UK. Most of the questions I have don't pertain specifically to the UK - but since that it a logical first destination - I thought I would post my questions here.
First off - there seems to be a big problem with medical insurance. My father is in excellent health for his age - but he is 89. Medicare doesn't cover health care abroad. He has a medigap policy which provides $25,000 in overseas medical costs. I don't think this is enough (and there doesn't seem to be any medical evacuation coverage). But I'm not sure - since I know nothing about medical costs overseas. Only time we ever had medical care abroad was when my husband broke a filling in Italy over 20 years ago - and he got a temporary filling in a small town in Italy for about 10,000,000 lira - which - at the time was about $6
.
I took a look at a website called insureyourtrip.com - and although there seems to be trip insurance available for people on medicare - the choices are very limited and extremely expensive (like more than $2000 for a 2 week trip) for senior seniors (people over 85). Is there a reasonable alternative that anyone knows about?
Second - having just returned from a trip to Germany where I stayed in a nice hotel which had one of those huge tubs with a handheld shower - which even a healthy 89 year old probably couldn't navigate - is there any particular touring group - web resource - whatever - where you can insure that you will get a regular room with a shower - or handicap facilities that include a shower? Or do you just have to go hotel by hotel - find out what's offered - and book things yourself?
I suspect the UK has a large elderly population. And it must have local tours of the country which cater to the elderly. Is anyone here familiar with any such tours? We have companies here like Tauck - but I think its idea of elderly is anyone over the age of 50. The needs of really old people can differ significantly from people like me (at 60 - I'm not young - but I know I can handle things better than my father). One advantage of touring with such a group in the UK (as opposed to other countries in Europe) - is that there wouldn't a language problem (unless everyone else in the group was from Scotland
). Robyn