Years ago, my wife, Diane, and I took our kids on a rustic safari in Tanzania’s Serengeti. At one of our camps was a grandfather traveling with six grandchildren, roughly the same ages as ours. What a special gift for all of them, I remember thinking.

On the second day, the grandfather had a nasty fall.

We were deep in the bush, and he had to be driven to an area where a plane could land and then be flown out for medical care.

Now there were six frightened kids, thousands of miles from home, without the adult who had brought them.

We worked with the safari guides and the older grandkids to reach their family. Our own kids stayed close to the younger ones. Eventually, plans came together to get everyone to a safe place until a parent could fly over. It shook all of us.

We figured we’d figure it out

Oddly, this episode didn’t diminish our commitment to adventure travel. We had already taken our kids to remote parts of the U.S., Africa, China, Mexico, and Central America. Our plan, to the extent we had one, was simple: We’d figure it out.

Looking back, I wonder what in the world we were thinking.

Today, traveling mostly as a couple, we think more about the risks. What medications should we bring? What does our health insurance cover if one of us needs serious care? What happens, in other words, if something goes wrong?

We’re hardly alone. In AARP’s 2025 travel survey, 29 percent of travelers over 50 cited health as a barrier to travel, second only to cost. A study of more than 7,000 older travelers, drawn from a worldwide network of travel-medicine clinics, found that those who became ill abroad had higher rates of certain serious problems than younger travelers, including heart disease, lower respiratory infections, blood clots, and injuries.

Yet older Americans aren’t giving up travel. Nearly two-thirds of adults 50+ plan to travel in 2026.

Preparing for travel today

I’m less willing to rely on improvisation now.

One thing I’ve learned is not to assume that the health coverage we have at home will work the same way overseas.

Employer and private coverage vary by plan. Even when overseas care is covered, many foreign hospitals don’t accept American insurance directly and may require payment upfront, leaving you to seek reimbursement later.

Medicare is clearer. Original Medicare generally doesn’t cover care outside the United States, except in a few limited circumstances. Some Medicare Advantage plans offer international emergency coverage, and several Medigap plans provide foreign emergency benefits.

And if local care can’t handle your problem, getting somewhere that can may be the bigger challenge. The CDC says a medical evacuation can run from about $25,000 within North America to more than $250,000 from distant or remote locations.

Then there’s travel insurance, which I’ve discovered is really several products. Trip cancellation, overseas medical coverage, and medical evacuation are different kinds of protection, and some premium credit cards quietly include a piece of each. There is more to say here, and we will.

The grandfather in the Serengeti looks different through 2026 eyes.

Now, before we head somewhere unfamiliar, I want to be able to answer five questions: Where would we go if one of us became seriously ill? Who would we call? How would we get out if local care wasn’t adequate? Do we have the medications and medical information we’d need? And would we be covered financially?

Then put the what-ifs away.

Preparing won’t eliminate uncertainty. We couldn’t manage that at 40, and we can’t now. Preparation keeps uncertainty from making our world smaller.

I still believe in the philosophy we carried around the world with our kids: We’ll figure it out.

We just do a little more of the figuring before we leave home.