Screaming through the Costa Rican rain forest on a zip line, Anna Frazelle and her family swooped in for a landing near three beautiful waterfalls. For this adventure-seeking family, there was only one thing to do. Jump.

But when Frazelle hit the pool of water 35 feet below, something went terribly wrong. "I had a sharp sensation in my lung and I couldn"t breathe," she says. The impact of the water had broken a bone in her spinal column.

For the next seven hours, she endured an excruciating journey out of the rain forest, climbing back up two waterfalls and being transported by zip line and a small airplane to just to reach a hospital in San José, Costa Rica"s capital. Emergency surgery saved Frazelle from paralysis, but she was completely immobilized and far from her North Carolina home.

Luckily, Frazelle and her husband had purchased medical evacuation insurance on a whim earlier that year. The "medevac" company, Air Ambulance Card, flew her back to a North Carolina hospital on a stretcher in a private jet. The Frazelles had paid $280 for annual coverage for their family; the cost of an air ambulance flight would have been $26,000 to $36,000.

Two years later, Frazelle is walking and swimming again, and is a resounding travel insurance success story. But the benefits of travel insurance aren"t always so cut and dry. In today"s murky world of shrinking healthcare coverage, hyperbolic hurricane warnings, and frustrating airline and baggage delays, consumers need to be well informed to get the most out of these policies. To whit, we offer a straightforward guide to help you navigate the back roads of travel insurance and avoid some of the dead ends along the way.