Travel Insurance
In the past I’ve always bought travel insurance at the last minute and usually gone for the cheapest on offer. Until today I hadn’t really thought about it for this trip, it wasn’t until the guy from the flight centre said that I really should sort it out in the next couple of weeks that I started looking into it. His reasoning was that if something happens between now and the departure date that prevented me from going I would need to have the insurance in place in order to get any money back for the flights. Its an unlikely situation, but I would rather be prepared just in case.
There are a number of companies that specialise in insurance for trips of this nature, so far however I’ve been able to find any site that compares them like for like so I’m having to go through their policy terms and check what the exclusions are. I am currently looking at STA Travel, World Nomads and Columbus Direct. I’ve already ruled out quite a few others because they didn’t provide what I consider essentials:
- Medical expenses.
- An efficient means of claiming without having to jump through hoops.
- Cover for expensive electronics such as my laptop.
- Flying me home if I had to for some unexpected reason and afterwards let me continue my trip.
- Fly me out of there if things go bad in a country that I’m in.
- Pay outs for flight cancellations, missed departures etc.
- Cover for activities such as Bungy Jumping, Kite Surfing, Mountain Biking and Scuba Diving.
I’ve been reading the Thorn Tree Travel Forum to see what insurers others have used, and as you would expect there are mixed reviews for all of them.
Posibly related posts:
Good advice from the travel agent!
I used Insure & Go’s Backpackers inurance back in 2003.
You can tailor the policy for the continents relevant to you and add/remove activities such as scuba diving, bungy, skiing, white-water rafting and other extreme sports which were not always included in most travel insurance aimed at round the world travellers.
the other good thing was it also allowed me the option to extend the policy period should I end up travelling a bit longer than planned (which I did).
Not only was the full terms & conditions sent in paper & email format, but I also got given a handy policy card (like crd card) with the policy number, policy period & their contacts numbers.
I paid more than most other travellers’ insurance but it covered everything I wanted. This is one cost not to schrimp on!
I’ll check them out. So far World Nomad’s is leading the way.
Also remember to check if the truly worst happens death they will ship you home alot of companies don’t cover this!