TRAVEL INSURANCE
Spending your hard-earned savings on something you hope to never use might seem counter-intuitive, but a comprehensive Travel Insurance policy is just as essential for your travels as that backpack, camera and passport.
Having travelled all over the world for the past 20+ years, we’ve learned a thing or two about choosing the right policy. Not to mention those 7 years spent working in the travel industry, dealing with travel insurance day in, day out. These are a few things to consider…
What Cover Do You Need?
Everyone’s trip is unique. The specifics of what you need cover for will vary depending on where you’re going and how long for. Also important are the activities you’ll be getting up to and the gear you’re taking with you. However, there are some universal qualities to look for in a policy. These include 24/7 emergency assistance and an easy to use online claims system. Additionally, being able to purchase, amend, extend and/or upgrade your policy while already travelling is a HUGE plus. This is especially true if you are travelling for a longer period.
When Should You Buy Travel Insurance?
Travel insurance covers you for cancellation from the day you purchase your policy, not from the day your trip starts. This means it’s best for you to buy your travel insurance at the same time as you start booking any other things related to your trip (such as flights or accommodation) that have cancellation fees. Your travel insurance policy won’t cost you any more if you buy it 10 months or 10 days in advance of your trip, but you will get much better value and protection against cancellation by buying it at the same time as booking other elements of your trip.
Of course, a travel insurance policy will never cover you for cancellation costs incurred due to disinclination to travel (ie. you’ve changed your mind and want to cancel your trip), but it is there to protect you from the day you buy your policy for cancellation costs incurred due to unexpected and unforeseen reasons (for example you become ill or suffer an injury which prevents you from travelling, or there is an illness, injury or death of an immediate family member or travelling companion). You can check the specifics for what is and isn’t covered (including Covid-19 related claims) in the policy document of your particular travel insurance policy.
Can You Buy Travel Insurance After Starting Your Trip?
There are very few travel insurance providers out there who are legally allowed to sell insurance to someone after their departure from their country of residence. But two companies that can provide travel insurance cover even after you’ve started your trip are World Nomads (for residents of 140+ countries) and True Traveller (for UK and EEA residents).
What If Something Goes Wrong?
Just as important as arranging your cover in the first place, is knowing what to do if something goes wrong. Nobody wants to have a claim rejected or be stuck without cover. So, we’ve put together some essential tips, hints and pointers in our post, 9 Things to Know About Travel Insurance. We want to ensure you’re clued up and policy savvy. Check it out below.
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Going the Whole Hogg2018-03-11 11:52:592022-11-29 11:36:579 Things You Should Know About Travel Insurance (or How Not To Get Screwed Over)Which Travel Insurance To Choose?
We’ve used a couple of travel insurance providers over the last few years – World Nomads and, more recently, True Traveller. Both have suited us well because they cover a massive amount of adventure activities and allow us to purchase/extend a policy when we’re already away from home. They provide 24/7 emergency assistance and if something goes wrong, we know we can claim easily online.
World Nomads work with travel insurance partners in countries all over the world. They can provide cover to residents of 140 countries, whether you buy at home or when you’re already on the road. We first started organising our travel insurance with them while we lived and worked in Korea, getting covered for short diving and sightseeing trips around Asia.
True Traveller can provide cover to UK and other EEA residents, and are also among the few companies who can cover you even after you’ve left home. We took out our first policy with them to cover our adventure travels through Central Asia and beyond in 2018. We were looking for a policy which covered us for trekking above 5000 metres in Nepal and found True Traveller to be drastically cheaper than World Nomads. It was such a relief to find them as it saved us a fortune.
These days we always compare both and weigh up the best option for our specific trip.
Whether you’re gearing up for your next trip or already on the road, get a quote from both below and get covered today!
Some of the links on this page are affiliate links – if you get a quote or purchase a policy via these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps offset the cost of running this blog and keeps us travelling so that we can continue to produce great content for you. We greatly appreciate your support!