Are you still hesitating about buying travel insurance? Or not sure which one to choose? I know it’s annoying to pay for something you wish you will never use. Nonetheless, it’s important to consider the risks and choose the insurance that’s right for you.
It’s always a good idea to have travel insurance in case something goes wrong. It makes even more sense when you plan to join adventurous activities.
I don’t often buy travel insurance for the flight and trip cancellation or baggage loss, although it’s always a nice thing to have when you’re unlucky. By the way, those are sometimes covered by your credit card. But with the pandemic has changed everything. The risk of having to cancel holidays or having to stay for longer in a destination is a lot higher now. It’s not too hard to book hotels with free cancellation (it’s a filter on Booking.com)*, but often the additional cost for international flexible flights is enough to fund purchasing travel insurance. Basic travel insurance often doesn’t include cover for COVID19-related events. But in my opinion, it’s worth paying the extra.
I have also purchased travel insurance with Cover-More* for a few domestic trips that would be ruined if I was injured before the trip (e.g. when I play soccer four times a week and our holidays are either a full week kayaking/camping trip on a remote island or a scuba-diving liveaboard).
But my main reason to purchase travel insurance is to be covered for medical evacuation and emergency overseas medical costs.
My experience living abroad taught me how medical bills can quickly add up when an accident happens in a foreign country. I like the peace of mind travel insurance brings so I can fully enjoy my adventures!
I highly recommend checking the activities that are covered by the travel insurance (and the conditions). You should always have a look at the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) before purchasing the insurance. Some activities are automatically covered, but some are extra.
Which travel insurance did I choose?
I used to purchase travel insurance with World Nomads* pre-COVID. I found they were great to cover adventurous activities such as climbing Kilimanjaro (5,895 m above sea level – basic insurance usually only covers up to 3,000 m for example). But when they put back their international cover after COVID, the World Nomads* policy covering events related to COVID (Explorer Plan) was more expensive than Cover More*, so we stayed with Cover More for international trips too. You can add Adventure and Adventure+ extras to cover the most adventurous activities.
I also recommend checking if you can get discounts for travel insurance with your other types of insurance. For example, we get 20% off RACQ travel insurance as we’re using them for our car insurance. When you purchase it for multiple people, savings add up quickly!
