Travel Insurance

The costs of travel insuranceTravel insurance can represent a considerable additional cost on top of your trip.

We have noticed that, particularly for older travellers, the range of quotations for travel insurance can be enormous, in some cases being an order of magnitude different.

It seems that there are companies out there who are genuinely seeking to provide comprehensive cover in the event of a claim and others who are simply giving you the bare minimum cover in order that you can travel.

Choosing which is the better option can be a difficult decision.

Coverage

We strongly recommend that all of our customers provide for themselves all necessary insurances against personal injury, medical evacuation, loss, damage, theft, cancellation, delay etc.

You should have full insurance cover in place from the moment that you first place your order with us and covering the whole period before, during and after travel. This is because one of the most important aspects of travel insurance is providing cover in the event of trip cancellation.

Good travel insurance will cover you against most eventualities, but be careful to read the small print on your policy to be sure. We particularly recommend checking that it covers the following …

• Medical costs including full evacuation and repatriation.
• High altitude trekking if you are climbing Mount Kilimanjaro or other large mountains.
• Scuba diving if you intend to participate in this.
• Quad-biking, bungee-jumping, balloon safari or any other activity in which you intend to participate.
• Charges that you may incur in case of cancellation or curtailment of the trip.
• Theft, loss and damage to suitable levels.

How much cancellation cover do you need?

Insurance providers usually allow you to select how much trip cancellation insurance you want during the online quoting process. If your trip is high value, this can become quite expensive.

It is important to realise that you do not necessarily need to cover the whole value of your trip. It is extremely rare for our guests to make a claim for the whole trip. The vast majority of issues arise before Second Payment, in which case the exposure is only around 30% of the trip value. Later claims, especially those that arise during travel, often involve only part of a trip. If you want to take a belt-and-braces approach, then you may well insure the whole value, but if you are prepared to take on a certain level of risk, you might settle for 25-50% of the trip value.

Where to buy travel insurance

Rules governing the insurance industry changed in 2006 to make it illegal for travel companies like us to also provide insurance.

You are free to purchase your travel insurance from whichever company you choose. We do not mind who you choose, so long as your cover is suitably comprehensive.

You will find recommendations for insurance companies below. We are not affiliated with these companies in any way, nor can we take any responsibility for their operations, but they have done a good job for our guests over the years.

UK residents

If you live in the United Kingdom, then we are able to recommend contacting Campbell Irvine, the broker that we used for many years when we were permitted to include insurance and who have always proved competitive and reliable, especially when dealing with claims.

Link : Get a Quotation from Campbell Irvine

The cancellation insurance offered by Campbell Irvine is limited to £5000 per traveller. If you want more cover, then you can go to this website, which offers top-up cover at relatively high prices.

Link : Top up insurance from My Cover

North American and other non UK residents

If you live outside of the United Kingdom, we usually recommend using TravelGuard who are the world’s largest travel insurer and with whom policies can be quoted and booked online.

They are a US based company and their insurance offering is modular, so you can add coverage for medical, cancellation and other elements to compliment any existing policies that you may already have in place.

They also offer cover for non US residents, including Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore and South Africa, simply click on the ‘United States’ link in the top right hand corner and choose your country …

Link : Get a Quotation from Travel Guard

Other options

Other reputable travel insurance companies include …

Link : Allianz Assistance
Link : Insure My Trip
Link : Travelex Insurance

you must have full travel insurance from when you book