Travel Insurance for Backpackers

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Travel Insurance for Backpackers

Many backpackers ask what the best travel insurance for them is. They also wonder if they even need travel insurance at all since they are not booking expensive accommodation that might leave them open to losing a lot of money if they have to cut their trip short for some reason, such as a medical emergency. They also are under the mistaken impression that their medical expenses while on holiday will be covered by their regular health insurance provider, so there really is no need for supplemental travel medical insurance.

The purpose of this article is to shed some light on these questions and to re-emphasize that it is important to get travel insurance quotes for cheap worldwide travel insurance or overseas travel insurance.

First of all, your regular medical insurance may not be of any help in the event you are injured while on holiday. Often your medical insurance can only be used in your home country, and sometimes only in your local residential area, such as within 200 km of home. Very few medical insurance policies, especially those provided at low cost to students, will provide worldwide travel insurance coverage if you are out of the country on holiday. You need overseas travel insurance, and you should get multiple travel insurance quotes for this from a variety of places. To cover your medical expenses you will need to obtain an overseas travel insurance policy that contains a rider for emergency medical expenses for treatment you need in the foreign country and cheap worldwide travel insurance policies are available. You just have to get lots of travel insurance quotes from multiple sources.

This insurance is imperative for anyone traveling outside of their home country since many foreign countries will not provide any treatment at all without assurance that they are going to be paid. This could present major delays in getting proper medical treatment, not to mention the anguish of laying on a hospital gurney in pain while waiting for a family member to speak to the appropriate people and guarantee the payment of expenses.

Another coverage backpackers are going to need is emergency medical evacuation insurance. In short, this insurance will pay the expenses of flying you home for further treatment after you’ve been stabilized at the foreign hospital. There is nothing like having the comfort of familiar surroundings when you are ill or injured, and this kind of coverage will ensure that you get that.

If you are a physically active type of person who likes to “live on the edge,” you may want to add coverage for possible injuries sustained while engaging in “extreme” types of activities. These would include bungee jumping, skydiving, rock climbing, heli-skiing, and other sports not in the main stream of activities people partake in. Often regular travel insurance policies will specifically exclude these sorts of activities, and you’ll need to get a specific policy rider that covers them.

Finally, regardless of how expensive or how economical your holiday travels will be, everyone needs some sort of insurance to cover them at least for unforeseen medical expenses. You will also want coverage for circumstances such as lost luggage, if you need to fly to any of your destinations particularly, or emergency transportation home if you must return due to some family emergency.

Travel insurance is one of those things we hate to spend money on because we hate to even think that we may need it. But it is sure great to have it when a situation arises that causes us to depend upon it, and it’s certainly better to have it then than to be without.