Indulging in adventure sports is undoubtedly one of the best ways to break free from the mundanity of everyday life and experience a unique rush of adrenaline. From mountain climbing, skydiving, and skiing to trekking, bungee jumping, and paragliding, plenty of sports make you face your fears, push your limits, and discover unforgettable thrills. However, these are high-risk activities and you must be prepared for unforeseen circumstances, including medical emergencies. The right travel insurance can help. While most standard policies don’t cover adventure sports, you can usually buy an add-on for the necessary protection.
Follow these tips to choose the perfect travel insurance for your next adventurous trip.
1. Check the activities covered
Different travel insurance policies might cover different sets of adventure sports. So, decide which activities you will be engaging in beforehand and then shortlist and compare relevant policies. Pick the one that best matches your requirements at a reasonable price.
2. Go through medical benefits
The ideal policy is one that doesn’t just cover any injuries sustained while participating in adventure sports. After all, it is not unlikely for someone to suffer from a disorder or ailment before or after adventure activities. Hence, the policy should also take care of sudden illnesses, emergency dental treatments, accidents, and emergency medical evacuation (especially crucial if you are stuck in a remote location).
3. Consider the possibility of fatalities
Though no one wants to think of death when going for an exciting trip, adventure sports come with a certain risk of fatalities no matter how robust the safety measures. So, being prepared for the worst possible scenario is a sensible move. A travel insurance policy that covers the cost of repatriating mortal remains or offers an add-on for the same is the best pick for such cases.
4. Find out what else is covered
When going on a trip to enjoy adventure sports, don’t focus only on the possibility of injuries during a high-risk activity. Spare a thought for other unforeseen situations, too. For instance, you might have to cancel the trip at the last moment for some reason, miss a connecting flight, or lose important documents. Your baggage might be delayed or damaged, someone might steal your wallet, or you might get into an accident and hurt a third party. So, go for a travel insurance policy that financially covers such instances.
5. Don’t ignore exclusions
Before buying travel insurance for adventure sports, it is also essential to check what is not covered by the policy. This way, you won’t be caught unawares when filing a claim that is not meant to be honoured. Usually, most policies don’t cover false declarations, fraudulent claims, and intentional damages. Any event that occurs before or after the trip is also excluded.
In case you are travelling despite a doctor forbidding you, have a terminal prognosis or waiting for certain treatments, you won’t get coverage. Criminal activities, self-injury, intoxication, and semi-professional or unprofessional sports (without advance declaration) are also not covered.
6. Go through reviews
Before zeroing in on a provider, check reviews from past customers who had purchased travel insurance for adventure sports. Find out about their experience so you can get an idea about the effectiveness of the policy. Go through reviews that talk about the provider’s professionalism, promptness, and customer support services, too. After all, from buying a policy to filing a claim (if required) and receiving the settlement, you might need help and answers at different stages. The provider should be up for the task.
7. Assess the ease of claim settlement
No matter how comprehensive a travel insurance policy is, if the claim procedure is complicated or tedious, you might lose out on due compensation or suffer from unnecessary anxiety. So, understand how the claim procedure works for the provider you have in mind, what steps to follow if something untoward happens, and the kind of supporting documents or evidence you need to provide. Do a bit of research and find out about the provider’s claim settlement ratio, too. A decent ratio indicates they settle claims without undue trouble if everything is in place.
8. Read policy wordings carefully
Going through the entire policy document from start to finish is highly recommended before buying travel insurance for adventure sports. Understand how various common terms are defined by the provider and go through minor clauses and fine print carefully.
Conclusion
Choosing the right travel insurance by following the above tips can help you indulge in a variety of thrilling adventure sports without worrying about financial losses in unexpected scenarios. From hospitalisations, medical evacuations, lost baggage or passport, and theft, to extended hotel stays, personal liabilities, flight cancellations, and more, you will be adequately covered. Using a reputed provider’s travel insurance app will also make it easy for you to monitor and manage the policy and file claims if required.
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