Adventure Travel Insurance

You may be asking yourself, “What the heck is adventure travel insurance, and why would I need it?”

In a nutshell, adventure travel insurance covers you if you indulge in activities that many would perceive as being overly risky. For instance, if chumming the water before swimming with sharks is your idea of a good time then your insurance carrier might take issue with paying a claim should you get hurt.

Paragliding, mountain climbing, spelunking and many other traditional adventure travel activities may give your health insurance carrier pause when hit with a claim. And if you get hurt at all while outside of your country there’s certainly a chance you wouldn’t be covered anyway.

As an example, you may think you’re covered when taking a cruise down the California coast, but if you jump on a boat that’s flying a foreign flag, you may not be covered.

The solution to seeing if you’re covered, or not, is a simple common sense approach. Read your medical and life insurance policies or give your carrier(s) a call. They should be able to clear things up for you in a hurry.

And because we’re talking about adventure travel, let’s touch on some of the travel aspects of insurance policies.

First, before we get into the details, let me advise you to do the math before buying any travel insurance policy. You need to weigh the risk against the cost for each trip you plan to make.

Don’t just get into the habit of buying travel insurance out of habit. Make sure you need it and that it’s worth the added expense. For instance, why bother with trip cancelation insurance for a cheap $67 ticket on an economy flight?

However, if you’ve got a few grand tied up in a Safari trip coming up in a few months, wisdom would dictate that you buy cancelation insurance. A lot can happen over that period of time that could put your trip at risk. This is an exaggerated example, but you get the point.


Following are several types of travel insurance coverage you should consider before going on your next overseas adventure travel vacation.

- Adventure travel insurance: We’ve talked about this one already, so if you have skydiving, or some other risky adventure lined up, think seriously about getting this additional coverage.

- Health Care / Medical insurance: See if you’re covered by your current policy should you need it outside the country. If not, buy this coverage without question.

- Trip cancellation (or interruption) insurance: Just do the math and follow conventional wisdom per the example given above.

- Lost, delayed or stolen baggage insurance: Give this one serious consideration if you’re checking bags for overseas flights. If you don’t have this coverage, and you’re bags disappear, you may be woefully under covered by the legal liabilities of the airlines.

There are other types of insurance you can buy, but the four listed above will probably be your best bet for travel insurance needed by those with the spirit of adventure.

If you would like more information on adventure travel insurance you can check out some of the top adventure travel insurance companies and what they have to offer.

However, before you decide on what you think you do need, go get your current policies, or call your insurance carrier, to make sure you’re don’t buy something you don’t need.

Photo credits
Swimming with a great white... sort of: Ed Garcia