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- Activity Holiday Insurance
Activity Holiday Insurance
Whatever your choice of activity, travel insurance is essential. Even if you are travelling to an EC country with an European E111 or the new ECard, you are only covered for basic medical services unless you have travel insurance that covers you for a particular activity. You can use the Travel Insurance Directory to shop around for the best prices.
You may want to check out our Guidance notes about Activity Holiday Insurance if this is the first time that you have bought Activity Holiday Insurance online.
Guidance notes about Activity Holiday insurance
Activity - Adventure - Sporting - Excitement - Exhilarating - And Sometimes a little crazy. All these can describe holiday activities that some would describe very Hazardous Activities that you can you now participate on travel or holiday, mostly under qualified supervision.
What you must remember is that accidents can and do occur and conventional travel insurance is not designed to cover you in such cases and whilst you think it may never happen to you ,on your holiday, the truth is that it does and it can. It will be too late when you're laying in hospital wondering who is going to pay for the treatment and to fly you home. An accident or injury can mean an early end to your activity holiday. A separate ticket or an air ambulance to fly you home, before the end of your holiday, can be very expensive. For an activity holiday horror story, see the case of someone who had an activity holiday accident, below.
So if you are going to participate in any activity, during your holiday, that maybe certainly exciting but hazardous, you should make sure your holiday insurance will cover you.
Many specialist activity insurance companies now offer cover for activity holiday insurance for hazardous activities and you can arrange an insurance policy before you travel and enjoy your wild adventure knowing you will be insured - just in case you have an accident or are unlucky during your chosen activity.
Types of Activities
Generally there are at least 2 categories of hazardous activities for you to choose holiday insurance cover for.
The lowest cost holiday activities tend to include the following:
American football, archery, ballooning, bouldering, bungee jumping, expeditions and trekking, football, glacier crossing, gliding, hang gliding, high diving (platform only), hockey (field only), horse riding, jet skiing, marathon/ triathlon, martial arts, micro lighting, parachuting, paragliding, par ascending, potholing/ caving (as part of a group only), power boating as a passenger, rock climbing, rugby, scrambling, show jumping, sky diving, water skiing, white water boating/ rafting up to level 4 / canoeing/ kayaking, yachting in territorial waters.
The more riskier holiday activities, and higher cost, tend to include the following:
Canyoning, motor rallying, mountaineering, over landing, piloting an aircraft, polo, scuba diving over 30m, speed skating, white water rafting level 5 and yachting out of territorial waters.
All insurance companies offering holiday activity or adventure travel insurance, categories activities into:
- Included as Standard
- Included if done occasionally
- Coverable if you pay an additional premium, which depends on your holiday activities
- Not covered at all
You must make sure all hazardous activities are supervised by qualified persons otherwise you will be placing yourself at risk and probably making your travel insurance null and void so it's a condition will all types of hazardous activities that the event is supervised at all times.
Your activity should only be performed if conducted under the supervision of a qualified guide or organisation, with all relevant local safety requirements being observed and the relevant safety equipment being utilised.
We all like to have fun on holiday and no one wants you to miss out on any excitement but above all try to be safe and not sorry and to declare the activities you intend to do or even might do before you get there and you will be surprised that many activity insurance specialist policies are reasonably priced for the risk.
Take Care and enjoy yourself and you too can be a little crazy - with activity holiday insurance.
Remember why you need activity holiday insurance
I was travelling back from Italy on a flight that was full. When we boarded, we realised our seats were the last on our side of the plane. Behind us was someone, who had been injured on his activity holiday, lying on a stretcher and his nurse. This took up the equivalent space of nine seats on a plane that was otherwise full. Imagine the price of nine seats, and the nurse would have had to be flown back once they reached England. All this plus the cost of being treated in a hospital at his holiday destination. I just hoped he had activity holiday insurance.
If you are taking part in hazardous activities such as scuba diving, climbing or extreme sports, you will be expected to pay a little more than the person who sits on the beach. When buying your activity holiday insurance check that the policy covers you for any activity you are likely to take part in. Some policies may have a high excess or only cover you up to a limit, so make sure you read the fine print.
You may want to check out our Guidance notes about travel insurance if this is the first time that you have bought travel insurance online.