Copyright: Changhua Coast Conservation Action on Flickr
Finding backpackers insurance has been the most difficult travel planning task so far. Actually, we thought we had everything sorted out weeks ago; I left Andrew the task of researching and buying our insurance while he was on autumn school holidays and I was at work. He found a great deal – a £253 year-long policy, for two people – a bargain! That’s one more task crossed off the list, or so I thought…
Always Read the Small Print
It was only when I sat down to write this post that I actually started reading the small print of our contract, which said: ‘This policy is not valid for one way trips’. Considering that we don’t have return tickets to the UK – that means ours wouldn’t be covered. To make matters worse, by the time I discovered this it was already long past the cooling-off period during which we could get a full refund, so it was looking like we stood to lose that £253 of our hard-earned travel savings. Fortunately, after much scolding from me about not bothering to read the small print, Andrew managed to get a hold of the company and after some begging, he miraculously wrangled a full refund. Lucky for him is all I can say.
What to look for in Long Term Travel Insurance
So, back to square one and hours of searching online, comparing policies, calling companies and slowly loosing our minds. Here’s the thing about backpacking travel insurance:
- Most policies don’t allow you to make claims when you’re actually travelling, you have to wait until you return home to do that
- Even so called ‘long-term’ travel insurance policies require that you have a return ticket home booked, or you at least need to be able to prove that you intend to return to your home country (with a letter of employment, for example).
- Most policies don’t cover many of your valuables. Typically, insurance policies offer around £1,500 baggage cover, with a single item value limit of around £150 and a total valuable limit of around £200.
So, what’s the Best Backpacker Travel Insurance for us?
In the end we only found two companies which would allow us to make claims while abroad and to travel without intending to return home at the end of the policy – here are the details based on 12 months’ cover:
| World Nomads | Globelink International | |
| Countries covered | Worldwide | Worldwide |
| Medical cover (excess) | £3,000,000 (£100) | £5,000,000 (£40) |
| Baggage cover (excess) | £1,250 (£75) | £1,000 (£40) |
| Single item limit | £100 | £150 |
| Valuables limit | £400 | £150 |
| Policy cost per person | £462.39 | |
| Policy cost for a couple | £923 | £441 |
*Figures are sourced from the respective companies
Although we’ve heard rave reviews about World Nomads, which is the only real nomad travel insurance company out there, we decided not to go with them. While we don’t expect to get extremely cheap backpacker travel insurance, we think that they’re just too expensive, especially considering their policy wouldn’t even cover our electronics.
Globelink insurance, on the other hand, isn’t as well known but costs less than half the price of World Nomads. In fact, the Globelink excess is also much cheaper and they actually offer more medical cover. The only problem we can foresee is that they can only cover us for a total time period of 18 months, after which time we’ll be classed as permanent travellers and will need private travel insurance. World Nomads, in comparison, allow you to continue extending your policy.
In the end, we chose to go for 15 months’ cover (the most you can get online) with Globelink – we’ll extend this to 18 when we’re on the road. So, the total cost of our travel insurance, for two people for 15 months is £576.
Travel Insurance for our Electronics
All sorted now? Not quite. We still needed additional insurance to cover our travel laptop, camera, phones and Kindles while we’re travelling. We took out additional gadget insurance to cover our electronics for 12 months with PhotoGuard – this cost us £48.
Thanks for posting this, lots of good info. I’m tucking it away for future extended travel plans. For our trip to Paris we just purchased trip insurance, that will cover us while in Paris. But, it’s just for this one trip so will definitely need more for later travels.
Patti recently posted..From Peru – Rocoto Relleno ~
Hi Patti, longer term travel insurance is really tricky to find and expensive to buy – I’m glad that I can check this task off my travel planning list; just have to find the gadget insurance now *sigh*.
I’ll be taking a look at Globelink otherwise this is one of those tasks that might go in the ‘oh, that wasn’t important anyway’ folder if we don’t get something arranged soon.
Shane recently posted..Canberra: A Capital City 100 Years in the Making
Hi Shane, Globelink are pretty cheap and helpful. Actually yesterday we got another insurance recommendation from the guys at Never Ending Voyage – they use a company called True Traveller Insurance. They seem like another pretty good option – I’ll have to update this article to reflect that.
Ugh, searching for LT travel insurance is the absolute worst, especially because it’s the thing you hope you’ll pay for and then never have to use! It was doubly bad for us as Tony & I have different citizenship, which meant we had to do double the research. In the end, we also opted to forego World Nomads, because although they are the popular, well-publicized choice, we too found they were far pricier than other companies we dug up with a little digging. Sounds like you guys are definitely on the right track (though we never could find a decent policy to cover our electronics, etc.,) & I am glad to read that you are getting insurance rather than just crossing your fingers and hoping nothing bad happens!
Steph (@ 20 Years Hence) recently posted..Everything You Ever Wanted to Know (& More!) About: HONG KONG
Hi Steph, I’m far too paranoid to go away without insurance and far too stingy to pay World Nomads steep prices! We are still really struggling to find electronics cover too; are just relying on cover from your main insurance policies then?
Our electronics are the one thing we just don’t have any coverage for, save for whatever minimal (and insufficient) policies we had! We couldn’t find anything that would cover theft/loss in any substantial way, so we have just had to be vigilant about our belongings and that has been working out. It’s not ideal, but we couldn’t find any better solution.
Steph (@ 20 Years Hence) recently posted..Seasons Greetings from Singapore!
Ah I see, we are still searching for ours – Photoguard insurance is a possibility, we’re hoping that being vigilant will go along way to keeping our stuff safe too.
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Thanks for a great review of things. I was worried about my IPad and found with True Traveller I could add it on and get it insured for up to £450! Awesome! Couldn’t find this anywhere else, so thanks for posting this!
Hi Gem, glad you found it useful – happy travels!