I'm currently on the very early stages of planning my gap year and I have no idea what to do about insurance. I was thinking about taking out a simple cover which covers the usual things like medical expenses, baggage, cancellation, and a few simple activities. However, there are parts of my trip in which I'll be doing more high risk activities like zip-lining and via ferrata , which isn't covered by most policies. I was wondering if I could take out two travel insurances, one for my whole trip for the basics, and another one (World Nomads)specifically for the duration of the more dangerous activities? Is it legal? Would I be able to buy it before travelling to use for only a part of my trip? Would there be any problems buying two insurances simultaneously?
yes, having two simultaneous insurances means that you risk neither paying out.
you'll find the price difference isn't that great, especially as you are clearly planning some expensive activities. Buy the policy to cover what you are going to do and be done with it.
I am kind of in your boat here.
I will be in Nepal for 2 month and then NZ for 12+ months. I bought my travel insurance for trekking in Nepal (>5000m) and NZ together, but chose not to opt for adding winter sports cover (as I will only be skiing for a month maybe). I know I can get insured from a NZ company so I thought I should save my premium and omit it form the general travel insurance. Obviously I will need to ensure that I do indeed get ski insurance when I ski in NZ.
My point here is, I will know in advance that I will be skiing for X amount of days, and can easily sort out the insurance, as it's a popular activity in NZ. I am not sure how easy you would find bungee insurance or rafting insurance for your destination...
You can find one that will let you add an additional clause for 'high risk activities'. Mine allows that. It cost a little bit more, but it's worth it.
Also, there are a few different types of coverage.... Primary and Secondary, I think. One will automatically pay expenses, without deferring to other coverage. I would still recommend just getting one policy though. Much easier to deal with.
I'm in about the same situation. In my case, buying a travel insurance like from world nomads that covers all kinds of costs for my whole gap year won't make sense for me since I won't do activities like rafting every day/week/month and the costs difference with a normal travel insurance is huge:
My normal travel insurance including all basics, diving, skiing, quad riding, but no water and air sports costs 4 euros a month.
A world nomads insurance that covers about the same basics but also water sports and most air sports costs 105 euros a month.
Would be best for me to just insure those few activities that are not covered by my normal insurance along the way, but not sure if it is possible. Although I could get the World Nomads insurance for a few days if I'm planning to do some rafting/kayakking/bungee jumping, then everything that is only covered by World Nomads and not by my normal insurance would be no problem if I have a claim. For claims about activities that are covered by both I could have a double insurance problem for those days.
Still, with the huge difference in costs and what I would get if I choose for the more expensive one, I won't even think about choosing for world nomads for my whole gap year.
Hi,
tribalwave : In my opinion, you are allowed to have two insurances at the same time. Your idea is not bad.
You can also call your insurance to tell them you want to raft, ski or whatever a few weeks before. They will make you pay a little bit more for that activity.
In France, travellers use the insurance company AVI International pretty much. I works for any nationalities. You can chose an option if you want to do risky sports. During your trip, I guess you can call them and ask them to add this option for the month you want to practice those activities.
I know some sports are not covered at all.
Have a good trip !
trusted partner
