Many backpackers will agree with us that travel disasters are becoming more common day by day. Staying in pre booked hotels and following a set, pre planned pattern is not something backpackers swore by, unlike other travelers. This is the reason backpacking comes with a different set of risks and therefore the travel insurance for them is a little different from what is offered to the regular clientele.
Backpacking is one of the best ways to travel because it takes the traveler to the heart of the place and the things you discover while backpacking is much more exciting than following a set pattern. Therefore, to help backpackers minimize risks and enjoy their trip more, we have come up with a few tips that they need to be aware of:
1. Be Aware Of What Coverage You Need
Backpacking travelers need to make sure that the coverage included in their travel insurance policy is only what they would actually require. For example, if backpackers do not stay in hotels and prefers to set their own camp, a coverage for hotel booking is not needed when they get a travel insurance policy. Some if the things that backpackers should have covered are: baggage, medical expenses, emergency trip interruption and passport loss coverage.
2. Describe Your Activities
When you are consulting or looking for an appropriate travel insurance cover, it is a good idea to properly describe the activities you regularly engage in while backpacking. This could be anything like hiking unknown trails, bungee jumping, skiing, hang gliding, rock climbing, diving etc. Not mentioning activities similar to the aforementioned activities could make your travel insurance cover invalid if you are ever injured while partaking in the activities that you failed to mention. Therefore look carefully through aaa travel insurance reviews and only take up the policy that covers medical injuries sustained due to certain activities that you regularly participate in during backpacking.
3. Look for the Exclusions
No travel insurance cover can give you everything and there are some things that every cover excludes. You need to aware of the things that can be excluded and won’t affect you drastically. Some of the things that are excluded are pre-existing medical conditions, total cost recovery during baggage loss (only a limited amount is paid and recovering the whole amount is difficult), emergency evacuation will come with conditions etc. Most of these exclusions can be prevented by upgrading your insurance cover or by purchasing a plan early on.
4. Compare
Backpackers commonly go with the flow and do not invest a substantial amount of money to pre plan or pre book everything before they leave for their trip. Therefore trip cancellation coverage is not something that is extremely important to them but still think of the scenarios that could force you to cancel the whole trip. Also, keep in mind the losses monetary wise that you will have to recover. There are different types of trip cancellation coverage and it is better to compare everything before making a choice. You can compare different kinds of things other than trip cancellation coverage to make a more informed choice.
5. Storage
Store your travel insurance papers in a plastic cover or keep them safe and secure in a digital place. If you are going to have an internet connection throughout the duration of your trip, store the documents in your cloud or an online storage platform. A printed copy works for most backpackers because they are easily accessible in remote areas where your internet might not work or you laptop might run out of power.
The above were some tips that backpackers can follow while taking out a travel insurance cover. We hoped that this article helped make your next backpacking trip a little safer by minimizing all the risks.
