Travel Insurance: When to Buy, When to Not Buy

Bonus: adventure travel insurance 

You want it if: You’re headed into the mountains … during winter …  alone … 
Though it’s not a standard offer in a comprehensive plan, one specific area of coverage that’s mushrooming is adventure travel, which makes sense, because adventure travel itself is rapidly becoming a bigger and bigger thing. But “adventure travel” doesn’t have one single definition. It can mean touring somewhere remote, or backpacking alone, or just traveling somewhere that has nature. Or maybe you’re pursuing physical activities like caving, or doing stuff that sounds dangerous but isn’t really, like swimming with sharks, or hiking a mountain by yourself even though you have no hiking experience and a poor sense of direction. 

If the adventure in question involves something that’s physically challenging, but in proximity to lots of other people — like hiking Machu Picchu — you probably don’t need adventure travel insurance. Same with activities that come with a certain amount of inherent risk, along the lines of recreational scuba diving (but consider getting certified! iI’ll be fun!). 

Lots of places will try to sell you adventure travel coverage for stuff you would never think to get insured if you were home. World Nomads offers coverage for “150+ adventure activities” — 317, actually — most of which seem to really have no business being there in the first place. (Who knew office work and teaching could be so dangerous?) Of the 27 or so that seem valid, two aren’t even covered anymore (base jumping; mountaineering over 22,000 feet) and most are either redundant-ish synonyms (motocross/BMX) or too vague to form much of an opinion on (environmental work).

As you poke around the adventure insurance market you’ll see lots of options for mountaineering and hiking insurance especially, which are… two very different things. The former might require medevac rescue insurance, so if you’ll be in a scenario like that you should look into it. The latter is basically walking, but uphill. Long answer to a short question: If you’re not alone and not doing something that requires specialized gear, you can probably skip the special insurance.