When we go away traveling or on holidays, we all should take out adequate travel insurance. If we don’t, then we are leaving ourselves exposed to a world of potential financial pain.
Do you know if your insurance would cover you if you were on an elephant in Thailand and accidentally fell off it? They probably would, but there could be some reduction in benefits.
But if you were on holiday and an elephant trek or camel trek was included in the holiday, then you wouldn’t be covered as the activity would be classed as “non-incidental”! This is where a lot of the confusion comes from regarding travel insurance and the different policies.
Just to clarify – most travel insurance companies will cover “incidental” activities. These are things that happen on the spur of the moment. On the other hand, “non-incidental” means sport tours, activity trips or white water rafting.
It’s helpful to have some safety equipment of your own while you are travelling, just so as you are prepared for any eventuality.
Travel insurance policies will most likely contain a general exclusions clause. This places the onus on you to try as best you can to prevent illness, injury or loss/damage to your property. So in other words – you should always act as if you have zero insurance and don’t take any unnecessary risks.
Before you take out any insurance, you must read the terms and conditions. Because the policies change from company to company – you need to know exactly what it is you are covered for. There might be no liability cover under certain situations or for certain activities. While you may be covered for some potentially risky activities, you might only be covered if you keep within certain guidelines for that said activity.
There are some fantastic prices at places like PureSafety on a variety of personal safety equipment that would benefit you on your next sports related adventure.
Just make sure that you read the travel insurance policy from the start to finish before you sign up for it. The last thing you want is to be enjoying a camel trek in the Sinai desert in Egypt, falling off and breaking your leg – only to not be covered adequately.
In this situation, you should be covered as it was purely incidental, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
