Is there travel insurance for Extreme Sports?

The simple answer to this is "yes - now". 10 years ago, anyone wanting to partake in an "extreme sport" found getting travel insurance almost impossible. However, as the market for adventure holidays grew, a complementary market of travel insurance for those activities has grown up around it. So you can now cover your dangerous days. And many people have been doing just that. Columbus Insurance has reported a rise of 12% per year in "action insurance" policies being sold.

What are these extreme sports? Well, according to STA travel, which specialises in arranging travel for 18-25 year olds, the most popular adrenalin activities which young people wish to participate in are diving, skiing, snowboarding, surfing and white-water rafting. The East Coast of Australia is known as the "adrenalin capital of the world" and almost everyone who goes there does a bungee jump, jumps out of a plane or goes white-water rafting. The world of extreme sports even extends to the likes of sand boarding, pot-holing and even helirafting, which I'm told (nb: I'm over 30 so this is all Greek to me!) is where you are taken to part of a rapid which is not reachable by land by helicopter.

Think about this though, if you can't reach the place you are rafting by raft, then how do emergency services reach it by land if you have an accident? They can't, so they would have to hire a helicopter, which is much more expensive. This needs to be reflected in the premiums. It is very unlikely to be reflected in normal standard travel insurance. So you need to check that you are covering yourself properly.

Most high street travel agents tend to be mainstream package holiday sellers. As this is the case, they are not likely to cover extreme sports. They may cover hot-air ballooning, mountain biking and maybe highly supervised scuba diving. Maybe for an extra premium you will get normal skiing and snow-boarding, but they tend to not be involved in the adventure market.

Thus, you need to look for the companies that offer the adventure holidays for your travel insurance need. STA say that when things go wrong with extreme sports they can go drastically wrong. Drastically wrong means drastic medical bills, and you need to be covered. You may need to have vital operations in the country where you are, and your friends and family may need to travel out to see you.

You also need to think about personal liability. Should you crash into someone and injure them, the legal expenses could be enormous.

Finally, make sure you tell your provider which extreme sport you are taking part in. There are different levels of cover, and you need to have the right level.

© AskFinancially.com 2008

Travel Insurance

Insurance & Loans

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Is there travel insurance for Extreme Sports?

© AskFinancially.com 2008

Travel Insurance

Insurance & Loans

Copyright