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Winter Sports Travel Insurance

Every year winter sports are getting more and more popular, with people flocking to resorts in the USA and in Europe. Compared to going on a normal beach holiday there is a lot more danger involved in a winter sports holiday and a normal travel insurance policy will not cover the activities that you do on such a holiday, this is why you need to take out winter sports travel insurance.

There are so many different activities that you can do on a winter vacation such as skiing, both downhill and cross country, snowboarding, snowmobiling, sledding, ice fishing and many more. There is a element of danger involved in all of these and there is a chance that you could get injured. It doesn’t matter how good you are at your chosen activity everyone has accidents at some point, if these accidents happen high up the mountain or off piste then you may need to be air lifted to hospital. The cost of the airlift plus all of the medical treatment you will receive can cost many thousands of dollars, most people cannot afford this and a normal insurance policy will not pay for it either. This is why you need specialist winter sports travel insurance.

Equipment Cover

Winter sports travel insurance does not only cover medical care it also covers theft and damage to any specialist gear or equipment that you take with you. A good policy will replace what you owned with new like for like equipment and in many cases you will get the new items when still on holiday so your time is not wasted, failing that you will be given rental gear for the rest of your trip.

If you are going to be renting your gear when you are on vacation and it is expensive equipment that you want you need to make sure that you policy will cover it. Some policies will only cover cheaper rented equipment.

Liability Cover

If, while you are out on the slopes, you get involved in an accident with someone else and they get injured, even if it isn’t your fault, you could end up in court. As you will know going to court is not cheap, so be sure that your sports travel insurance covers all of these lawyers fees and so on, and if you are found to be the cause of the accident the insurer will pay out as well.

Piste Closure

If before you go on holiday you pay for ski or snowboarding tuition or something along those lines, or for lift passes, but when you arrive at the resort there is no snow so you can go skiing a good insurer will refund the cost of these purchases. There are also some insurers that will pay for your entire holiday because you were unable to ski, but this is quite rare as many insurers will tell you that they cant control the weather.

Going Off Piste?

If you plan on doing some even more extreme sports such as skiing or snowboarding off piste or heliskiing or something along those lines you will need to take out further insurance to cover these activities as there is a higher risk you being injured and regular winter sport travel insurance will only cover skiing on designated slopes.

Annual Travel Insurance?

If you pay for your travel insurance annually you might find that you already have some sort of sports cover, though most insurers will only give you basic cover and only cover your country of residence. So if you are going abroad this is no use. If you get in touch with your insurer you may be able to extend your cover to a more comprehensive policy, to cover more eventualities and travelling outside of the country.

Family Or Group Travel

If you are going on vacation with your children then you will need to make sure that they are covered on the policy. Some insurers don’t cover children, so double check just in case yours doesn’t. If you are going away on a group holiday then some insurers will be able to offer discounted rates on larger groups.

Accidental Death Cover

As we know winter sports can be pretty dangerous so as well as being covered for any medical expenses you have got to be prepared for the worst case scenario. A comprehensive winter sports insurance policy will also cover medical evacuation, to get you back home in any case. It will also cover accidental death, this will ensure that your remains are returned back home and also a death benefit will be paid to who ever you specify, this benefit is paid on top of any other life insurance policy that you may also have.

When you are working up to your trip away you might think that insurance is a waste of money because you have never used it in the past, but if you arrive at your destination and have no luggage or equipment, or you or someone in your group gets injured you will realise that this type of cover is well worth it. It gives you peace of mind and lets you relax a little bit more while you are on your break.

Tags: sports travel insurance, travel insurance, travel insurance winter sports, winter sport travel insurance, winter sports travel insurance