Boring stuff, I know, and I can hide that we have been really confused in the ocean of Travel Insurance providers out there in which is easy to drown yourselves in, but insurance for travelers is an essential part of planning a trip especially a looong trip.

Backpacker insurance is in fact specifically designed to cover independent travelers for long periods of time, up to 2 years, and visiting different countries on the same trip.

For my brief experience, travel insurance probably has been even more painful than the travel jabs I had all together. At one point I get so confused and frustrated that I turn up like The Scream, likely my housemates were away at that time.

Normally, my trick to find the answer to my queries or at least to get a better idea of any subject is digging into the net in some forums like the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree or other travelers blog where I could gain advices based on others’ experiences but to be honest with you in this occasion it hasn’t really help me at all …actually it confuses me even more!

Well, if you look to the whole picture the cost of getting covered by a travel insurance is a fraction of the whole amount you will probably spend on a RTW but it is always an unpleasant outlay that is coming out your wallet and for a backpacker every penny counts. For sure it would be doubly painful if, for saving a few hundreds pounds, you will find yourself with no insurance and have to pay for some medical costs which could come up to a shocking bill especially if you found yourself to be ill in the USA, the choice is yours.

I like the security to know that my “ass” is covered but I hate to pay for something that I might never use it which, touch wood, I wouldn’t like to try at all and as they said “better safe than sorry”!

We are not looking on super adventure cover like sky diving or any extreme sports but we want to be covered for the normal stuff could happen to any travelers such as baggage loss, medical expensive as minor dental problem or for any missing flight or cancellation.

Nowadays you can get travel insurance everywhere even from the supermarkets and post office and is really vary at the choices more suitable for the individual needs. Lot of comparison websites such as Money supermarket will help to get a roughly idea what’s options are on the market from the lowest solution but you will soon realize the slightly things offered by each company and although you think you would be cover for many aspects its worth always to go through the many contractual clauses in order to avoid unexpected surprises.

For a gap year insurance these are probably some of the major providers available in the UK and below is the quote given to us based on a 11 months trip including North America:

£213 for their budget option up to £431 each


£288.08 each


£415.55 standard with no cancellation or standard £519.44 each



£444.94 for couple



£142.99 standard, £164.99 essential or £186.99 each essential plus

£137 backpackers bronze, £182.91 silver or £201.20 gold each

We focused our attention originally towards Sta Travel and World Nomad the major insurances tailor-made for young budget adventurous travelers. Both they might have some good option on adventure and extreme sports covers but for us they both came ridiculous pricey, way too much comparing others such as even Amex.

Furthermore World Nomad, my first choice as I liked they idea you could make a claim while on the move and get sort it shortly without having to wait till the return from the trip, the good comments that I went through where only from people who likely didn’t have to claim a thing while the rest were complains from other which found tremendously difficult claiming back. On top of that I sent them an email with a couple of inquiries and they never get back to me so I got already a bad feeling.... if they don’t get back to me when just asking a simple question imaging when asking for £10K!!

Having keep in mind the major aspects that you should consider when shopping for travel insurance such as medical expenditures, repatriation cost, cancellation, personal liability, policy excess, despite I am still skeptical, we reduce our choice among two names: America Express, cause is not too expensive (cheaper that World Nomad and Sta Travel) and is a worldwide well-known organization and Insureandgo one of the cheapest we encounter which made it really tempting.

Our winner: Amex from American Express.

The reasons:

• a big name to our peace of mind which could be "hassle free" when most need it like in the USA where we are planning to spend 3 months and if you are not properly insured in case of medical needs you will have big trouble;
  
• found a 10% discount code by searching the net just by quoting “GAP07” so ending up paying a total of £400.45 for the two of us;
  
• cancellation trip normally will cover from the starting point of your trip but since we plan to fly back to Italy for Christmas and then back only to catch our first RTW flight Amex will also cover our pre trip outside the UK;
  
• cover up to 30m scuba diving (which hopefully we would give it a go in Thailand);
• 24/7 assistance helpline;
  

Downsides: it will not cover for our laptop and I found strange they do not cover under person liability any act resulting from driving a vehicle which include also car hire but that is the same for other providers too, umm

To be honest with you I don’t want to ever know if we did the right choice which means we hopefully would ever have to claim it.

For sure as recurring rule to get your travel insurance the key is to shop around, verify it covers your own needs and watch out to online coupon voucher too!