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Travel Insurance for Africa
Do You Need to Get Travel Insurance?
Yes! Travel insurance is essential for any trip to Africa. You can get an idea of the cost with the World Nomads widget on the right hand side of this page.
Comprehensive Travel Insurance is compulsory for everyone booking trips through African Budget Safaris. Before travelling clients need to provide information about their travel insurance company, the contact details and policy numbers. Mandatory travel insurance is there to protect travellers financially and medically.
Comprehensive Travel Insurance Explained
Comprehensive Travel Insurance covers you for the full duration of your travels.
Comprehensive insurance covers you for:
Most travel insurance companies offer comprehensive policies, the price of which depends on the total cost of your trip and your age.
When to get Travel Insurance
It's best to buy travel insurance within seven days of paying the deposit on your trip.
This way you can get insured for your trip deposit and financial default by airlines and safari operators, as well as preexisting medical conditions. Purchasing travel insurance when you book your trip covers you in case you get sick or injured before the departure date, or if one of the companies you are planning to travel with folds or defaults.
Why Get Travel Insurance?
Unexpected Injuries - in case you get hurt or sick along the way
Comprehensive insurance will cover anything from minor injuries and the flu to more serious accidents that may require time in hospital. In the case of serious injuries an early flight back home may even be required, which is when you really cannot afford to be without comprehensive cover.
When it comes to accidents that might happen during adventure activities, the expenses can be even higher. These expenses may be higher due to the nature of the injuries sustained, or because of the remote areas adventure activities typically take place in. It is worth checking that your insurance policy covers all of the outdoor and adventure activities you are planning to do on your safari.
The risk of more expensive medical and emergency evacuation costs is especially relevant when travelling in Africa, where you often find yourself long distances away from proper medical facilities. Medical evacuations often require jet flights with onboard doctors - all of which can run into thousands of dollars in expenses.
Unforeseen Travelling Expenses
Comprehensive travel insurance will cover you for a wide range of eventualities, ranging from flight and baggage delays to return flights for a close relative's funeral.
Having travel insurance means that you won't be stuck with your travel plans if things change or go wrong along the way.
Check your Credit Card Cover
Often clients are covered to a certain extent if they book flights with their Credit Cards, but this cover is usually limited.
It is vital that you ask your Credit Card Company the following questions:
It is recommended that you take out additional cover if booking Travel Insurance through your Credit Card Company. Be sure to ask your Credit Card Company about their policy regarding this additional cover.
Why Medical Aid is Not Enough
Unfortunately, medical aid just doesn't cover it when you are travelling in Africa.
What isn't Covered with Comprehensive Insurance?
Travel insurance does not always cover political conflicts (war-related events) and threats from terrorism, although some policies do. These are incidents that you can ask your tour operator about to check if cancelled trips would be refunded and postponed trips arranged without extra charges.
More about Medical Evacuation
Most travel insurance companies require pre-evacuation authorization, which can be difficult, if not impossible, to arrange when you are in remote bush locations where there are no telephones. Check with the insurance company whether authorization is required before medical evacuation, so that you can find out how to deal with this clause and work around it in a worse case scenario.
It's a good idea to sign up with a company that provides assistance with medical evacuations, particularly if you are travelling to remote areas and participating in high risk activities.
Travel Insurance Specialists We Like
Our Travel Insurance partner is World Nomads, who specialise in independent and adventurous travellers. Get a quote from World Nomads today, by using the widget at the top of this page, or visit their website here: Worldnomads.com.
