This post may contain affiliate links, for which we earn a small commission at no additional expense to you. Click here to read our Disclosure.
There are so many things to think about when planning any trip – what to pack, how much money to bring, where am I actually going to go, did I set up my email forwarding and on and on.
One of the most important things you will do to prepare for you trip is to organize travel insurance. Travel insurance can feel like one more expense on top of a skyscraper of travel expenses, but is something you don’t want to travel without. We are big proponents of taking our kids to remote locations and off-the-beaten path destination. While these locations and experiences involve risk, having good travel insurance provides us with peace of mind.
In the best case scenario, it will cover you if you come down with a minor bug while away or pay for the tablet you left on the bus in Mexico. In the scariest scenarios, it will cover you if you are ill and need to be helicopter lifted off a remote island or cover your expenses to come home if a family member is sick or dying. We don’t like to think of worst case scenarios when traveling, but they can happen, and you don’t want to leave yourself financially exposed and having to make choices between your health and finances.
We use and recommend World Nomads for the most comprehensive travel insurance for adventurous families. Why do we love it?
- prices are affordable and terms are easy to understand
- they insure you in 130 countries worldwide, including multi-country, extended trips
- their website is easy to get an instant quote from and to purchase insurance, even after you have left home
- their coverage includes medical evacuation from remote locations, including medical repatriation to get you home
- they cover adventure sports and activities
- you can make claims online and they offer 24/7 support
Luckily we have been fairly healthy in all the traveling we have done as a family. We have seen doctors in Turkey, Mexico, and Sri Lanka for minor ailments like lingering tummy issues and ear aches.
When Gavin was 3, he fell off a table on a small, remote island in the Bahamas. The nearest community didn’t have an x-ray machine, so we had to fly him to Nassau for an x-ray. Thankfully that was all covered by our travel insurance. The unfortunate part was that the Nassau hospital x-rayed the wrong part of his arm and pronouced there was no break. A week later and lots of swimming and playing while he still complained about his arm, we had it re-xrayed in Canada and sure, enough it was broken!
With his “not broken arm” in the Bahamas.
Said child, also managed to slice his leg really badly when we were visiting Uluru in Outback Australia. The local clinic stitched him up and a week later when the stitches snapped, another Outback hospital glued it all back together in the middle of the night. He now has a gnarly scar on this leg with a good story, but thankfully we didn’t have to pay the $1000+ price tag because our insurance did.
Continuing on with our Outback camping trip after his huge gash.
Our scariest medical situation when traveling happened before we had kids, while Paul and I were travelling in Africa. One day, Paul went from being perfectly healthy to being completely delirious in 30 minutes. To this day, it is the scariest travel moment we have encountered. We were in Arusha, a regional safari town near the Serengeti. Our tour guide helped find us a reputable clinic in town and we spent the next two days there with Paul on an IV and the doctor not being able to figure out what was wrong with him. Thankfully the clinic was clean, but it was a scary experience for us to navigate and I am so glad we didn’t have to worry about the financial repercussions of his stay.
One moment he was like this and the next he was almost comatose.
Our Verdict
World Nomads provides the travel insurance we need for independent, adventurous family travel. Their travel insurance is surprisingly very affordable and can work out to only a few dollars, a day. Check it out for yourself!
Save this for later. PIN it to Pinterest!
