Best Travel Insurance Plans for Road Trips, Water Sports and Extreme Sports

Best travel insurance plans for road trips

So, rental car insurance really should be considered separately, but does that mean that travel insurance policies are completely unrelated? Not exactly. 

You see, collision, loss or damage waivers may still include an excess charge, which is payable out of your own pocket. (You can opt for a higher-cost rental insurance plan that completely absorbs the excess charges, but not all rental companies may offer them.)

However, with a travel insurance plan that offers rental excess cover, you can reduce this extra expense, or even stave it off completely. 

Two such plans are FWD Travel Insurance, and Budget Direct Comprehensive Travel Insurance. Both offer car rental excess cover, as follows:

• FWD Travel Insurance: Up to S$1,000
• Budget Direct Comprehensive Travel: Up to S$2,000

Of course, car rental excess cover alone isn’t the only thing you should consider when choosing a travel insurance plan, so remember to examine the rest of the benefits in these two plans before making your choice. 

Insuring yourself for water sports and/or extreme sports

And now, we’ll discuss insurance needs if you’re planning on participating in water sports and/or extreme sports. Don’t worry, this section is comparatively more straightforward than the preceding one!

Water-related activities and extreme sports – let’s call them adventurous activities cover for brevity, although different insurers each have their own labels for such – are all under the purview of your travel insurance plan. 

As such, you simply need to decide what adventurous activities you will be taking part in, and ensure your travel insurance plan has the corresponding coverage. Some areas of adventurous activities coverage to consider include:

• Coverage for sporting equipment
• Personal liability cover
• Cancellations or alterations of pre-booked adventurous activities 
• Personal accident, overseas medical expenses, emergency services 

The first coverage area is pretty straightforward – you’ll want to insure your expensive sporting equipment such as scuba diving equipment, golf clubs, snow skis, and etc. Should they get lost or damaged, your general personal belongings benefits may not cover them adequately, if at all. So be sure to check through your insurance policy wording and top up for a more expensive tier for important items. 

Also, if you’re renting them, you’ll be on the hook for any replacement or repair costs.

Personal liability cover is to ensure that you have a layer of protection in case your actions or participation accidentally cause another person or party to be injured. However, for most cases, standard travel insurance plans offer personal liability cover, but you should consider beefing it up if the amount is too low. 

As for cancellations or alternations of pre-booked activities, well this is simply to give you an option to receive partial or full reimbursement should, say, your white-water rafting session be cancelled because of dangerous conditions. 

Lastly, personal accident, overseas medical and emergency services would already be included in your travel insurance plan, but again, you’ll need to evaluate if the benefits are at a high-enough level, and beef them up if necessary.  

One note though: Just because you have insurance for adventurous cover doesn't mean you can throw caution and take up the offer to go “backyard squirrel hunting” from MAGAGuns420 that messaged you over Craigslist.

In most cases, you’ll only be covered if you book your activities with a licensed and regulated guide or provider, and carry out the activity under proper supervision. 

And even so, there are restrictions and exclusions on the activities itself (for example, scuba diving up to a certain depth, trekking up to certain height, use of specialised equipment, participating in competitive sports, etc), so be sure to refer to the policy documents or check with your insurer.  

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Best travel insurance plans for water sports and/or extreme sports

The good news is that adventurous activities cover is quite readily found these days, leaving you with plenty of choices. 

To help you in your search, we’ve listed three plans below and their key benefits. 

Conclusion: Always check with your insurer

The tricky thing about travel insurance is working out what events and occurrences your plan will actually cover, and under what circumstances. 

This can be further complicated by the fact that different insurers have different exclusions, which means that between two similar-looking plans, maybe only one will give you the cover you actually need. 

But fret not, confirming whether a particular travel plan is right for you is relatively simple. Just contact the insurance company, tell them exactly what you will be doing on your trip, and ask them to confirm if the plan will cover you. They’ll tell you yes or no – and suggest alternatives or add-ons in the latter scenario. 

And while you’re at it, might as well ask them if they allow double indemnity; i.e., whether you can make a claim on your plan if you are also claiming against your licensed guide, travel agent or relevant third party.

Yes, all that sounds like quite a bit of work just for a holiday, but the clearer you are about your coverage, the more you will be able to enjoy your road trip, water sports or extreme sports holiday.

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