travel insurance

MichaelW

Any hot tips on good travel insurance for me as opposed to bike. Typical use would be two European trips/year.
Do you use the travel insurance that comes with some bank accounts, CTC or other clubs, supermarket deals, post office, online or a conventional travel agent or insurance broker?

andymiller

Road-only or off-road?

SFAIK normal insurance companies have no problems with insuring on-road cycling but many won't touch mountain biking and you need to go to someone like Activcard.

charlosparky

My bank "give" me travel insurance (£12.50 per month) that includes cover for any holiday as long as it is booked more than 3 days in advance. I asked them if that includes weekends away in my caravan and they said yes, so isuppose it would work for cycles touring. It also includes RAC breakdown (covers me personally not the car- i can use them even if i am a passenger in someone elses car) so i assume they would rescue me if my bike failed.
Worth a thought :?

takeonafrica

Be aware - a lot of companies will include cycling as an insured activity BUT only if it is DOES NOT constitute a significant part of the trip. So if you were going to Europe specifically to go cycle-touring you may not be covered while undertaking that activity.
I think you can usually pay a premium to cover anything like this if you ask.

I've used CTC and Campbell-Irvine insurance in the past, and they have covered me for cycle-touring (I phoned to check). Never had to claim so couldn't comment but they seem reputable.
I have heard of problems claiming with some of the cheaper general travel insurance companies so worth searching online for feedback and reading the policy wording before purchasing.

Special K

takeonafrica wrote:

Be aware - a lot of companies will include cycling as an insured activity BUT only if it is DOES NOT constitute a significant part of the trip. So if you were going to Europe specifically to go cycle-touring you may not be covered while undertaking that activity.
I think you can usually pay a premium to cover anything like this if you ask.

I've used CTC and Campbell-Irvine insurance in the past, and they have covered me for cycle-touring (I phoned to check). Never had to claim so couldn't comment but they seem reputable.
I have heard of problems claiming with some of the cheaper general travel insurance companies so worth searching online for feedback and reading the policy wording before purchasing.

Good call. Please do heed this excellent advice. Unless you go for specialist insurance

a) You will probably not be covered in full for all cycling related eventualities
b) You will probably end up paying more for the privilege of partial or ineffectual cover.

Be prepared to pay for peace of mind and accept that someone on a bicycle for hours and hours every day in a foreign country will be more expensive to cover than someone quietly getting drunk on a beach.

In the past years I have expanded my American Express insurance to cover off-road cycling and cycle-touring and it's been expensive and would definitely think about considering cycling oriented policies instead or in addition to main family travel insurance.

PS Amex do good CDW insurance which made renting a car cheaper and much less stressful last summer. I don't know about you, but worrying and being fleeced isn't high on my list of relaxing things to do whilst on holiday.

JHcp

When you take out travel insurance check very carefully that they will repatriate you and your bikes.

We had Boots travel insurance one year and we had told them that we were cycle touring and that our main form of transport were bicycles.

However when I hurt my back 2 days into our summer tour and we thought we would have to abandon the tour and get repatriated, my wife contacted the insurance company and they said they would repatriate us and our luggage but not our bikes! As our touring bikes would be about a £1000 each to replace we would had to have tried to get them back which could have been at great expense.

Fortunately my back recovered after a few days and I carried on. However the insurance company insisted on a signed letter from the local doctor to say that I was fit to continue and explained if I didn't get this it would invalidate our insurance for the rest of the trip.

Since that experience the only insurance cover that we have found that will repatriate us and the bikes is the CTC cyclecover and that is as long as you take out their bike insurance as well. They do do annual travel insurance which for your 2 trips a year might be worth it.

Fortunately for us we haven't had to put the CTC cyclecover claims procedure to the test, so can't comment on that.