Best Adventure Travel Insurance Plans
Getting injured from a high-risk activity while traveling without the proper protection can result in large out-of-pocket expenses. These top-selling adventure insurance plans include strong medical coverage for accidents and injuries and are designed to cover a wide range of adventure sports.
See a complete breakdown of these plans and more in our full review of the Best Adventure Travel Insurance for Extreme Sports.
What is Adventure Travel Insurance?
Most people don’t realize that common activities like hiking, biking, riding mopeds, and snorkeling are commonly excluded from travel insurance as they are considered high-risk by insurers.
Adventure travel insurance policies provide coverage for these and other high-risk activities or extreme sports commonly excluded from standard travel insurance plans.
These policies protect you from the unique risks associated with adventure sports, and can cover costs for unexpected medical expenses, evacuations from remote areas, lost or delayed sports equipment, and more.
Adventure insurance can cover a wide range of common sports and activities, such as:
- Water Sports: Scuba diving, snorkeling, surfing, sailing, kayaking, wakeboarding, and other aquatic activities.
- Land Sports: Snowboarding, skiing, hiking, cycling, mountain biking, rock climbing, camping, and other outdoor pursuits.
- Air Sports: Bungee jumping, Skydiving, paragliding, hot air ballooning, and other airborne adventures.
- Do I Need Adventure Sports Travel Insurance Coverage?
- What Does Adventure Travel Insurance Cover?
- What's Not Covered By Extreme Sports Travel Insurance?
- How Much Does Adventure Sports Travel Insurance Cost?
- Common Travel Insurance Adventure Sports
- How To Choose The Best Adventure Travel Insurance Policy
- How Squaremouth Can Help You Find the Best Adventure Trip Coverage
- FAQs: Travel Insurance for Adventure Sports
- Adventure News Articles
Do I Need Adventure Sports Travel Insurance Coverage?
Standard travel insurance often excludes adventure activities from coverage, so it's important to have adventure sports coverage if your trip includes any type of sport, even if you don’t consider them high-risk.
Paying out of pocket for medical care or medical evacuation services can be very expensive, especially if you’re traveling to an international destination that doesn’t accept U.S. health insurance.
Additionally, adventure and extreme sports tour operators often require you to buy travel medical insurance before departing for your trip to reduce liability on their end.
In all of these cases, having the proper travel insurance in place is important. When buying travel insurance, be sure to check the policy exclusions carefully to ensure you are covered on your next adventure trip.
Squaremouth offers travel insurance with adventure sports coverage built in, as well as plans with an optional hazardous sports rider, offering you customized protection options.
What Does Adventure Travel Insurance Cover?
Apart from covering medical emergencies, cancellations, and travel delays, adventure travel insurance plans cover you for a wide variety of sports activities that are typically excluded from other travel insurance plans. Here is a look at common coverage inclusion for adventure travel insurance plans.
Adventure travel insurance can cover emergency medical expenses and emergency evacuation to the nearest quality medical facility if you are injured while participating in adventure activities.
Some adventure plans include emergency search and rescue coverage in case you have an accident in remote areas and need emergency extraction. If this coverage is important to you, be sure to apply the 'Search & Rescue' filter to your search, as not all plans include this benefit.
Travel insurance can reimburse you for lost, stolen, or damaged sports equipment such as skis, dive gear, or golf clubs, and more.
Be sure to check the policy maximum and the limit per item to ensure you find a policy that can adequately cover the cost of your gear.
If your personal sports equipment is delayed in transit, an adventure travel insurance plan can reimburse you for rental gear.
Adventure sport coverage can reimburse you for unused sports fees like prepaid lift tickets or green fees if an illness or injury prevents you from participating. While this coverage is not available for all types of sports, it can be extremely valuable for ski trips and golf trips.
All plans sold on Squaremouth include round-the-clock phone assistance in case of an emergency or if you need help dealing with travel disruptions.
If you are planning a high-risk trip, Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) and Interruption For Any Reason (IFAR) coverage are great options. Both of these coverages can extend your standard cancellation and interruption coverage to protect you for things that would typically be excluded.
This could include travel to high-risk destinations with level-4 travel advisories, or even cancelling because you changed your mind about your trip.
What's Not Covered By Extreme Sports Travel Insurance?
Not every policy covers the same sports or activities, so you may find certain policies offer broader coverage while others exclude certain sports.
Every policy has unique coverage exclusions, so it’s important to check the policy for the exact list of exclusions before buying.
Here is a list of the common scenarios excluded by most hazardous sports insurance policies:
- Participating in professional or organized sports (unless covered by your specific policy)
- Claims related to negligence, illegal or reckless activities
- Claims related to situations caused by alcohol or drug use
- Planned, routine medical or dental care
- Pre-existing medical conditions (unless covered by your specific policy)
- Traveling against a doctor's orders
- Travel to countries with Level 4 travel advisories
- Situations resulting from military action or acts of war
How Much Does Adventure Sports Travel Insurance Cost?
Comprehensive adventure travel insurance costs just under $32 per day on average and includes Trip Cancellation and Interruption protection.
This cost estimate is based on real adventure-specific travel insurance sales data from Squaremouth customers over the past 12 months. Travelers buying adventure insurance plans spent an average of $441, with an average trip length of 14 days.
Like other types of comprehensive travel insurance, the cost of adventure coverage is based on several risk factors, such as your age, destination, trip length, and travel expenses.
Common Travel Insurance Adventure Sports
Search for sports and activities you will be participating in during your trip. You can also browse and select activities from the list below.
How To Choose The Best Adventure Travel Insurance Policy
Take care to research what sports are covered by every policy you are considering and never assume a sport is covered, even if you consider it low-risk, as coverage varies greatly by provider. Here are a few extra tips to help you choose the right plan.
High-risk sports and adventure travel typically require higher medical and evacuation limits than low-risk trips. If you are traveling abroad as part of your adventure, this may also warrant higher coverage limits. Opt for at least $100K of Medical coverage and $250K of Medical Evacuation protection.
Before buying a policy, make a mental note of every sport or activity that you may participate in while you are traveling. Even sports like biking and swimming may be excluded from some policies, so it’s best to account for these and seek out a policy that covers all your planned and possible activities.
Some sports like hiking, mountaineering, distance running, and scuba diving have specific coverage delimiters for altitudes, depths, and distances. Be sure to consider how high, far, or deep your activities may take you, and use our search filters to find policies that match your planned activities.
Sports gear and specialized clothing are expensive, and many travel insurance policies can cover your luggage and sports equipment up to the scheduled amount outlined in the policy. Be sure to consider how much coverage you need for your gear and opt for a policy with adequate limits.
Travel insurance comparison sites like Squaremouth allow you to enter the sports you plan to do and filter out policies that won’t cover you. With over 400 sports filters on file, Squaremouth filters can save you time and money by helping you quickly narrow down policies that can provide financial protection in case you need to file a claim related to your adventure trip.
How Squaremouth Can Help You Find the Best Adventure Trip Coverage
As the nation's largest travel insurance marketplace, we make it easy to compare adventure travel insurance plans from top providers.
Where other platforms make it difficult to find coverage by requiring sports riders, add-ons, and classifying certain sports as "adventure sports" and others as "extreme sports", Squaremouth simplifies the process.
Simply enter your trip information into our travel insurance quote tool to get matched with insurance policies specifically tailored to your trip parameters.
Use our search filters to find plans that include coverage for the exact sports and activities you plan to do while away.
Compare coverage and pricing for plans from over 20 top providers.
Browse Other Policy Types
FAQs: Travel Insurance for Adventure Sports
Yes, adventure sports travel insurance is typically more expensive than standard travel insurance because it covers higher-risk activities that have an increased chance of injury or emergency evacuation.
With that said, it's still attainable. According to our internal data, the average adventure holiday insurance policy costs roughly $32/day for Squaremouth customers. Costs vary based on factors like the activities covered, destination, age, and coverage limits. Comparing plans can help you find the best policy at the lowest price.
It’s best to have a general idea of the activities you plan to do before purchasing a policy. Since most standard plans exclude adventure sports from coverage, knowing your itinerary can help you determine if your policy protects you from financial loss.
If you’re unsure, choose a policy with broad adventure sports coverage to ensure you’re protected no matter what activities you decide to try.
If you’re traveling within the United States, your primary health insurance may cover medical expenses if you get injured while participating in an adventure sport. However, exclusions may apply depending on your plan.
If you’re traveling overseas, it’s unlikely that your policy will cover medical expenses, as most international destinations do not accept U.S. health insurance. In this scenario, we highly recommend opting for an adventure travel insurance policy that includes strong Emergency Medical and Medical Evacuation coverage.
Yes, your sports equipment, gear, and clothing can be included as part of comprehensive coverage to protect them from loss, theft, damage, and even travel delays. Be sure to review the reimbursement level per item as well as the policy maximum when choosing this type of coverage.
Currently, 19 different travel insurance companies on Squaremouth offer extreme sports coverage. These include:
- Aegis
- ArchRoam Right
- AXA
- Battleface
- Berkshire Hathaway
- Blue Cross Blue Shield
- Detour
- HTH Worldwide
- IMG
- John Hancock
- Medjet Assist
- UHG
- Seven Corners
- Tin Leg
- Travel Insured International
- Travelex
- Trawick
- USI Affinity
- World Trips
Reach out to our award-winning customer service team for assistance in helping you find a travel insurance policy that meets your needs. Our advisors have in-depth knowledge of coverage and exclusions and can assist you with finding a policy that offers adequate coverage for your trip and planned activities. Call us at 1-800-240-0369.
Coverage and exclusions vary from one insurance policy to the next, especially when it comes to adventure travel. While some plans may provide coverage for common activities like snorkeling and cycling, others are geared towards more high-risk activities like white water rafting or heli-skiing. We recommend using our quote tool to filter for plans that cover your specific trip activities.