Planning an adventure holiday? Check if you have the right travel insurance

Summary

Adventure sports such as diving, trekking and rafting may not be covered by standard travel insurance. Here’s what Indian travellers should check before buying a policy.

Once Ganesh M, a 25-year-old Chennai resident, completed his scuba-diving training in the Andaman islands, he figured he better get insurance for recreational dives he would do by himself.

While the sport involves following strict safety rules, on the off chance “if something goes wrong, the consequences are quite nasty,” said Ganesh.

He couldn’t find any Indian insurance company which would provide comprehensive coverage for deep-sea diving, so he ended up buying a cover from DAN Europe, which specializes in providing diving insurance. DAN is short for Divers Alert Network, and its subsidiary IDA Insurance Limited is registered as an insurance company in Malta, but its policies can be purchased by people of different nationalities, including Indians. Its claims are payable if accidents occur in Indian waters.

“Just to avoid any possible scenario that can go wrong, insurance is a must in my opinion,” said Ganesh.

As more Indians take up adventure sports in India and overseas, they should consider a separate adventure sports cover for activities where possible.

Within India, a typical health insurance policy should cover basic medical expenses if an accident happens during an adventure sport, but may not cover specialized expenses such as an air ambulance if you need to be rescued from a remote diving area.

An adventure sports cover would pay for this, but, as Ganesh found, the options are limited.

Within India, Bajaj General Insurance Ltd has a Bharat Bhraman travel insurance policy that allows customers to add adventure sports cover for an additional cost, including air ambulance and other expenses.

Indian insurers that offer adventure sports cover generally do so as an add-on to international travel insurance policies. These can make sense if you plan to go snorkelling, sailing or even biking on an international trip, because insurers consider these “adventure sports”.

“We should be buying travel insurance that includes adventure sports as an option because the default travel insurance will not include it," said Krishna Rath, a Sebi-registered investment adviser, an insurance broker and co-founder of Zenisk Insurance Brokers Pvt in Bhubaneswar.

The list of activities insurers consider adventure sports is more exhaustive than you might imagine. It includes speed boat rides, ATV or All Terrain Vehicle tours, tours in a personal light electric vehicle or a Segway tour, kayaking, water rafting, rock climbing, para-jumping, deep-sea diving, wildlife safari, and trekking at high altitudes above 2,000 metres/6,500 feet.