Sarah
When planning a trip around the world, the last thing most people want to think about are questions like “what if something goes wrong?”, “What if I fall sick during the trip” or “What if my luggage gets lost?”.
Unfortunately, you have to face those questions when you are planning a trip around the world like our very-long-nine-months-trip-around-the-world-honeymoon. Trust me, SOMETHING WILL GO WRONG AT ONE POINT. (I know, this sucks…)
And when you are backpacking or living abroad as a (digital) nomad, chances are, that you are not super rich and thus can’t just throw money at the problem.
That’s why it is absolutely important that you find the best travel insurance for backpackers/nomads! Let me guide you through the points to look at and show you my favorite option!
I was asked by SafetyWing if I would be interested to write a blog post about their product. As I think that travel insurance is super important, I agreed to this offer – so I have to disclose this as a sponsored blog post. However, as you will see in the review, I did thoroughly check their offering and gave you my honest opinion. That includes also showing you where SafetyWing travel medical insurance has limited coverage and where it rocks (especially when compared to their biggest competitor World Nomads)
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Why do you need Travel Insurance at all?
As I said, SOMETHING will go wrong at one point during a longer trip around the world. And even if you only hop on a short city trip somewhere close to your home country, bad things can happen.
I have done two backpacking trips with Markus even before we hit the road for our super long honeymoon.
Let me quickly tell you about a few things that have already happened to me during those trips:
All the things that happened to me during our travels...
I stepped on a sea urchin in Mauritius
That happened directly during the first week of our honeymoon. We went on a catamaran cruise in Mauritius and when we walked along the shallow water at the beach I stepped on a sea urchin. They had to pull out 21(!) spikes from my right foot – ouch! Luckily, it didn’t get infected!
I touched a lionfish during diving in Colombia
Wait, before you tell me that you are not supposed to touch marine life while diving! Yes, you are right! And I didn’t do it intentionally. As Lionfish are invasive in the Carribean and threaten the health of reefs, diving schools are instructed to hunt them.
My dive instructor did catch one and when I had buoyancy problems, he swam towards me and I freaked out because he was still holding the harpoon with the Lionfish. Accidentally my hand touched the already dead animal.
I don’t want to scare you away from diving – but it has by far been the worst pain I felt in my entire life. It’s excruciating and I had to see the emergency department. I also got an ultrasound the next day in the next big city to make sure that nothing of the Lionfish spikes was still in my finger. (Unfortunately, they did not see it actually still was. I removed it myself MONTHS after the incident when I was in Australia…)
I fell on the jolly boat’s motor blades in Thailand
This one actually sounds more dramatic than it was. It happened during our first backpacking trip and I only got a deep cut on my left knee. It was so deep that I could see the subcutaneous fat layer but could be treated with steristrips only. I still have a scar from it though.
My phone got stolen in Costa Rica
I am super careful about valuables when traveling so I never thought that I would ever be a victim of petty theft. It happened nevertheless. I took an Instastory during a walking tour in San Jose, Costa Rica and put my phone back into the inner (!) bag of my handbag (that was closed with a zipper and close to my body). When I wanted to take another pic three minutes later, it was already gone…
And a few other things…
This is just a short list of things that have happened – we also both got food poisoning in El Nido (that’s one of the reasons why I think that there is better places than El Nido in Palawan, Philippines…).
We also missed our flight to India because we didn’t have a visa. Luckily, we could rebook the ticket as we were on a Star Alliance Round the World Ticket – normally you would lose that money!
Oh, and we crashed our drone into the ocean…
Typical Coverage of Travel insurances
So, let’s have a look at what a good travel insurance covers:
- Medical treatment due to unforeseen accidents or sicknesses
- Medical Evacuation (+Political)
- Travel interruptions + trip delays
- Lost luggage insurance
What companies offer travel insurance for backpackers and nomads?
Basically, there is only two companies that offer dedicated travel (medical) insurance for backpackers and nomads: World Nomads and SafetyWing.
Both of them tailored their products towards the needs of travelers and thus can be contracted while you are already on the road traveling. That’s really important as some travelers simply forget about these topics before they step onto the plane. (If that’s you – don’t worry, you can still get coverage 😉 )
There is other smaller companies that offer insurance too – but none of them can really compete price-wise or service-wise. As both price as well as insured events are super important when looking for the best travel insurance for backpackers, I will only include information about these two options here!
Is SafetyWing is the best travel medical insurance for Backpackers and nomads?
Let’s have a look at SafetyWing travel medical insurance as it is significantly cheaper (from 37$/4 weeks) – and most backpackers I met did care about price 😉
About SafetyWing as a company
SafetyWing offers travel medical insurance for backpackers and nomads. In fact, it was founded by nomads themselves!
They also have a big and reliable company behind them, namely Tokio Marine, one of the largest insurance companies worldwide. Tokio Marine also handle all the claims and can thus offer a 24/7 service.
What is covered by SafetyWing Travel medical insurance?
The focus of SafetyWing travel medical insurance is on the medical part – but they also offer coverage for a lot of additional insurance events too! I also included the limitations – most of them are VERY generous.
What is NOT covered with SafetyWing?
There is only very few limitations, but you should know about them!
Country limitations
The policy is not valid in North Korea, Iran and Cuba – except for these countries, you are covered worldwide
Medical limitations
This insurance is supposed to cover accidents and sudden diseases mainly – not covered are:
- Preexisting conditions (except for sudden onset)
- Cancer treatment
- High Risk Sports / Organized athletics
It’s important to understand that some sport activities and accidents caused by them are NOT covered by the policy. If you are not sure if your sport is considered high risk, you can find a list in SafetyWing’s FAQ (it’s likely NOT gonna be on the list as long as you are not an avid base jumper…!)
Luggage limitations
Personal electronics such as cameras, GoPros, Laptops and drones are NOT covered. SafetyWing is considering adding this option in the future, but currently, personal electronics are not covered by their policy. I think this is definitely a downside – and I am looking forward to a new policy regarding this.
How much does SafetyWing travel medical insurance cost?
As mentioned, SafetyWing is really cheap – especially when compared to their biggest competitor, World Nomads. The price increases with a higher age and if you want to travel to the US (because medical care is freakin’ expensive there…!)
| Your Age (Prices rounded) | Without USA (4 weeks) | With USA (4 weeks) |
|---|---|---|
|
18-39 |
37$ |
68$ |
|
40-49 |
60$ |
112$ |
|
50-59 |
94$ |
184$ |
|
60-69 |
128$ |
251$ |
How do you apply for SafetyWing Travel Medical Insurance?
Luckily, this is REALLY easy. You can simply apply for the travel medical insurance online on SafetyWing’s website. And you can also do that during your trip.
It’s more an abo version – you pay for 4 weeks and it automatically renews for 4 weeks until you cancel it. After one year, you have to confirm that you still want to keep your policy – but there is no limitation to the time of your trip!
SafetyWing vs. World Nomads
World Nomads also offers two different plans – Standard and Explorer. Explorer is more expensive and does have a higher coverage as well as includes high risk adventure sports.
World Nomads prices vary depending on your country of origin and the countries you travel too. E.g. the emergency medical treatment is capped at 100,000$ for US Americans – and at 3,500,000$ for German citizens. On the other hand, emergency dental care is only covered up to 250$ for Germans and 750$ for Americans.
I am not sure why World Nomads has such a complex system with different pricing. SafetyWing has ONE policy for everyone (except Cubans – sorry!).
To give you a direct comparison, I checked the prices and conditions. Let’s assume a 35 year old American is looking for the best travel insurance for backpackers and he/she is traveling to outside the US for four weeks!
Below, I included both the information for standard as well as for explorer plans of World Nomads as well as the SafetyWing policy.
While I really like that World Nomads also covers your electronics, they do lack the personal liability coverage (aka, you destroy someone elses stuff or hurt a person accidentally) and the home country coverage.
Regarding the maximum covered amount, sometimes World Nomad wins and sometimes SafetyWing.
And then there is the huge price difference. Especially, if you are doing any adventure sports that require you to take the Explorer plan. If you are really an adrenaline junkie, World Nomads Explorer is great for you. But if you are just a regular traveler the Explorer plan is probably overpriced for you. But even World Nomads standard plan costs three times the price of SafetyWing travel medical insurance.
In my opinion, World Nomads WAS a good choice – but they failed to keep up with competition and now, SafetyWing does offer the better price-value option!
