Is You Family Playcation Covered By Travel Insurance?

A family ‘playcation’ is set to be this year’s biggest new holiday trend but are you covered for such adventurous or hazardous activities by your travel insurance?

According to a survey by Gocompare.com, almost 40% of families are planning an organised activity based holiday this year. Families are taking the opportunity encourage thier children to be more active and try new sports.

However, most don’t check their travel insurance to make sure they are covered for such activities. This could be an expensive ommission. For example a medical emergency abroad can be expensive and if you don’t have cover from travel insurance you could be responsible for the costs incurred.

Standard travel insurance policies often don’t include cover for activities that insurers consider ‘adventurous’ or ‘hazardous’. This can extend to such as horse riding, jet skiing, diving and climbing.

Mark Greening, head of partner products at Gocompare.com said, “It is great that so many families are planning activity or adventure based holidays this year.

But this type of holiday requires more thought than a traditional beach holiday – trying a new activity or sport will lead to more accidents or injuries than simply lying on a sun-lounger.

So make sure that you book with a reputable holiday company, with qualified instructors and guides and, that any equipment you will be using is safety-checked.”

He added parents need to be active too “shop around and compare policy wordings carefully as insurers vary greatly in how they cover different activities.  Most will list activities and explain the terms on which cover will be provided.

Some will require additional premiums or restrict cover unless you inform them of exactly what you intend to do.”

As well as Gocompare.com, other travel insurance comparison sites include Confused.com and Quotezone.co.uk