Backpacker travel insurance

Many backpacker insurance policies come with 24/7 emergency assistance. This gives policyholders a dedicated phone number or email address they can contact all day, every day to get the help they need.

This can be a literal lifesaver when travelling – namely during medical emergencies, although 24/7 assistance can come in handy for other reasons too. Services typically offered as part of this include:

• Locating and obtaining medical care

• Making emergency travel arrangements

• Providing access to legal assistance

• Replacing lost or stolen travel documents

• Advancing cash or guaranteeing payment to a medical provider

• Translation services

As such, it's well worth finding a backpack travel insurance policy that includes 24/7 emergency assistance, particularly if you're venturing to remote areas where finding help may be more difficult.

Insurance firms go all out to scare us into upping cover levels, so don't be duped into upgrading for no reason. Platinum policies with £10m worth of medical cover are unnecessary.

"Why," you ask? Well, you're charged more but the chances of you making a claim that high are slim. According to the Association of British Insurers, the average cost of a medical travel insurance claim in 2024 was £1,724 – a far cry from £10m.

Be mindful that some worldwide policies don't cover the USA, Canada and the Caribbean. A few annual European travel insurance policies don't cover Spain, including the Spanish islands.

So if you're going to any of those countries, ensure your policy actually covers you while there.

Many countries require visas for entry, others for work. Some are a mere stamp at the border, while others will take days or weeks to process. Do your homework and work out visa arrangements long before leaving home.

British citizens are thankfully welcomed into dozens of countries without needing a visa. However, it's often the case that, even where it says 'no visa' is needed, you'll usually need:

• A passport with at least six months left to run on it (when you arrive)

• Proof of enough cash to live/travel

• Proof of further flights

• Documents showing a next destination on your trip

Try Visa Central or VisaHQ for a guide to how many days you can stay for and whether a tourist visa is easily available. They're only a guide, though: for precise details, you'll need to visit each country's own government information websites.

Get advice from your GP practice about which vaccinations are necessary for your destinations. Some vaccines are given over weeks, while others might leave you feeling too unwell to travel for a few days. So for those ones, give yourself time to recover before you leave.

It's also a good idea to check if you'll be travelling to any malaria hotspots and seek anti-malarial tablets from your GP if required.

You'll find plenty of top tips on the NHS website – it gives advice on the types of vaccination, how to get them, side effects and details of those which are free on the NHS.

It's a good idea to have some local currency ready when you arrive in a new country – especially in your first port of call. Use our TravelMoneyMax comparison tool to get the best rates before you jet off, and 15 of our cheapest tips and tricks to boost your spending power. Have a look about for a good rate of exchange and convert enough cash to see you through your first few days.

To keep the rest of your travel money as safe as possible, a mix of cash, prepaid cards and credit cards is a good idea.

Depending on where you're going to be spending large chunks of your time, certain cards for overseas spending will suit you better than others. Don't forget to split your money between cards and keep these in a hidden money belt on you at all times.

Make sure your travel insurance policy – as well as all other travel documents, including a photocopy of your passport – are printed out and kept on you.

It'll also be worth doing the same for relevant phone numbers to save having to look for them in an emergency – such as your destination's British Embassy, local emergency service numbers and 24-hour helplines provided by some travel insurers. It'll be a lot of admin work but could be a lifesaver if you end up in a tight spot.

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)'s Travel Aware campaign is aimed at helping backpackers be better ready for travelling to different countries. It's jammed with travel tips and loads of tailored country advice, including safety info, travel advice and links to the FCDO on social media.

Getting familiar with the campaign can make you even better prepared for your adventure.

Many people aren't aware that if they have an alcoholic drink on holiday and lose something or have an accident, their insurance may not cover them – even if they only had the one drink. Insurers all have different interpretations – which we have seen in the T&Cs – ranging from 'drinking too much' and 'approx four pints', to 'alcoholic abuse'.

In practice, what most say is that it's all about if the drink has affected your decision-making ability. As we all have different tolerances, for some this could mean that just one drink could invalidate a claim.

It's also been reported that some insurers have gone as far as testing blood samples for your alcohol level (although we wonder how this works in practice), but as stressed, this does vary from policy to policy.

Having a claim refused could hit hard, possibly excluding you from medical or possessions cover. As a general rule, use your common sense as it's about safety as well as insurance. For example, if you're skiing and have two or three glasses of wine at lunch before hitting the slopes again, you're increasing the chance of an accident – which you also may not be covered for.

If you currently have a policy but later develop a medical condition, you need to tell your insurer immediately. It needs to know about any condition you currently have, or may have had in the past, so it can accurately price your cover.

If you have a condition your insurer does not know about, it will not be included as part of your policy. As such, if you fall ill because of it, you would have to foot the medical bill yourself as your insurer will reject your claim.

You will not need any special sign-off from a doctor before you travel if you have pre-existing conditions, but your insurer may have to refer back to your doctor for more information when you apply for cover.

However, if you are under doctor's orders not to travel but decide to venture overseas anyway, your travel insurance will be invalid.

Although it's best to buy backpacker insurance ASAB, it's still better to get it late than never. While you may find you have fewer options, it is indeed possible to buy backpacker travel insurance if you've already started travelling.

Called post-departure insurance (or 'already travelling insurance'), it's important to note that you won't be covered for something that has already gone wrong, such as a flight cancellation. In addition, post-departure backpacker is usually more expensive, you'll have fewer choices and your cover may be limited. You also may have to go through a more rigorous application process as the provider might carry out extra checks for fraud.

In most cases, you won't need a separate policy for each country you visit, provided you're doing one, continuous trip.

However, as touched upon above, some backpacker travel insurance policies don't cover countries such as Spain, the US and Jamaica, so double-check you're covered for where you're visiting.

While similar, multi-trip and backpacker travel insurance are slightly different in terms of their intended use and coverage.

Multi-trip insurance is for those who take multiple trips within a particular period (usually a year), whereas backpacker insurance is designed for those taking one continuous trip – typically lasting up to 18 months.