Health

Insurance

Travel Insurance

What are you expecting from Travel Insurance? Baggage cover? Flight cancellation? Losing cash? Well, obviously, those are niceties which may come to pass but what you really want is air evacuation if the worst comes to the worst.

Let's face it, your bike isn't insured at all but you won't care much about that if some wayward local has driven straight into you. You want some professionals to scoop you up and deliver you into the hands of the NHS.

So, it should be pretty straightforward but it isn't (certainly in the UK) for a couple of very subtle reasons

most travel insurance doesn't cover usage of motorbikes at all let alone those over 600cc
most travel insurance doesn't cover you for an extended period of time (eg. over 28 days)

But, uh, that's exactly what we are doing. Oh dear.

Well, knowing the problems you can just double check the small print.

In the end I found that Navigator Insurance (who I'd used going round the world) still offered a reasonable deal.

I have used their annual multi-trip but even with the 50% extension you're still limited to 62 days -- I know, I know, only a two month trip!

So, it's fork out for the long stay product again where if you chase it through the Navigator variant covers motorcycling.

FCO

Something not readily apparent for UK travelers is that many insurance companies drop your cover if you travel to countries or areas that the FCO deems are inadvisable.

If you read the FCO advice you'll find that they deem travel to parts of almost every country in the world is inadvisable.

So it's not clear either what the FCO actually mean (other than a general cover your ass policy) or how closely any individual insurance company follow that advice. Have a word with the company and see what the reality is.

EHIC

(was E111)

As Europeans we can get equivalent healthcare across Europe as we do at home. Importantly, it is free. All for the sake of filling in a form at the Post Office. The EHIC lasts for five years whereas the old E111 was an annual thing.

I have a feeling that the Travel Insurance companies expect you to have an EHIC.

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