It’s the dream of any traveler of any age to stop wherever the heart feels at home, and set off to new places when the urge calls. A round-the-world trip its a great option for travelers who got the money, the desire and the time. There’s a lot of websites that can help you to plan your round-the-world trip, that will tell you what they learn from their experiences and how to save as much money as possible.

But what about insuring that trip to cover you if things go wrong? It seems like a easy task, but the reality is that can be a confusing and stressful thing to do. A good travel insurance shouldn’t be underrated and it should be an important part of your round-the-trip planning. Read on to discover how to get the right insurance cover for your gap year or round-the-world trip!

In a nutshell, there are two types of travel insurance plan: travel medical plan without cancellation and a package plan that includes cancellation. In theory, if you’re doing a round-the-world trip you are not worry about cancellation, and if you have to handle any emergency almost every travel medical plan will have trip interruption coverage. If you don’t want to have a cancellation clause, you can easily a quite economically coverage for your dream trip.

Start by planning how long you’ll be gone

This is the first step you should do: determine how long your trip will take. A round-the-world trip can vary in time, it can go from one month until whatever you want. However, the maximum duration of a round-the-world air ticket that you can get is one year, but of course, you can do it in a couple month or longer than a year.

There are three basic durations plans of travel medical insurance:

  • Single-trip: This means no visits home. Your trip can go up to six months and only covers a single trip.
  • Multi-trip: This covers multiple trips and is purchased in increments.
  • Long-term medical: This includes continuous medical coverage for a long-term traveler.

It’s extremely important to determine how long you’ll be gone because some of these plans give you the option of being renewed when they end while others don’t. If you’re absolutely sure that you’ll be gone for a long time, then it’s a good idea to look into an annual travel insurance plan for the most comprehensive coverage in an affordable package.

Determine if you’ll have access to medical care

Whether you’re travelling for a few weeks or you’re doing a long-trip on the other side of the world medical are true anywhere you go. By doing a quick search on the internet you can easily discover about the quality and availability of medical care where you’re traveling.

In some countries, medical care is paid for upfront before it’s administered, except in big emergencies. And in a lot of countries, including those where medical care is paid for by taxpayers, you’ll be expected to bear some of the cost, and afterwards, the insurance provider will arrange the payment directly to the medical facility.

Determine what the risks are in the regions you’re visiting

Depending where you’re going you’ll need more or less evacuation and  medical coverage. If you’re going to a place where you’re far from medical care facilities, you’ll want to have more evacuation coverage. Determine how much travel medical and evacuation is enough to know how much you’ll need.

Travel to some countries isn’t covered

Be aware that some travel insurance plans don’t extend coverage to certain countries. Many travel insurance plans don’t cover losses resulting or causes from or caused by an act of declared or undeclared war or an civil disorder, riots and political unrests.

It’s very important to figure it out if you’re going to what’s considered a safe or unsafe place by your travel insurance provider.

How adventurous will your trip be?

It’s not the same if you’re going to a quiet farm in a remote village or if you’re doing scuba diving in Malaysia or paragliding in Bali. Travel insurance providers know that. You’ll need to look into covering your extreme activities. Those that are considered more risky are often not covered by travel insurance plans.

That means if you have an accident in a bad paragliding landing, your medical care won’t be covered. There are a lot of restrictions on adventure activities that you have in mind.

Baggage coverage 

On a long, round-the-world trip, a higher baggage coverage is better! Your travel insurance plan will cover your baggage loss, but there are a lot of terms that you need to look into.

Do you have a medical condition? Prepare for it

If you do have a medical condition it’s very important to account for that when you’re choosing your travel insurance plan. If your condition is new and you know that won’t affect your trip, review the coverage for pre-existing medical conditions so you can be sure and understand how everything works.

If you have a medical condition for a while and you control it by medication, be sure you know how to replace those medicines while you’re abroad!

Wrapping up

Once you have determined your risks, you can choose the best international health insurance for you. Choose between single trip or annual travel insurance and make sure to review the plans to get the best deal! It’s very important that you feel completely confident that you’ve chosen the best option for you!

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