The Best Travel Insurance for Backpackers
Backpackers and Digital Nomads can both enjoy the luxury of an extendible, long term Travel Insurance. There are many great travel insurance options, but almost none of them have the capability to extend while traveling.
This is why there are specific Backpacker Travel Insurances recommended among the community.
*This post currently has no affiliation with or commission from Safety Wing or World Nomads. All opinions are of my own and have no monetary incentive.
Should I get Travel Insurance
Yes, you should definitely get travel insurance. If you can’t afford travel insurance, you can’t afford to travel.
Sure, many countries don’t require travel insurance to enter the country, and many people choose not not to use travel insurance since it isn’t a requirement. This is a mistake that costs quite a few unlucky people hundreds of thousands of dollars in hospital fees that will ruin your life.
What is Travel Insurance
In essence, travel insurance covers all your worry points about any accidents that may occur while traveling. This includes your health as well as your belongings in many cases.
Travel Insurance can cover a broad range of travel emergencies such as:
- emergency hospital fees
- emergency transportation
- luggage insurance
- flight delay insurance
- natural disaster insurance
- personal belonging insurance
Best Extendable Travel Insurance
So there are many great travel insurances, or as great as an insurance company can be… But, most of them require a specific start and end date with plane tickets as confirmation. They also usually have a limit of 90 days before having to return to your home country.
For those who are about to embark on a longer journey with no return ticket, such as backpacking, there are two great companies who have accommodated this specific insurance need.
Safety Wing & World Nomads
I’ve personally used World Nomads as my travel insurance for 8 months of travel in 2023, and have personally used their claims system with no issues!
My first choice of Insurance would have been Safety Wing, since they are cheaper and offer the basics, but my residency location didn’t allow for Safety Wing coverage.
Safety Wing
Safety Wing is an emergency health only insurance, but is
- Affordable at around $45 a month
- Extendable by month
- Trusted by Many Travelers
Safety Wing is affordable, and extremely flexible with the ability to extend monthly while traveling. It costs around $45usd a month and will reimburse you for any emergency health related fees (up to a $250,000 limit).
For those on a tight budget, but want the peace of mind to be able to visit a hospital in case of an emergency, Safety Wing is an excellent option chosen by many travelers ranging from backpackers to digital nomads.
World Nomads
World Nomads has a higher insurance premium, but is a more well rounded travel insurance with a focus towards more extreme activity insurance.
World Nomads covers emergency medical as well as a small amount of personal belonging insurance.
Their extreme activity insurance will cover activities that a typical travel health insurance won’t cover such as:
- Training a martial art like Muay Thai in Thailand
- Going Scuba Diving (very popular to get Open Waters Diving Certified in Southeast Asia)
- Board sports such as surfing and snowboarding.
I can personally vouch for World Nomads as I had an emergency hospital visit as well as 5 visits afterwards for the next month and World Nomads held up their end of the agreement and reimbursed all my bills that I had after sending them through their claims system.
World Nomads was my personal choice as I wanted to do many “extreme activities” that a typical insurance may not cover such as getting Open Waters Scuba Diving Certified in Koh Tao, Thailand, training Muay Thai in Thailand, and having belongings insurance on my laptop that I brought while traveling.