Travel Insurance
As with international travel anywhere in the world, there are certain eventualities against which it is wise to insure oneself when travelling to Africa. The three most important components of travel insurance for travel to Africa are: emergency evacuation insurance, medical insurance, and trip cancellation/curtailment insurance. You can either buy a comprehensive package that includes all three components (which is what we strongly suggest); or, at very low cost, it is possible to buy just emergency evacuation and medical insurance (which we consider essential for travel to Africa).
Cancellation/curtailment insurance is intended to protect you against factors that could prevent you from taking the trip (or causing you to cut the trip short), thereby incurring cancellation fees as per our terms and conditions. Properties are very strict on their cancellation policies. If for some reason you couldn't travel (or couldn't complete your trip), we would not be able to waive any cancellation fees. This happens from time to time, and it can be very unpleasant. People fall ill or have accidents, or something happens to a close relative, and their travel arrangements must be cancelled or curtailed - even people who are 100% certain that nothing will stand in their way can encounter difficulties that make it impossible for them to travel. As valid as the reasons may be, the properties inevitably stand firm on their cancellation policies, and no refunds are given. This is where trip cancellation/curtailment insurance protects you because, based on the validity of the reasons for cancellation, you will be refunded the fees associated with cancellation or curtailment. We therefore strongly recommend this insurance.
It is HIGHLY unlikely that you will need either emergency evacuation or medical insurance, but you don't want to leave home without either. We really insist that clients are covered by these forms of insurance because the risks if you don't have them are too high. Emergency evacuation services can refuse to collect patients without insurance, and hospitals can refuse to admit them. We have very rarely had clients require either service, but it could be catastrophic if something did happen and you weren't adequately covered.
While we do not endorse any specific insurance companies or products, our experience over the years suggests that some insurance companies are better than others when it comes to processing claims - we have had positive experiences with Travel Guard, MH Ross, and The Travel Insurance Center.
It is to your advantage to take out the insurance immediately after your first trip payment in that they waive certain restrictions if you take the insurance out within a week to two weeks (depending on the company) of your initial trip payment. Most importantly, coverage for pre-existing conditions requires that you take out the insurance within this timeframe. The initial trip payment might be your deposit to us, or another element of the trip not booked through us (e.g. international flights). Even if you use air miles for your international flights, the airlines typically require you to pay for taxes, and the travel insurance companies will view this as your "initial trip payment".
When determining how much you need to insure the trip for, you don't need to cover everything. You should cover 100% of ground arrangements and charter flights, but for the scheduled flights you only need to cover the cancellation fee (please feel free to give us a call to help you determine how much coverage you need for airline tickets). Not covering the full cost of flights helps keep the premium down.
The whole issue of insurance is rather complicated, and we would like to invite you to give us a call to discuss the options. We leave the actual issuing of insurance to insurance specialists, but we are happy to offer advice and walk clients through the whole process. So, please feel free to drop us a line ( 888-227-8311 ).