World Nomads vs SafetyWing - Which Travel Insurance is Best? (2024)

If you’re planning for a trip, almost ready to leave, or just considering the possibility of travel, you need to be thinking about travel insurance. Do you really need it? How does it fit in your budget?

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Reasons to Consider Getting Travel Insurance

We Take More Risks When We Travel

How often do you go on vacation, or get to a newdestination, and start diving into activities you rarely, if ever, do at home?And we go all in, not knowing the inherent risks of the activity.

I mean, who’s not going to take the opportunity to gosnorkeling when you’re in an island paradise? Or hiking that semi-activevolcano? Or trying snowboarding for the first time?

Personally, my first time snorkeling was in the Red Sea,Tim’s was in Thailand. Our first kayaking and whitewater rafting, also inThailand.

While I’d ridden a horse once or twice at home, I reallywasn’t prepared to go running across the desert on one near the Pyramids atGiza. But I did. (Okay, I didn’t knowthey were going to run. I just had to hang on tight.)

Let’s face it, when we travel, we take more risks – whichis great! Travel is all about new experiences. But it also leaves us open tomore dangers and accidents. You don’t want one mistake or bad decision to ruinyour entire trip, or put you in serious debt.

World Nomads travel insurance policies offer coverage for more than 150 activities. Get a quote, make a claim, or buy or extend your policy while on the road.

Unpredictable Accidents

There’s also the fact that being in a foreign environmentyou might find yourself in some…challenging…situations.

Ever try crossing the street in Paris? Or Jakarta? (We have tips to help you with this in Jakarta, in Paris, you’re on your own.) It’s crazy. Just in the time it takes to learn the rules of the road, crap can happen.

On our high school band’s trip to Europe, my best friendgot smacked into by a guy on a scooter – and she was standing on the sidewalk!Fortunately she got out of it with just a badly bruised leg. But it can happenthat fast, and the health insurance you have at home may not cover you in aforeign country.

Renting a motorbike, or taking a moto-taxi? These are someof the most common ways travel injuries occur.

In Tim’s case, we’d been on a 7-hour mini-bus ride in Laos.If you’ve ever been to Southeast Asia, you know that there are stairs, unevenand oddly-placed ones, everywhere. Coming out of the bathroom at the busstation, Tim mis-stepped, did a dance down the remaining stairs and fell to theground. Somewhere on the way down, he broke his leg – in 2 places.

Yes, Tim broke his leg coming out of the loo.

If you’re going to travel, you need to include travelinsurance in your trip’s budget. This next story is a perfect example of why.

The Adventure of Tim’s Broken Leg

The short version.

The local hospital in Phonsavan was really bad. Hardly any wheelchairs, staff that seemed surprised that we wanted an x-ray, and after wrapping his leg in a temporary support, which they did a good job of, they didn’t admit him, but sent us to fend for ourselves in a guesthouse until we could get transport to Vientiane the next day.

After another 7-hour bus ride, we got to the hospital inVientiane. They took one look and said that they couldn’t handle his case. Sowe got a ride in an ambulance across the border to Thailand.

This was actually our 3^rd entry into Thailand in6 months. I think the place had a Team Hazard magnet on it.

Anyway, the hospital in Udon Thani did a great job. Theyoperated on Tim’s leg and put in a bunch of screws and metal plates. The couchin his room converted to a bed so I could stay with him and not have to find ahotel. Tim got physical therapy, a walker and a wheelchair and generally verywell taken care of.

World Nomads travel insurance has been designed by travelers for travelers, with coverage for more than 150 activities as well as emergency medical, lost luggage, trip cancellation and more.

Our travel insurance paid for all of it.

And while most plans handle claims where you payout-of-pocket and then get reimbursed, the hospital administrator was able towork out a pre-approval process with them that meant we paid almost nothing upfront. There were a few appointments that didn’t get approved in time that wepaid for, but we were always reimbursed in a reasonable amount of time.

We can’t guarantee that bit of organizational magic willalways be available, but we appreciate that both sides, the hospital and theinsurance company, were actually working to help us.

Oh, and if we had wanted to fly home for the remainder ofTim’s treatment, the insurance would have covered that, too. It was offeredseveral times. But the care he was receiving in Thailand was excellent andgoing home didn’t make sense for us.

You might be wondering which insurance we had. We used World Nomads.

2021 Update: While we were in Vietnam, Tim got double pneumonia (non-Covid) and ended up spending some time in the hospital.

I’ll admit, this time, the insurance company took a while to get to our case, but they not only reimbursed us in full, but paid interest on the extra time taken. World Nomads has not failed us yet.

World Nomads offers simple and flexible travel insurance. Buy at home or while traveling and claim online from anywhere in the world.

Focusing on these key factors should guide you to the company that is right for you.

Who are World Nomads?

Since 2002, World Nomads have been protecting, connecting and inspiring independent travelers.

They offer simple and flexible travel insurance and safety advice to help you travel.

Because they believe in giving back to the places we travel to, World Nomads also enables you to make a difference with a micro-donation when you buy a policy.

And they’ll help you plan your trip with free downloadable guides, travel tips, responsible travel insights and recommendations from their global community.

World Nomads provides travel insurance for travelers in over 100 countries. As an affiliate, we receive a fee when you get a quote from World Nomads using this link. We do not represent World Nomads. This is information only and not a recommendation to buy travel insurance.

7 things to know about World Nomads travel insurance

Internationally recognised underwriters
World Nomads is backed by a suite of specialist travel insurers that provide 24/7 emergency assistance, customer service and claims support.

24/7 emergency assistance
If you need medical assistance or emergency medical evacuation, World Nomads’ multi-lingual team is available 24/7 to connect you with medical treatment and transportation during your trip.

Buy and claim on the road
Had a change of plans? You can extend your period of cover or claim online at any point in your journey. You can even buy a World Nomads policy if you’re already travelling.

Adventure activity coverage
Designed by travelers, for travelers, World Nomads covers over 150 adventure sports and activities so you can explore your boundaries.

Travel safety tips and alerts
World Nomads provides useful and up-to-date travel insurance information and global travel safety advice to help you plan for your journey and navigate the risks.

Donate and make a difference
When you buy travel insurance with World Nomads, you can make a micro-donation to a community development project to help change lives in the destinations that need it most.

Travel content to help inspire, educate and plan
Plan your trip with free destination guides, develop your travel storytelling skills and learn how you can be a more responsible traveler with World Nomads as your travel companion.

World Nomads provides travel insurance for travelers in over 100 countries. As an affiliate, we receive a fee when you get a quote from World Nomads using this link. We do not represent World Nomads. This is information only and not a recommendation to buy travel insurance.

Who Are SafetyWing?

People who are location independent fall between the cracks, without proper access to insurance or national safety nets. We know this because we are nomads ourselves.

To solve this, we are building a global social safety net tailored to the needs of online freelancers, entrepreneurs, and remote companies. We started with travel and medical insurance (Nomad Insurance) and are adding comprehensive health insurance (Remote Health) to our offering before moving on to disability insurance and pension savings into one global membership. We will keep adding products until we have a complete social safety net — fully functioning across borders.

The ultimate plan is to create actual citizenship with a passport — a country on the internet — where citizens are lifetime members with unlimited access to a global social safety net.

SafetyWing went through Y Combinator (W18), has raised venture-funding and is serving more than 100,000 happy clients while growing more than 20% monthly since launch February 2018.

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I’ll repeat here, neither company rooks you into giving your email address to get a quote. It’s truly instant.

Oh, and one last thing…

Have a great trip!