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*"Get a 4 week travel insurance policy for just $3.35/day" price is based on a 4 week world-wide policy for a 26 year old, quoted as of 21st May 2019.
Travel insurance is very important, especially for backpackers. The biggest reason is the medical insurance. Unless you are sticking to the 11 countries that will accept your Medicare card as part of an agreement with Australia (more on this later in the piece), you won’t have medical cover. That means if you break your ankle running to catch a train in France, you could be in the hook for a lot of dough to get it treated.
Also consider that you’ll be constantly surrounded by unfamiliar people in unfamiliar places. Most people are great, but there are always a few bad apples. So if someone steals your credit cards out of a locker, you’ll be covered for that too.
Travel is unpredictable even for someone with the most organised itinerary. As a backpacker, you open yourself up to a few extra risks including:
If you're travelling the world on a budget, then you're probably going to end up taking more risks. Whether it's using cheap and potentially unreliable transport or staying in hostels with poor security, travel insurance for backpackers is as important to your trip as the backpack itself.
Backpacking comes in all different styles - from travelling across Europe to hiking through the rainforest - which means there is no one policy that all backpackers need. The best policy for you will depend on where you travel, your budget and how long you travel for, amongst other things. Having said that, when searching for the best travel insurance, it's worth considering the following:
There are ways you can save on backpacking insurance so don’t worry, you won’t have to give up your Contiki tour to pay for it. Here are some tips to help you save money on your insurance:
Last checked | Code description | Code |
---|---|---|
4 Jan 2021 | Get 25% Off World2Cover Travel Insurance | WW2**** |
4 Jan 2021 | Save 5% on your travel insurance when you buy a duo policy with Fastcover | ******** |
Brand | Maximum length covered in one trip | How does it work? | Enquire |
---|---|---|---|
![]() | 18 months | Cover can be extended, subject to approval from InsureandGo. | |
![]() | 12 months | If you choose to continue travelling after your first 12 months, you may be able to get a further 12 months of cover by taking an "Already Overeas" policy. | |
![]() | 24 months | You can purchase a 12-month policy and apply to extend another 12 months which is subject to approval. | |
![]() | 24 months | You can purchase a 12-month policy and apply to extend for another 12 months after your trip has started. | |
![]() | 12-24 months | Bare Essentials, Essentials and International comprehensive can be extended up to 24 months Premium plus, A, B, C Travel Plans can be extended up to 12 months. | |
![]() | 12 months | You can apply for up to a 12 month extension (maximum extension of insurance is 12 months. Note: There is no cover for any insured person who is in the USA for 364 consecutive days or more. | |
![]() | 12 months | You can purchase the new cover subject to approval and duration of cover cannot exceed the total of 12 months. | |
![]() | 12 months | You can purchase the new cover subject to approval and duration of cover cannot exceed the total of 12 months. |
If you are backpacking within Australia, you’ll need a different type of policy depending on whether you are are an overseas visitor or an Australian resident. They’ll not typically be called “backpacker insurance” and they may not extend beyond 365 days, but they will work and you can always renew your policy if you plan on travelling beyond one year.
Here’s how it breaks down:
If you haven’t purchased travel insurance in your home country, you will need to buy non-resident travel insurance from an insurer in Australia. Some of these policies will cover you for all of your medical and trip-related expenses, while others will only cover trip-related expenses. If your policy doesn’t cover medical, the insurer may decide not to cover you until you can show that you have medical cover from elsewhere. This can be though a reciprocal health care agreement where your country and Australia agree to cover each other’s residents; or through Overseas Visitors/Overseas Student Health Cover, two special forms of health insurance for people visiting Australia for long periods of time such as those on a working holiday visa.
If you are a citizen or permanent resident of Australia and you are backpacking here, your medical expenses are already covered via Medicare. So your best bet is to simply purchase a domestic travel insurance policy. You’ll have two choices: a single-trip policy covering the entire duration of your trip, or an annual multi-trip policy if you will be returning home periodically between travels. If you choose the annual policy, each individual trip will be limited to a certain amount of time, anywhere from 15 - 90 days.
Most domestic policies will cover you for everything that a comprehensive international policy will cover you for, except for the medical stuff (since most people will already be covered by Medicare). Here are some examples where domestic travel insurance will help:
If you decide to risk it and go backpacking without insurance, you can say bye bye to many organised tours with Contiki, G Adventures and many other organised tour providers. That’s because most of them require you to have travel insurance before they let you book.
The requirements are different based on the provider so make sure you know what they want before you book. For example, Contiki requires you to have medical and cancellation cover, but G Adventures requires only medical.
If you don’t want to be stuck alone at the hostel while all the other backpackers are off getting to know each other, you’ll definitely want to be covered.
Are you travelling for more than 12 months? See which brands offer longer policies.
Made a search before? Retrieve your search results
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You talk about the appeal of backpacker policies offering ‘cover for long trips’ yet your finder only lets you search up to 12 month long policies (ie every other policy, not the backpacker specific ones). I need a 15 month policy with the ability to work- short of going to every single website how do I find out who does this policies given your search engine doesn’t help?
Hi RT,
Thanks for your question. Please have a look at our long term travel insurance page. On this page you will find a list of the insurers from our panel that allow long-stay or extended stay policies, along with any conditions of getting said cover.
I hope this was helpful,
Richard