Travel Insurance for a Walking Holiday

I'd probably cover the whole time as it will not significantly add to the cost of the total especially since it's just a few days. Your biggest expense will be the payment for the walk which you will want covered along with med evac insurance and possibly medical. I'm not big on including airfare but that is because I generally try to fly Delta and I know that I can get a flight credit if something goes south.

editing to add: Are you flying any of the smaller airlines within Scotland? Particularly if any of your trip includes LoganAir, I'd want to have that portion covered.

Thanks Pam!

We aren't flying anything small, so nothing there. We are doing United and we use a travel credit card that implies things are covered, but I suspect Mickledore requires actual insurance.

The insurance has to cover cancellation and "illness" (which means medical). If it covers cancellation that means it has to cover from the moment you pay your full balance (56 days out as I read it).
Bear in mind that whatever walk you are doing really should cover medi-vac home, in case you have a serious accident while walking. The initial airlift to hospital, if that happened, would be free in the UK, as would your NHS medical treatment. But you could only stay so long in hospital, until you had no medical reason to remain there. Thereafter you would either have to medivac home or make your own other arrangements to stay in the UK until fit to return on a commercial flight.
If you are doing the WHW and you had an accident you would be taken either to the Belford in Fort William or to Glasgow. Your travel partner would also then have travel and accommodation expenses to cover, which need to be insured.
Sorry to be blunt but when walking these trails the insurance really should cover your repatriation in the circumstances that an accident was fatal.
It must also specifically cover hazardous activities.

Thank you, isn31c. This is helpful. It sounds as if we have to get insurance for cancelation no matter what then, and we certainly want the evacuation coverage.

As to bluntness, I'm fine with that! I just appreciate all the info I can get before we take care of this part of our adventure.

We are doing a walking holiday in Scotland in May, and I have a question about travel insurance. We've never gotten it before (our medical coverage here in the states covers us on trips as well), but we are required to do so for this scheduled walk.

Does the company specify what type of insurance is required? For example, when I went on a safari I was required to have medical and medical evacuation. I was not required to have cancellation.

Ah ... I should have taken the time to read the contract more carefully. Thanks for asking that Laura!

It says "personal holiday insurance to cover illness, injury, personal belongings and cancellation" and it has to cover mountain walking. I wonder if I can assume "personal holiday insurance" is the same as "travel insurance."

Soooo ... who has gotten insurance for a Scotland walk and what company did they use, please?

and it has to cover mountain walking.

This will be what you will need to focus on. Some policies exclude certain ”adventure sports”. I am not sure that mountain ”walking” is classified as an adventure sport, but mountain climbing typically is. For example, here is what Travelguard says about ”adventure travel”
https://www.travelguard.com/travel-insurance/trip-types/adventure-travel-insurance

I’d just start with a one of the websites like squaremouth or insuremytrip and see what companies have what you need.

Mountain walking—-aka hiking—-is not considered an “adventure sport” needing extra insurance. Usually those are defined—-actual mountain climbing (meaning ropes and ice axes), scuba diving, bungee jumping, paragliding.

We travel to hike, and almost every trip includes some component of hiking, with or without a tour company. I insure the cost of the guided hike, and the dates of the total trip. The insurance includes both cancellation coverage and medical/evacuation coverage (I buy this even though our personal health insurance will cover us on international trips).

I go on InsureMyTrip and Squaremouth to find a suitable policy.

I do not need to insure flight costs because we fly with miles.

Thank you, Lola! I think we are now really understanding how all this works. After reading the info about “adventure sports” I was pretty darn sure our walk wouldn’t need that!

Everyone here is so tremendously helpful and I’m very grateful!

Hi Patty -

If you are travelling with Mickledore, do they not have travel insurance as a ‘bolt on’ extra, or could they at least point you in the right direction of a supplier who will cover the specific needs of your trip? Granted, you probably need to extend the dates to cover the extra time you spend on the trip including travel to and from home, but they may be able to give you expert advice.

And others are right. If you are unfortunate enough to have an accident or become ill while hiking then mountain rescue and any subsequent hospital treatment in the U.K.
are free at point of delivery but there may be later cost ramifications, so I wouldn’t leave home without suitable cover insurance wise. Having fallen off an alp on the TdMB, and put myself in a French hospital for a week, I was mightily relieved to have comprehensive travel insurance (the ambulance crew that ferried me to hospital were more concerned withe the status of my credit card than my injury, something I don’t think you could expect in the U.K.!).

Ian

Hi Ian,

Mickledore says that due to financial regulations they can't make recommendations or give advice, but after my investigating and the responses here, I've found where to go and what to ask for. The Scotland walk isn't considered to be the sort that needs special "adventure" insurance, as was earlier pointed out here. From everything I'm reading the biggest issue is the evacuation bit, which we will certainly get.

Thanks again, everyone for your help!

After reading the info about “adventure sports” I was pretty darn sure our walk wouldn’t need that!

It probably won’t, but read the exclusion section very carefully once you find a policy. I was just looking at a trip cancellation policy that specifically listed fishing, ice skating, and hiking among their adventure sport exclusions. I don’t consider any of those to be adventure sports, but this policy did.

As Laura says you need to be totally crystal clear by carefully reading all the exclusions in the written policy (not taking telephone assertions) that the policy you choose does not exclude mountain walking, the sort of walking which the West Highland Way is, which is quite rugged in parts.

If there is any misunderstanding and you need to use the insurance then the whole policy could be invalidated. This is not a time to save a few $ - it could ultimately turn out to be a false economy.