Hot air balloons in Cappadocia

Are you talking about life insurance or health insurance?

Health insurance to take care of any bills if an incident should occur.

I’ve been on the balloons in Cappadocia on two different occasions. I never had a question about their safety and never thought of them as even low adventure sports. Don’t limit the experience by the inability to get insurance. The bane of hot air balloons is power lines. I never remember seeing any in the area where the balloons float.

This topic caught my attention as I took the Rick Steves tour last fall and two tourists (not Americans) were killed in a balloon accident three days before our group arrived in the area. It did cause me to decide to opt out of the balloon ride. Having said that, as a former employee benefits manager my experience has been that most group health plans and some Medicare supplemental plans cover emergency services outside the US. The catch is you can expect to pay for care with cash or credit card and file a claim for reimbursement when you return to the US. Medical evacuation may or may not be included--check your specific policy for details.

Our travel insurance did not cover hot air balloon rides. We opted out on the RS tour. We wanted to go but thought it was best for us to skip it. Several other couples opted out as well.

My policy with Nationwide covered being a passenger on a hot air balloon when I was on the Best of Turkey tour last year.

I specifically emailed Nationwide because the plan details say that they do not cover high altitude activities and adventure sports. They responded that they do not consider being a passenger in a hot air balloon as a high altitude sport, per their policy definitions. And so the activity was covered.

So I went (May of 2022) and loved it! We did have an unconventional skid landing in some brush, but no scrapes or injuries.

Yikes, ponygirl813!!

Thanks to all for your suggestions and comments. I will be further researching and making decision re: hot air balloons!