World Nomads Travel Insurance Review: What's Covered and What's Not (2024)

If you’re gearing up for a trip abroad, travel insurance should be on your radar. When I travel outside India, I use World Nomads and have for over 5 years. Here’s my full World Nomads travel insurance review, so you can decide if it’s the right company to go with.

I found it originally because it’s the insurance Lonely Planet recommends.You need to know that not everything is covered on the basic plans, so I want to get into what is covered on World Nomads travel insurance and what more importantly, IS NOT. It’s important to READ the policies and understand what you are paying for.

In my travels I’ve gotten pick-pocketed in Barcelona, Dengue Fever in India, admitted to hospital in Thailand for dehydration/food poisoning, and had luggage lost. Fingers crossed that will be it, but I’m glad I have insurance in case it does!

Why Travel with World Nomads?

1. You can extend your policy while you are traveling.
2. Open to residents in more than 150 countries
3. Claim online 24/7
4. Covers a range of adventure activities and list out EXACTLY which ones
5. Buying online even if you have already left home.
6. For what it covers, it’s damn cheap! The India quote I did above comes to $4 per day for the standard and $6 for the explorer.

In general with travel insurance there are a variety of things that are not covered on the basic plans. There’s nothing worse than finding out what happened to you isn’t covered by insurance.

Bungee jumping: covered on standard plan

For World Nomads, you’ll have DIFFERENT prices and coverage based on where you are FROM and where you are GOING. Because of this, I cannot just list out the inclusions and exclusions. It’s going to be different for every trip!

You can type in your information here in the box below and follow along if you’d like.

With World Nomads there are TWO types of insurance. You’ll see this right away once you put in your dates and travel destination(s).

I put in India for one month as an American female.

1. Standard ($125)
2. Explorer ($181)

As you can see everything listed has more policy to read to get the complete details. The ones that have the [+] will open up to show more details on what’s covered under those brackets, so you HAVE to open those up and read them. Take a look:

What’s Covered on World Nomads

Adventure activities: COVERED.

You can see one big difference is the adventure activities included. The “explorer” is going do offer more options while the standard doesn’t cover them all. Here is alist out EXACTLY which onesare covered under each one.

Trip cancellation and delay and interruption: COVERED.

The cancellation is a HUGE increase from $2,500 for the standard coverage and $10,000 for the explorer.

When you look at “trip delay” you can see it’s covered for $500 for the standard and $1,500 for the explorer. But when you click the [+] button, you can see that there is a $100 per day maximum for both.That’s not a lot for a hotel room and food.

I took a closer look at what’s NOT INCLUDED for standard coverage under“Trip Cancellation, Trip Interruption, Trip Delay, Accidental Death & Dismemberment, Emergency Sickness Medical Expense, Emergency Accident Medical Expense, Emergency Evacuation, and Repatriation of Remains” and a few things stood out:

• pregnancy not included unless there is a complication
• issues because of a war breaking out whether declared or not
• emotional disorders unless hospitalized
• anything related to substance abuse (even alcohol)
• “Care or treatment that is payable under any Insurance policy that does not require deductible and/or coinsurance payments by You” which I think might mean something about your insurance you have at home.

I also looked under the policy for “standard” on what is covered for trip cancellation and it’s pretty specific. For example, if there is a terrorist attack where you are headed within 30 days of departure you CAN cancel IF there hasn’t been one there for the last 90 days.

Baggage loss and Personal effect loss: COVERED.

I looked into what’s not included for lost items and there’s a long list but here are a few things that stood out to me:

• eyeglasses, sunglasses, contact lenses
• artificial teeth, hearing aids, prosthetic limbs

For expensive things you can see you might not be covered FULLY if you have a lot of electronics. It’s $1,00 for standard ($500 per item max) and $3000 for explorers ($1,500 per item max). If you have a computer you need to go ahead and do the explorers one because $500 isn’t going to get you a new Macbook!

You CAN increase coverage if you are traveling with something expensive.

Hang gliding: NOT covered on standard, covered on explorer’s plan

Collision damage: COVERED ONLY ON EXPLORER.

Collision damage is NOT included on a standard, but is up to $35,000 for explorers. What is collision damage? “Reimbursem*nt is for damage to a rental car while in your possession, for any cause not within your control, including but not limited to: collision, theft or natural disaster”. Collision damage isn’t covered for residents of NY, OR, and TX.

Emergency hospitalizationand evacuation: COVERED.

Emergency evacuation IS covered for both plans for $300,000 or $500,000 which is fantastic!

Here are the things to consider before booking World Nomads:

• Taking needless risks that are not mentioned in the policy as covered.
• Expensive gadgets lost, stolen, broken, make sure it covers the price points of your gadgets.
• Canceled flights and long delays are covered but read the details to see in what capacity.
• Read what reasons YOU are allowed to cancel your trip. World Nomads does allow this for a variety of reasons.
• Not all countries are covered (important for a multi-country trip). Check that all the ones you are going to are added to your policy.
• Only tourist activities might be covered. That meansif you pick up a job along the way and are injured at work (maybe scuba dive instructing!), it might not be covered.
• Having a flight booked home: if you don’t have a flight booked home you might be an expat and not a traveler and they might not cover you. See if this is in the small print of your insurance policy.
• Need life-flighted out? That is covered. BUT keep in mind that any insurance provider is going to want to fly you back to your home country so that they no longer have to pay for you (making you fly as soon as psychically possible). You should check if there is coverage once you are home and still injured. Read your policy!
• It’s your fault- wreck a car? Accidentally hurt someone? Can it be covered if it’s considered your fault? It’s going to be different in every World Nomads policy.

Helicopter ride: covered as long as you aren’t flying it

Camel rides: covered on standard plan

White water rafting: covered on standard plan

Surfing: covered on standard plan

Zip-line: covered on standard plan

Hot air balloon: NOT covered on standard, covered on explorer’s plan

How to make sure you get what you deserve when you make a claim with World Nomads travel insurance:

If something is stolen you need 3 big things: a receipt of the item that YOU bought, photo proof it was with you on the trip, and a police report it was indeed stolen.

Did you do something illegal? It won’t be covered. Driving without an international license is illegal or without a motorbike license. So that scooter crash might be included as an adventure BUT if you’re not licensed, it won’t be covered.

If you are sick you should tell them right away in case they have a hospital they prefer. You need to keep ALL paperwork from your hospital stay.

Was your flight delayed or luggage lost, camera stolen, or maybe you were kidnapped!? Think these all should be covered because they say there are? You need to read the policy 100% to know in what ways they are and aren’t. Kidnapped in Afghanistan? Probs not gonna be covered!

Scuba diving: covered on standard plan

More resources on World Nomads

Check out real stories of people who had to make claims with World Nomads. Just click-through that link to read them.Check out reasons why people don’t get their claim covered even though they think they should.

So, there we go. I have tried to cover what iscovered on World Nomads travel insurance and what isn’t, plus a few loopholes to keep in mind. As mentioned, this exact example above is from a specific trip example of one month in India. You would need to check your own trip details and read up on the differences for that policy. They will be similar.

Get a World Nomads Quote for Your Next Trip:

Disclaimer: things can change and I am not an expert, this is only to help, I take no responsibility on something going wrong on your trip or if your issues are not covered.

The Next Steps in Planning for Your Big Trip:

• How to plan a tripfrom scratch without any stress with my step by step guide
• Read this article about what is and isn’t included in the world’s most popular travel insurance.
• Check if you need visas for where you are going and don’t leave home without them.
• Use my tips for booking a flight to get the best deal available.
• If you want to travel using Airbnb, make an account with

Pin what is covered on World Nomads for later:

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