Does travel insurance cover skiing, diving and other activities?

The trap is not that people knowingly take a risk without cover. It is that an activity sold at a resort desk as a standard excursion — a quad bike tour, a jet ski hire, a via ferrata, a canyoning day — sits on the excluded list of most standard policies, and nobody at the desk is going to mention it.

Safety

Step by step

1. Find the activity schedule in your policy wording.Every policy has one, usually as an appendix listing activities by category or tier. If an activity is not listed as covered, assume it is not covered — these lists are exhaustive, not illustrative.
2. Check the conditions attached to each covered activity.Cover is frequently conditional: with a qualified instructor, within recreational depth limits, on marked pistes, wearing a helmet, holding the appropriate licence. Breaching a condition removes cover just as effectively as the activity being excluded.
3. Treat winter sports as a separate product.It is almost always an add-on, and a proper one covers piste closure, avalanche delay, equipment and hire, ski pass and off-piste only within stated conditions. Off-piste without a guide is excluded on most policies.
4. Treat two wheels with an engine as its own problem.Mopeds, scooters and motorcycles are the single most common serious injury among holidaymakers. Cover typically requires a licence valid for that machine in that country, a helmet worn regardless of local law, and often an engine size limit.
5. Check diving carefully.Recreational diving is often covered to a stated depth with a recognised qualification and a buddy or instructor. Beyond that depth, solo, in a cave or an overhead environment, and it is outside. Decompression chamber treatment is a very expensive thing to be uninsured for.
6. Buy the add-on before the trip, not after booking the activity.Cover cannot be bought retrospectively, and buying it after the excursion is booked but before it happens is fine — buying it after an injury is not.
7. Check whether the activity operator has its own liability cover.It is not a substitute for your own, but for organised activities it is worth knowing whether the operator is insured and regulated, particularly outside Europe.

Tips

• Sports equipment is usually covered under a separate section with its own limit, and often excludes damage while the equipment is in use. Skis broken while skiing are a common surprise.
• Search and rescue costs are not always included in the medical section. On a mountain policy this is a specific thing to look for.
• Even walking has conditions on many policies — above a stated altitude, on glaciers, or where ropes are used, it is treated as mountaineering.

Common mistakes

• Assuming a hotel excursion is covered because a hotel sold it — The seller has no relationship with your insurer. Quad bikes, jet skis and parasailing are sold at hotel desks daily and excluded by most standard policies.
• Riding a hired moped on a car licence — Cover requires a licence valid for that machine in that country. Local hire firms rent to anyone; the insurer applies the wording afterwards.

Questions people ask