The role of travel insurance

It is a condition of booking with Africa Exclusive that you obtain adequate medical insurance for your holiday, including emergency evacuation. If you hold private medical insurance, travel abroad may be covered under your policy, or you can obtain annual or single trip insurance.

If your age or existing medical conditions make obtaining travel insurance complicated, you might consider contacting an insurance broker who can offer expert advice on products which will suit your particular requirements.

When assessing different policies you should consider the following:

• Is the policy valid for my travel destinations


• Are the excess levels acceptable


• Will it cover any existing medical conditions


• Does it include emergency evacuation cover


• Does it include repatriation


• Will it cover me for all of the activities included in my travel itinerary e.g., walking in wildlife areas, white water rafting, canoeing, hot air balloon flights


• Does it cover all modes of transport included in my itinerary e.g., light aircraft flights, cruises

In our opinion, a good medical insurance policy will have at least £5 million cover for hospital bills and medical treatment.

Cancellation and curtailment insurance protects you if you have to cancel your holiday prior to travel, or curtail it (cut it short) while you are away. We recommend that our clients take out cancellation and curtailment insurance in addition to medical insurance. If we cancel or curtail your holiday, you are protected by the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements 2018.

Different insurance policies will offer cover for different reasons e.g., illness, illness of a family member or redundancy. It is also possible to obtain ‘cancel for any reason’ insurance, though you can expect to pay a higher premium for this type of policy.

The insurance industry, like so many others, has adapted following the emergence of COVID-19. Travellers who were forced to cancel their trips but were not protected by the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018 were usually relying on their insurance policies to refund lost monies. As these cancellations were due to changes in official travel advice, such claims were often refused on the grounds of policy exclusions.

Fast forward to 2022 and it is possible to obtain comprehensive travel insurance that protects against COVID-19 disrupting your plans. Most policies do not exclude COVID-19 from medical expenses and repatriation cover, however you may want to consider policies which go further and cover

• the price of your holiday in the event that a positive PCR test prior to departure forces you to change plans;


• the price of your holiday if you feel a disinclination to travel due to increasing risks in your destination;


• the cost of any extended stays in your destination in the event that you test positive for COVID while you are away.

In our opinion, while there is still uncertainty, a small additional cost for this extra protection is money well spent.