Scuba diving travel insurance
Affordable cover for your diving holiday
Scuba diving is a fun way to explore the sea, and the right travel insurance policy will help protect you and your belongings against holiday mishaps
Scuba diving is a fun way to explore the sea, and the right travel insurance policy will help protect you and your belongings against holiday mishaps
Oceans cover around 70% of the planet, and scuba diving is an exhilarating way to explore some of these dizzying depths. Depending on where you go you might get glimpses of dramatic coral reefs, marine wildlife or ruins from centuries gone by.
However, even learning to dive requires expensive equipment – and journeying into the deep blue sea comes with a range of risks to both your health and belongings. Whether you’re a seasoned diver or a keen beginner, you can benefit from having the right policy to protect yourself and your possessions – so you can focus on enjoying your holiday.
If you’re planning a scuba diving trip, you’ll likely need a policy designed specifically for scuba divers, or water sports or adventure sports in general if scuba diving isn’t the only activity you have planned. These insurance products provide an extra level of cover for your trip, where a standard travel policy might not cover you.
You’ll need a specialist policy as scuba diving trips have more risk than a basic beach or city holiday – there are potential health-related dangers as well as expensive equipment that could be damaged or lost.
This all means that the likelihood you’ll make a claim for medical expenses on your policy is higher – so insurers will require you to take out extra cover, usually at higher cost, in order to accept the risk.
You should always be honest with your insurer about any high-risk activities you’ll be getting up to on your holiday. If you don’t declare activities like scuba diving and something does go wrong while you’re away – for example, if you need medical treatment because of an injury you sustained or if you lose an expensive piece of equipment – you’ll almost certainly not be able to claim.
This could leave you out of pocket – both for the cover you’ve paid for that you now can’t use, and the cost of the thing you’d usually claim for. Medical costs are high across the world, often rising in to the thousands, making a solid travel insurance policy important in protecting yourself and your wallet.
The level of cover you’ll get will depend on your insurer as well as your level of experience (insurers are unlikely to cover you for diving at levels you aren’t qualified for), but generally speaking you should look out for the following:
Aside from the scuba diving-specific cover listed above, you should also aim to get the same protection offered by a standard travel insurance policy, including:
If you take out a policy for scuba diving, you may be covered for a range of other water or extreme sports – it will depend on your insurer and the type of policy you take out. Other sports you might be insured to take part in include:
You should ask your insurer for a complete list so you know exactly what you’ll be able to get up to on your trip.
If you haven’t factored in for riskier sports and activities when you book your holiday but the mood suddenly takes you, you can try calling your insurer directly to ask them if you can increase your cover.
You may also be able to take out a separate policy to cover you for the day – it’s worth looking around and comparing your choices. Certain reputable scuba-diving companies might offer their own insurance policies – but don’t rely on this, especially in less developed nations.
If this isn’t an option, your alternatives would be to scuba dive without insurance – which could end up becoming expensive if you don’t have the right cover in place – or save the dive for another day.
If you have a pre-existing medical condition you should check with your doctor or GP before booking a scuba diving holiday, as you may not be able to. However if you do get medical clearance, you should then declare these conditions when you take out a travel insurance policy.
Whether or not an insurer will cover you for scuba diving if you have a pre-existing condition will depend on how comfortable they are with the risk – but if your GP says you’ll be able to then it shouldn’t be a major issue.
However you should remember that if you do have a pre-existing condition you’ll likely need to pay more for travel insurance either way – and if you don’t declare these conditions you’ll likely invalidate your policy, so you won’t be able to claim if you do need medical treatment.
When you’ve booked your scuba diving trip, you can find affordable travel insurance when you compare quotes with MoneySuperMarket. Just tell us a little about yourself, your travel plans and the cover you need, and we’ll search the market for a list of deals that meet your requirements.
You’ll be able to compare policies by the overall cost of cover, the level of protection you’ll get and the excess you’ll need to pay to make a claim. Once you find the one you want, just click through to the provider to finalise your purchase.