Winter Sports Travel Insurance: What to Know

What Does Winter Sports Travel Insurance Cover?

Winter sports travel insurance coverage is similar to standard travel insurance, with a few differences. For example, these plans may offer higher benefit limits for baggage because you're likely traveling with extra gear.

Here's an overview of what winter sports travel insurance may cover:

• Travel cancellations: Bad weather—including snow, high winds and ice—cause many travel cancellations each year, particularly in February. If your trip is canceled before you leave home due to a covered reason, trip cancellation insurance reimburses you for prepaid nonrefundable expenses such as airfare, hotel stays and prebooked activities.
• Trip interruptions: This portion of your policy reimburses you for any unused, nonrefundable paid expenses (such as ski lift tickets) when you're on your trip but need to return home for a covered reason.
• Travel changes: You can also get reimbursed for fees or extra expenses from a carrier or supplier when you must cancel or change your transportation plans for a covered reason.
• Trip inconveniences: Some plans also pay for inconveniences you encounter on your trip, such as broken equipment or closed slopes due to a lack of snow or avalanche conditions.
• Medical expenses: Winter sports travel insurance can help cover the costs of evacuating you from a remote location, transporting you to a hospital and receiving medical care. Your travel medical policy may also cover treatment for illnesses, which is helpful if you're abroad and your health insurance won't cover you.
• Search and rescue: This type of coverage pays for an organized search operation when you're lost or stranded, which can happen with some extreme winter sports.
• Lost or damaged equipment: Your travel insurance policy may help pay for rental gear or replace your sporting equipment if it's damaged, lost, stolen or delayed.
• Liability protection: Ski trips can lead to all kinds of accidents and mishaps. Liability coverage pays for your legal expenses if you unintentionally injure another person or break their gear and you're held responsible.
• 24/7 assistance: Travel insurance companies may offer logistical help for travel dilemmas like canceled activities, changed flight bookings, lost or stolen travel documents, and more.

How Much Does Winter Sports Travel Insurance Cost?

Standard travel insurance costs around 4% to 8% of the total cost of a trip on average. So a family that spends $4,000 on a trip, for example, may pay $160 to $320 on a standard travel policy.

The exact cost of travel insurance is influenced by factors such as the ages of each insured person, the policy limits you choose, the trip length and the dollar amount you're insuring.

The activities you plan may also affect cost. If you're skiing, snowboarding or planning extreme winter sports, your insurance carrier may adjust the price. Depending on the insurer, you may either buy a stand-alone policy geared toward adventure travelers or add an endorsement to a standard travel insurance policy. According to one insurer, the cost of a comprehensive, stand-alone winter sports travel insurance policy is $27 per day on average.

Who Should Consider Winter Sports Travel Insurance?

Whether to buy travel insurance depends on a few factors. Here's when it could make sense to purchase a policy:

• You're traveling overseas. Skiing, snowboarding and other winter activities routinely send more than 100,000 people to the emergency room each year. But if you're injured abroad, your U.S.-based health insurance plan may not cover your medical expenses. Travel insurance may help with these costs.
• You plan to be in a remote area. Winter sports, such as skiing, are often set in remote or hard-to-access places. A travel insurance policy can cover the costs of an emergency evacuation or search-and-rescue operation.
• You're bringing expensive equipment. Winter sports gear is expensive—a basic set of skis, boots and bindings can cost up to $1,500 or more, for example. Travel insurance can help replace your equipment if it's stolen or damaged, or pay for rentals if it's delayed.
• Most of your expenses are nonrefundable. Travel insurance can be worthwhile in this situation because it will reimburse you for a variety of nonrefundable expenses, such as airfare and ski lift tickets.

How to Choose the Best Winter Sports Travel Insurance

Winter sports travel insurance can vary with each provider and policy. As you gather quotes and review plans, here are some tips for narrowing your options:

• Review your credit card benefits. If you already have trip delay and cancellation insurance, a rental car collision damage waiver and lost baggage reimbursement through a travel credit card, you may be able to skip these coverages on a travel insurance policy.
• Check what's covered. Review your winter sports travel insurance policy or call the provider to ensure coverage for all the winter activities you want to do. Skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, sledding and snow tubing are usually included.
• Ask about exclusions. Policies may exclude coverage for some activities, such as extreme sports, organized amateur sports, sporting events or professional athletic competitions.
• Compare coverage limits between providers. You'll want to know the coverage limit per incident, per person and per trip. Also consider the deductible you'd pay before the coverage kicks in.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line

Winter sports travel insurance offers coverage for plenty of winter activities, including skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, snow tubing and more. It's a good option if you're traveling overseas, you're skiing in remote areas, you have expensive equipment or most of your travel costs are nonrefundable. Winter sports travel insurance can financially protect you if things go wrong on your trip.