Orienteering Insurance Abroad Help Please

[Wendles]

We need to insure ourselves for the Swiss 5 Days. Can anyone suggest orienteering friendly insurance companies please?

[Spookster]

We picked DogTag, as it specifically includes orienteering in the basic coverage.

http://www.dogtag.co.uk/sports.aspx

As has been discussed before, picking an insurance provider is as much about what they are like at dealing with a claim as it is about what price/coverage they offer. I haven't made a claim, so can't say how good they are at actually paying out.

[King Penguin]

Post Office travel insurance covers orienteering.
Can't comment on claiming experience.

[dch]

I also use Dogtag and like Spookster haven't needed to make a claim so can't comment about how they handle them. The only other insurer that I found that had a suitable policy for me was Sports Cover Direct (note that I required cover for more than just orienteering).

One point to be aware of is that many insurers now exclude competitive sports and/or trips with the main purpose of taking part in a sporting event. Therefore in some cases, even if an insurer nominally covers orienteering they may still be unsuitable.

[PhilJ]

took out our insurance for our trip to Croatia 5 day in the summer with alphatravelinsurance.co.uk

[JK]

I've used EHIC+ and have made a claim in the past. I checked with them that Orienteering was included and it was (don't take my word though).

Also check what type of insurance they need, if it is Helicopter then you probably need Rega instead / as well.

Warning: Swiss 5 days is in the Zermatt region. Last time it was there a bunch of chaps went direct down the mountain after one event and at the river lounged around sunning themselves and swimming ... and then there was flash flood. They hadn't seen the signs about how dangerous it was in the river bed even though the water was low.

[batty]

I've used Insure and Go. They were really good when I needed an op on my ruptured achilles in Switzerland.

[King Penguin]

Warning: Swiss 5 days is in the Zermatt region. Last time it was there a bunch of chaps went direct down the mountain after one event and at the river lounged around sunning themselves and swimming ... and then there was flash flood. They hadn't seen the signs about how dangerous it was in the river bed even though the water was low.

There's a HEP takeout higher up that river, extracting from the outflow from the Gorner glacier. The turbines are in tunnels under the Breithorn side of the valley. I spent a week or so as a uni student sleeping in those tunnels in the late '70s. The turbine sound took a bit of getting used to when you were sleeping next door.
Also spent a week near the snout of the Furg (sp ?) glacier the other side the Gornergrat.
The loo was a tin shack overhanging a long drop through the hole to the river below. Workmen suddenly setting off explosives a short distance down the valley when sitting in there certainly help evacuate the bowels !

[Paul Frost]

Snowcard cover orienteering in their Multi-trip, Multi Sport-adventure and their Single-trip, Trek/climb policies.
I've always found their grouping of sports (and levels) to be quite sensible and easy to understand. The premiums seem competitive whenever I have checked. If you a bit "active" in several sports/activities and travel abroad a couple of times a year it's probably worth getting an annual multi-trip policy.

[roadrunner]

I've used top-up insurance from SportsCoverDirect in the past - quite good value if you already have basic annual travel insurance as you only need cover for the days you're actually competing.

[frog]

Debenhams annual travel policies cover loads of sports and orienteering is named as one of their 56 sports where no extra premium is needed. You lose alot of money if your stuff gets nicked with them though as we had everything including passports stolen from our car on the way back to the airport last year and they covered items on a replacement value cost and not new for old and only if you had receipts and they ended up excluding loads of stuff for weird reasons. It only covered us for £100 per person to get an emergency travel document as well which isn't enough when it's in a different city and the embassy isn't open for another 2 days.
Our house insurance were excellent at replacing items. I wish I'd tried to claim more with them.
It may be other insurance policies are as bad if you get stuff nicked and end up stranded, I'd never needed to scrutinise the small print before.