Travel Resources for Adventurers
SafetyWing Travel Insurance Review
Written by Antonio Cala.
Table of Contents
Traveling can be an exhilarating adventure, but unexpected mishaps can turn a dream trip into a daunting experience. SafetyWing Travel Insurance aims to offer peace of mind to globetrotters by providing comprehensive coverage for medical emergencies, trip interruptions, and more.
In this review, we will explain the features, benefits, and potential drawbacks of SafetyWing’s insurance plans. Whether you’re a frequent flyer, a digital nomad, or planning a once-in-a-lifetime vacation, understanding the ins and outs of SafetyWing’s offerings can help you make an informed decision for your travel safety needs.
If you would like to know more about insurance options for adventure travel, make sure to check out our Complete Guide to Adventure Travel Insurance. Let’s jump in.
SafetyWing Overview
Who Is SafetyWing For
SafetyWing is designed for location-independent people, remote workers and digital nomads who need travel or health insurance while adventuring abroad.
It’s a great option for:
- Digital nomads
- Remote workers
- People traveling long-term
What's Included
SafetyWing works as a traditional travel insurance company, offering medical coverage, trip interruption/cancelation and baggage cover. Policies vary depending on the age of the traveler, but here you have an idea of what would be covered for a traveler under 65 going out of the US.
- $250,000 USD in emergency medical coverage
- $1,000 USD for emergency dental care
- $100,000 USD for medical evacuation ($25,000 USD if the cause of medical evacuation is acute onset of pre-existing condition)
- $10,000 USD for an evacuation due to political upheaval
- $5,000 USD for a trip interruption
- Up to $200 USD for a travel delay
- $12,500–25,000 USD for death or dismemberment
- $20,000 USD for repatriation of remains
What's Not Included
Like any other insurance company, SafetyWing has several limitations. The following are some of the things they do not cover:
- Preexisting conditions
- Adventure sports (unless the Adventure add-on is purchased)
- Traveling to the USA (unless the US add-on is purchased)
Membership Plans
SafetyWing offers 2 different prooducts: Nomad Insurance & Nomad Health . Let’s explain what each of them covers.
Nomad Insurance
Nomad Insurance works like a traditional travel insurance that covers medical emergencies & evacuation, trip protection and luggage. It’s available to people under 65 from all over the world while traveling outside their home country.
It covers:
- $250,000 USD in emergency medical coverage
- $1,000 USD for emergency dental care
- $100,000 USD for medical evacuation ($25,000 USD if the cause of medical evacuation is acute onset of pre-existing condition)
- $10,000 USD for an evacuation due to political upheaval
- $5,000 USD for a trip interruption
- Up to $200 USD for a travel delay
- $12,500–25,000 USD for death or dismemberment
- $20,000 USD for repatriation of remains
Nomad Health
Nomad Health is a a full fledged health insurance that covers your medical needs worldwide, including in your home country.
Within the Nomad Health, there are 2 plans available: standard and premium.
Add-ons
The company offers a range of add-ons you can add to your insurance policy:
- Adventure sports. To cover adventure activities such as scuba diving, sky diving, whitewater rafting and more
- Electronics theft. To cover stolen or lost personal items such as cameras, laptops or tablets.
- US coverage. For travel to the US and US territories.
Pricing
The cost of SafetyWing insurance plans depends on several factors, including your age, country of residence, the duration of coverage, and whether you wish to include some add-ons.
Just to give you an example, an individual under 65 years old seeking a month of coverage would pay around $74.
Please, check out the latest pricing for up to date quotes.
What's Covered & Who's Eligible
SafetyWing has a few restrictions so let’s look at what’s covered and who is eligible for one of their memberships.
Nationalities: People from most countries are covered.
Pre-existing conditions: Not covered.
Seniors Over 65: People aged 65 or over are not covered.
Trip Duration: Both short term and long term policies are available.
Groups: Individual and family plans are offered.
User Reviews and Testimonials
Insurance companies often receive negative online reviews due to issues like complicated policy language, claim denials, slow processing times, and perceived unfair practices. SafetyWing is not an exception and they receive their fair share of negative reviews online.
SafetyWing vs Competitors
Overall, SafetyWing insurance policies tend to be cheaper to those from its competitors, their medical expenses coverage similar and the compensation for trip cancellation & interruption lower than the other companies on the market.
If you would like to see direct comparisons between SafetyWing and other insurance companies, check out the articles below:
Conclusion
SafetyWing offers very competitive packages for digital nomads and people traveling long-term, with high medical expense coverage available to people from most countries.
However, despite the policies appearing attractive on paper, the company gets mixed reviews online. Most of these cases involve people who did not thoroughly read the policy terms. Others criticize the poor customer service provided by the company.
If you believe that a SafetyWing insurance plan is what you’re looking for, proceed with caution, and ensure you read the fine print before making your insurance purchase with them. There are tons of people who are happy with their service, you just need to know exactly what’s covered and what’s not.
Other Travel Insurance Reviews
If you would like to read more about other insurance companies for adventure travelers, you can check out our other reviews below:
If you would like to read more about insurance options for other type of adventure trips, you can check out our other reviews below:
- Skiing & Snowboarding
- Hiking Trips
- Mountaineering & High Altitude Trekking
- Mountain Biking, Bike-touring & Bike-packing
- Rock Climbing, Ice Climbing & Bouldering
- Kayaking, White Water Rafting & Paddle Boarding
- Fishing & Spearfishing
- Diving Liveaboards & Freediving
- Sailing, Kite Surfing & Surfing
- Adventure Cruises
- Adventure Motorcycling
SafetyWing Reviews Online
When doing your research, you might want to read what other publications have to say about SafetyWing.
Here are some of the most popular reviews from the web.
SafetyWing: A Review of an Upstart Travel Insurance Company – by Nomadic Matt
SafetyWing Nomad Insurance: My Honest Review – by CZ Phones Home
About the Author
Antonio was born and raised in Southern Spain, and quit his job in 2013 to travel the world full-time with his wife Amanda for 10 years straight. Their passion for adventure took them to visit 150+ countries.
They cycled 25,000km + from California to Patagonia, sailed over 10,000NM around the Caribbean & Sea of Cortez, rode their motorbikes 30,000 kms+ across West Africa (Spain to South Africa) and visited Antarctica, among many other adventure expeditions. Today, they’re still traveling, currently around the USA with an RV.
Traveling to so many places, remote destinations and by different means taught them a lot about travel insurance, which policies to hold depending on the area and the type of adventure they were doing. Antonio now publishes regular content to help other travelers choose the best travel insurance for adventure trips.
Together, they also run the travel community Summit, the RV site Hitched Up, the boutique accommodation blog Unique Places and the popular newsletter Adventure Fix, where they share their knowledge about the places they’ve visited and the ones still remaining on their list.
Antonio Cala
Co-Founder of Adventure Fix