For your own safety, we strongly recommend that you purchase comprehensive travel insurance for trekking Nepal. Your policy should cover your trek and any extra time you’re planning to spend in Nepal. Trekking Nepal can be dangerous, especially at high altitudes. So, we want to be able to act fast in the event of an emergency. If you’ve purchased suitable travel insurance for trekking, it’s easy to request fast emergency assistance. We’ll ask for your insurance and emergency contact details before you leave home.
Your policy needs to include helicopter evacuation above the highest altitude on your trek (e.g. above 4,130m/13,550ft for Annapurna Base Camp). Some people need to be airlifted out of the Himalaya mountains. Either because of altitude sickness, or an injury. Even with a sprained ankle, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to complete your trek. So, it’s simply not worth the risk to trek in Nepal without travel insurance.
Increasing Premiums
Travel insurance providers around the world have been hit with an extremely high number of claims in Nepal. It is alleged that some local businesses act fraudulently to profit from unnecessary helicopter evacuations. As a result, premiums have increased to cover the cost of claims. You can read more in this article.
We’ve always purchased this insurance policy with World Nomads. However, they’ve also had to increase their premiums recently. So, we recommend that you shop around for the most reasonable policy. But please make sure that it covers helicopter evacuation – yours could be a real emergency.
Naturally, it’s your responsibility to ensure the policy you buy covers all your requirements. Also, that you follow the requirements of your insurance provider when making a claim.