Can any of you recommend a good place to get travel insurance. Taking the family (2 adults and 2 children unde 7) and want to make sure I am covered for common eventualities.

I was going to use Snow Card as that is who I used last but that was a while ago and don’t know if they are still competitive.

I used to use snow card but I’ve started using these people who are quite a bit cheaper – http://www.direct-travel.co.uk/. Never had to claim though, which is the real test of a travel insurance company.

I used direct travel (platinum level I think) last year and broke my wrist badly in Meribel.
They paid for my treatment at the clinic in Meribel (I paid and they refunded cost back in the UK), they then paid for my operation in Moutiers and the cost of a taxi to the hospital – I had not got the E111 thing, but direct travel sorted it and paid the hospital – all I paid at the time was my insurance excess (roughly 50 pounds). They also paid for my travel back to the chalet and for physio following a second operation back in the UK. They also paid for all the pharmacy bills etc.

The ski pack bit paid 15 pounds a day to refund lift pass and other lost costs, not really covering a meribel weeks pass but better than nothing.
In all respects direct-travel were fantastic. I have no hesitation in recommending them and have just renewed my families annual cover.

me and mrsconsequence use endsleigh (very competitive on price for snowsports)…. never has to claim (yet), going out to alpe d’huez tomorrow though so fingers crossed it’ll be incident free!

I used Axa last year, did not claim for any medical bills but I did have to cancel the holiday less than 12 hours after taking out the policy, they paid up quickly and without any fuss.

2nd direct travel. I’ve used them a lot and they are very good.

DOGTAG is all you need!

I have previously made a claim on snowcard. No they are not cheap but when it cane to the crunch they were brilliant and guaranteed everything to the medical centre up front. Paid for physio too when I got home to – again no problems there.

Compare this to a friend who took out cheap insurance and then managed to break his leg skiing in France. He had to put the whole cost of his rescue and treatment onto his own credit card and then had a big big battle with the insurance company when he got home to get them to cough up.

You get what you pay for at the end of the day.

Insure and Go. Used to have DogTag but this is much cheaper and gets good reviews.

+1 Dogtag, covered for off piste too. We have had the annual family policy (worldwide) with winter sport for the past 4 years,

If you join ‘Snowboard Club UK’ (£15) you get a decent discount with TGIC.

The cover is quite comprehensive and tailored for snowboarders – could be perfect if you are only going for a couple of weeks.

This year though I’ve gone for an annual policy with BMC, despite having to pay additional premium for snowboarding because of limits imposed by the likes of TGIC & Dogtag on the total number of ‘winter sport days’ you can have.

Caution is advised though with some of the cheaper, price comparision/online holiday insurance types … reading the policy fine print often reveals that you really aren’t covered for very much at all …

Cheers guys…

I use Insure & Go.

Only had to rely on them once when I broke my arm in Andorra…all claims were settled in good time. It was only a £150 or something as it happened on the last day and the DR gave me a note allowing me to fly.

I have the platinum cover with off piste, the basic cover wouldn’t pay for my board let alone the rest of my shiny stuff so I had to pay for the more expensive cover.

I think you only need to pay for off piste if you go properly off piste, I expect you’ll be ok if you’re cutting across to another run. Although when my friend hurt himself and he had basic cover, I ended up dragging him back on piste before the chappies arrived with the stretcher thingamibob. It might be best to check as they might use it as an excuse!

+1 Dogtag, covered for off piste too.

Check the wording on that very carefully. I wouldn’t be happy with their off-piste cover.