I’m heading of to the alps (flight to Geneva, cycle south via morzine, chamonix, tignes, Briancon) for a Bike packing trip next week and have ended up going round and round in circles with the travel insurance! I’m going to be Bikepacking for a week, and then meeting up with family for 2 weeks of camping/cycling/kayaking, so it makes sense to get once policy to cover me for the full 3 weeks, but reading the fine print policys such as snowcard and essential travel don’t seem to define downhill mtb very well and I can see them seeing that I was cycling down a walking path as fitting their description of Downhill MTB, which doubles the cost of the insurance!

So has anyone got any experience of this (good or bad) and have anyone used EssentialTravel Level 2 (covering XC, grade 3 kayaking ect) for alpine XC as it comes out the cheapest (£55 compared to ~£90), or are snowcard/dogtag really worth the extra?

I’ve used Dogtag for the last few years as they do seem to define their sports quite well.

XC riding is covered by their lowest “Sport” level, your kayaking is what would need higher cover – Sport+ covers up to grade 3. Quick quote suggests £56 for their Pro cover for 24 days

I went with Endsleigh in the end after getting in writing they they covered all the things I wanted to do.
Wasn’t anywhere as near as expensive as snowcard/dogtag, etc

They have specific add-ons for extreme sports.
I talked to them about uplifts/altitude etc and they were happy to confirm cover.

1 week in Canada/Whistler was £56 (compared to £120-180 for those other companies) (North America is more expensive than Europe).

I normally use Perkins slade who are PJ Hayman in another name.
Just bunged in 3 weeks in the alps covering mountain biking and grade 3 paddling and it came out at £32.96.

Never claimed with them though. I know Darren @ Pedalcover sells their policies maybe give him a call.

If your German is up to scratch I would recommend you join the German Alpine Club (can do it all online). It costs about £60 euros for the year and includes full rescue and recovery insurance for any type of Alpine sport from anywhere in the world. In other words if you need to be helicoptered or ambulanced out while cycling, kayaking, rock climbing, skiing or simply hiking, you will get recovered to the nearest medical place. May not cover competitive act ivies like DH racing but certainly will cover a DH holiday like a visit to Morzine. If you are happy to rely on your EHIC card to cover the medical expenses in Europe then I reckon it is a far better option that the UK offerings with all their get-out clauses and wiggle room…..

EDIT: you also get reduced prices in all the alpine huts, regardless of country 🙂

Ski Club GB insurance seems pretty good – it’s clearly defined what sports are covered at which level of cover and they are much more reasonably priced than snowcard / dogtag.

Annual cover is likely to work out much more reasonable if you are planning more than one trip abroad per year.

Having said all that, I haven’t had to claim yet!

I think other Alpine Clubs (eg Austrian http://aacuk.org.uk/p-benefits) do cover as part of membership, but be sure to check they cover repatriation. And they are just rescue insurance really, not full travel insurance, so there will be things they don’t cover.

The insurance offered by the Austrian Alpine club looks more than adequate for just about any eventuality. Being sold as the UK section and with English literature it is a bit of a no brainer for £45 a year, especially if you have a ski holiday or do a bit of climbing etc.