World Nomads is one of the best-known travel insurance companies in the world. They market themselves towards independent and adventurous travellers, with more than 150 adventure activities covered.
World Nomads has offered travel insurance since 2002 and sells travel insurance to travellers from over 100 countries, including Canada. Their policies for Canadian residents are underwritten by AIG Insurance Company of Canada.
Advantages
- Available to citizens of over 140 countries.
- Policies can be purchased or extended after the trip has begun.
- Over 250 activity options are included, more than most travel insurance plans.
- All plans include non-medical and emergency medical coverage.
- High emergency medical coverage, with the standard plan covering $5 million.
Disadvantages
- No coverage for anyone over 65.
- There’s not much opportunity to customise the insurance. World Nomads offers two plans to Canadians: the Standard Plan and the Explorer Plan.
- Many activities require an additional upgrade for coverage to apply.
Overview of World Nomads’ Insurance Policies
World Nomads offers two plans for Canadian travellers: the Standard Plan and the Explorer Plan.
The Standard Plan is designed for short trips, domestic travel, families, and budget-conscious travellers.
The Explorer Plan is designed for longer trips, international travel, and adventure travel.
World Nomads Standard Plan
The World Nomads Standard Plan is designed for backpackers, families, short trips, domestic travel and people travelling on a budget.
It is a comprehensive plan, providing both emergency medical coverage and non-medical benefits. The plan covers up to $5 million in emergency medical expenses, $500,000 for evacuation and repatriation in an emergency, $10,000 for a travel accident, $50,000 for a flight accident and $2,500 each for trip cancellation and trip interruption.
The plan also provides other non-medical benefits, such as baggage theft, damage or delay, trip delay, travel document theft or damage, and sporting equipment theft or delay.
Many activities are automatically included in the Standard Plan but some cost extra. We will go over the activities shortly.
World Nomads Explorer Plan
The World Nomads Explorer Plan is designed for long-haul trips, international travel, thrill seekers, solo travellers and adventurous couples.
Like the Standard Plan, the Explorer Plan is comprehensive and provides coverage for medical and non-medical expenses. Emergency medical coverage is up to $10 million, $500,000 for emergency evacuation and repatriation, $25,000 for a travel accident, $100,000 for a flight accident, and trip cancellation and trip interruption coverage are up to $5,000 each.
The Explorer plan also covers baggage theft, damage, and delay, travel document theft or damage, and sporting equipment theft or delay.
The Explorer Plan has the same activity coverage as the Standard Plan, and there are optional extra activity coverages that can be purchased, too.
World Nomads Activities Coverage
World Nomads covers 250 activities in a range of categories: snow, water, air, land, sports and experience activities.
Certain activities are automatically included in both the Standard and the Explorer Plan. Other activities are optional coverage upgrades.
World Nomads Snow Activities
World Nomads includes 20 snow activities in its plans. 9 activities are automatically included in the Standard and Explorer Plan, including:
- Bobsleighing
- Dog sledding
- Glacier walking
- Ski joring
- Sleigh rides
- Snow biking
- Snow rafting
- Snowmobiling
- Tubing on snow
The other 11 snow activities are optional extras that can be added to either plan. They include cat skiing or cat boarding, heli-skiing or heli-boarding, ice climbing, ice fishing, kite wing, ski or snowboard instructor or guide, skiing (backcountry, Alpine, Nordic), sledding, snow kiting, snowboarding (Alpine, backcountry), snowmobiling (on frozen lakes and rivers).
World Nomads Water Activities
There are 44 water activities included overall, with 33 water activities included in the Standard and Explorer plans automatically. The included water activities are:
- Banana boat rides
- Black water rafting
- Boating, canoeing, sailing, kayaking, or windsurfing (inland or coastal waters)
- Cave tubing
- Cruising (passenger on a cruise ship)
- High diving up to 10 metres
- Hydrofoiling
- Hydrospeeding
- Jet boating
- Jet skiing
- Kite boarding
- Kite surfing
- Paddle boarding
- Parasailing
- River boarding or hydrospeeding
- Rowing
- Sail boarding
- Scuba diving to 30 metres
- Sculling
- Shark cage diving
- Snorkelling
- Stand-up paddle surfing or paddle boarding
- Surf boat rowing
- Surfing
- Swimming (pool; enclosed, inland or coastal waters)
- Swimming with whales or whale sharks
- Tubing on rivers
- Wake skating
- Wakeboarding
- Water polo
- Water skiing
- White water kayaking
- White water rafting
11 water activities can be optionally purchased, such as: deep sea fishing, kite buggy, kite wing, scuba diving (cave diving, cavern diving), scuba diving instructor or guide, scuba diving up to 40 metres, skydiving (one jump), spear fishing, swimming (outside coastal waters), wing foiling, and boating, canoeing, kayaking, sailing, or windsurfing outside coastal waters.
World Nomads Air Activities
13 air activities are included, with 7 included on all plans:
- Aerial safari
- Ballooning – hot air
- Bungee jumping
- Canyon swing
- Flying as a passenger in a licensed scheduled or chartered aircraft or helicopter
- Hot air ballooning
- Kite flying
The optional additional air activities include: fly by wire, hang gliding, parachuting (one jump), paragliding or parapenting, tandem skydiving (one jump), and zip lining.
World Nomads Land Activities
There are 60 land activities included. 32 activities are automatically included in both plans, including:
- Abseiling
- Backpacking up to 3,000 metres
- BMX – on road
- Bobsled (non-snow track)
- Bush walking up to 3,000 metres
- Bushcraft
- Camel riding
- Camel trekking
- Camping up to 3,000 metres
- Canyoning
- Caving (sightseeing/tourist attraction)
- Cycling up to 3,000 metres
- Dirt boarding
- Dune buggy
- Fell running or walking
- Hiking up to 3,000 metres
- Moped riding
- Motor biking (on road, passenger with a licensed driver)
- Motor racing experience (passenger only)
- Mountain biking up to 3,000 metres in elevation
- Orienteering
- Outward bound
- Quad biking
- Rambling
- Sandboarding or sandskiing
- Scooter biking or riding
- Scrambling (up to 3,000 metres)
- Stilt walking
- Tramping (up to 3,000 metres)
- Trekking (up to 3,000 metres)
- War games (online gaming)
- Zorbing
The optional extra land activities include backpacking up to 6,000 metres, bicycle polo, BMX (off-road, on track or cross-country), bush walking up to 6,000 metres, bouldering, camping up to 6,000 metres, caving or potholing, cycling up to 6,000 metres, deepelling, hiking up to 6,000 metres, kite wing, land surfing, motor biking (off road, trail bike riding), mountain biking up to 6,000 metres in elevation, mountaineering up to 6,000 metres, parascending (over land), rap jumping, rappelling, rock climbing (indoor and outdoor under 6,000m), scrambling (up to 6,000 metres), skateboarding (ramp, half pipe, skate park, street), skeleton, spelunking (caving), trail bike riding (motorbiking off road), tramping (up to 6,000 metres), trapeze or high wire, trekking (up to 6,000 metres), and via ferrata.
World Nomads Sports Activities
World Nomads includes 79 sports activities, with 70 sports activities included automatically in the Standard and Explorer Plans.
The included sports activities are:
- Aerobics
- Air guitar
- American football
- Archery
- Athletics
- Australian Rules Football (AFL)
- Badminton
- Ballet
- Ballroom dancing
- Baseball
- Basketball
- Bowling
- Boxing
- Capoeira dancing
- Cheerleading
- Clay pigeon shooting
- Cricket
- Croquet
- Curling
- Dance
- Darts
- Dodge ball
- Fencing
- Fitness training
- Floorball
- Football (soccer)
- Footgolf
- Frisbee
- Go karting
- Golf
- Gridiron
- Gym training
- Gymnastics
- Handball
- Hockey
- Horse riding (leisure, social, and non-competitive riding)
- Hunting
- Ice hockey (indoor or outdoor rink)
- Ice skating (indoor or outdoor rink)
- Korfball
- Lacrosse
- Lawn bowling
- Live action role playing (LARPing)
- Martial arts (judo, karate, non-contact)
- Netball
- Paintballing or airsoft
- Pickleball
- Racquetball
- Rifle range or sports shooting
- Roller hockey
- Roller skating
- Rollerblading
- Rounders
- Rugby (league or union)
- Running (half-marathon distance or less)
- Salsa dancing
- Snooker
- Soccer
- Softball
- Squash or racquetball
- Stoolball
- Table tennis
- Tchoukball
- Tennis
- Ten-pin bowling
- Trampolining
- Ultimate frisbee
- Volleyball
- Weight training
- Yoga (class, alone or home practice)
You can also choose to have the following sports activities added to your plan: horse riding (equestrian, dressage, show jumping, or eventing), hunting, ice hockey (frozen lake or river), ice skating (frozen lake or river), multi-sport or outdoor endurance (less than ultra distance), obstacle course or assault course or trim trail, running (marathon distance), shooting (rifle range or sports), and triathlon (less than ultra distance).
World Nomads Experience Activities
The last category for activities included in World Nomads’ plans is experience activities. These are slightly different than all other World Nomads included activity categories as they relate to overall experiences, rather than the specific activities listed previously.
There are 12 activities within the experience category, with 9 included automatically in both plans. The included experience activities are:
- Au Pair or nanny (paid or volunteer childcare)
- Bar work (hospitality)
- Childcare
- Fruit picking (WWOOFing, general farm work, manual work)
- Office work (paid or volunteer clerical)
- Retail work (shop assistant or manager, general retail, manual work)
- Safari tours
- Theme parks or fairgrounds
- Teaching
The three activities that are available as optional extras are: Segway tours, an instructor or guide in covered activities, and Tough Mudder.
How to Learn More
You can access the World Nomads website here or call their Canadian number +1 877 328 2528.
Want to Compare World Nomads’ Rates?
The easiest way to compare Canadian travel insurance rates is to use a comparison website.
Comparison websites, like BestQuote Travel Insurance, let you compare quotes for travel insurance from several different companies at once. Type in a few details about your trip, and compare policy coverage and prices to help narrow down your choice.