Travel insurance can help in many ways when you’re travelling around the world and stopping over in several countries. For example, you may need travel insurance for lost or delayed luggage, trip delays, medical emergencies, or if you must cancel a trip for a covered reason.
For travellers making stopovers, there is one question that we get asked a lot at World Nomads: Do I need travel insurance for a specific country if I’m only stopping over in another country and don’t plan to leave the airport? The answer is no, you don’t need to purchase additional travel insurance coverage when making a stop-over if you’re not planning on leaving the airport.
But, if you do feel like you want to go and explore a certain city or decide you want to extend your holiday, then you’ll need to have travel insurance the moment you step out of the airport if you want to be covered for unexpected events during your travels.
If you do decide to extend your trip there are terms and conditions attached to buying and extending your policy cover. World Nomads travel insurance coverage is activated depending on:
- Where you are when you buy or extend the policy;
- The date of purchase;
- The date you choose the cover to start (start date);
- The date your trip actually starts; and
- The date you choose your cover to end (end date).
Important: When you buy a policy, you must select all the countries and regions where you’ll be travelling, and these will be shown on your Certificate of Insurance. Your policy will provide cover for your chosen countries and regions of travel unless there’s a warning issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade advising against all travel or all but essential travel to a particular country or part of a country and you choose to go there anyway. (Cover following government warnings varies depending on the plan you purchase; be sure to read the policy wording terms and conditions to ensure the cover you choose suits your needs.)
Refer to dfa.ie before you go and while travelling for the latest alerts and travel advice.
What if I want to extend my stay in a specific country and need extra travel insurance?
For Irish residents who want to keep travelling, you can extend your Single Trip policy before 11:59pm IST/GMT on the end date shown on your Certificate of Insurance using your World Nomads membership online, provided:
- You have not made, nor do you intend to make a claim; and
- You’re 69 years old or younger; and
- Your home address remains in the Republic of Ireland.
You will have continuous cover, subject to the conditions described in your policy section ‘Trip changes and extensions’. You cannot extend your policy once it has lapsed, but you can buy a new policy.
If you need information on making changes to your policy visit our Managing your policy section and choose your country of residence to get the latest updates.
The policy isn’t designed to cover everything, so take the time to read the terms, conditions, limitations and exclusions in the Policy Wording for full details so that there are no surprises if you need to use it.
If you’re not sure if something is covered, get in touch.
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Before your trip, check the latest government advice for any travel alerts for your destination.