The Wife and I will soon be nipping over to Ireland for the NW200 and a few weeks later partaking in a 18 day group tour of Europe, it will be the first time we have ever been out of the UK so it's all a bit confusing for us. Everyone I've spoken to says you need travel insurance but I'm not sure what type? I have fully comp insurance on my bike which covers me abroad for 31 days. So I'm guessing we will need health and repatriation insurance for if something goes wrong, have any of you been abroad with your bikes and if so what type of insurance did you take out before you went. I'm guessing I will also need vehicle breakdown and recovery for Europe to or would this be part of the travel insurance? Any advice will be most welcome thanks.
Within the EEC reciprocal health agreements give you limited health treatment so you will need an EHIC. Decent health cover is always a good idea as is cancellation or curtailment insurance for any part of the holiday that goes wrong. Bike recovery cover has been the subject of previous posts and you will need to choose carefully. Better to be over insured than not enough. Just had a thought, one of the track day brokers might be able to taylor something. Andy
Try Navigator for health/hospitalisation/repatriation cover - very reasonable pricing and allow any size motorcycle cover (most bank based travel insurance only covers up to 150cc). Motorcycle Travel Insurance for Motorbike Touring Abroad, UK Insurance | Navigator Travel | Navigator Travel Insurance For the bike recovery, there are many options.
The bank ones cover over 150cc, and with appropriate licence, its to stop ijits on hols re ting scooters andkilling themselves and and having a claim
Some do, but you need to check first? I was with Halifax some years ago and checked before a trip to Alaska, hence the switch to Navigator. Edit to add, my mate binned a HD in Arizona last year and Lloyds did stump up about 12k for his 9 busted ribs and associated hassle. Didn't compensate the rest of us, for a fooked up holiday though!
Sorry should have said, afaik they do. I worked with LBG for years as a supplier and knew their products pretty well and used them too. When going on hold tho I have used the post office one and churchill a few times, decent value and decent cover
I can't recommend Direct Travel Insurance enough Cheap Travel Insurance & Holiday Insurance | Direct Travel Insurance. I took out two week 'Silver' level cover last year for a trip to Italy to visit the Ducati museum and was unfortunate enough to require the services of an ambulance/hospital etc., following a slide on gravel on a mountain hairpin bend (fortunately I was on my way BACK to the campsite AFTER visiting the factory, or I'd have been seriously pi**ed off!). Lying in the back of the ambulance, I was thinking 'I'm just about to find out how much help £20 worth of insurance will get me . . .' However, long story short, the company were EXCELLENT in every way (no I don't work for them). I got my own dedicated Incident Manager - who was the only person I spoke to throughout, until his shift change over. At that point the other guy had been fully briefed and was completely up to speed with my situation. They sorted me taxi's from the A&E to a hotel that they had booked (at 2.30am in the morning!) as well as a taxi to take me back to A&E to see a consultant the next day. Flight and taxis were booked to take me from the hotel to the airport AND to collect me once back in the UK, to take me to my front door! The 'taxis' weren't just cabs, but a Merc 4x4 with a fluent English speaking driver in Italy and an Audi A8 to bring me home! The Incident Managers called my wife at every stage so that she didn't worry too much and nothing was too much trouble for them. Once I was home they called me the next day to check that I was Ok and to see if there was anything else they could do! At the end of the day, they also reimbursed my return ferry tickets which were also covered under the 'Silver' policy scheme, so I couldn't really ask for more. The only deduction - a £75 excess, bargain! The only thing that caused a problem, was the fact that I had to provide the Incident Manager with a copy of my driving license and the medical report before he could 'hit the button' to actually book hotels and taxi's etc. This wasn't straight forward seeing as I was in an Italian A&E department at 2.00am, with cracked ribs and torn shoulder muscles, only a smattering of Italian to my name, trying to get them to fax or e-mail a copy of the documents to the company! I also had to suggest to them that they use Google Translate on the medical report to save me having to wait for them to locate a translator at that time of the morning! However, once over that hurdle all was well. My suggestion is to make sure you've got a 'smart phone' with a good camera and a FULLY charged battery for this purpose - or like I did, find a very kind doctor who did this for me. Also, from my experience, I can only say that you'll probably be surprised how kind people are when the chips are down in a foreign country. I found all the Italians I met to be exceptionally kind and helpful; from the guys that stopped to help me at the roadside, to the ambulance crew, doctors, hotel staff and other complete strangers. I truly think that most people the world over, are basically good and will help a traveler in difficulty, it was a really humbling experience. I know your only going to Ireland but the upshot of all this is, make sure that whatever travel insurance you get covers motorcycling on machines of unlimited capacity and also for the countries you intend to travel through. If you do go to Europe at some point in the future, be careful with Swizerland and ensure that the policy will cover all medical expenses (not all do and your EHIC card will only get you very basic cover in Swizerland, which will NOT include helicopter ambulances etc.) Decent travel insurance could probably end up being the best £20 you ever spend in my experience
Sheesh, thanks for all the advice chaps, I shall look into it tomorrow What happens to your bike if you do have an accident?
It will be recovered to either the nearest dealers or the recovery yard. They will probably assess whether it is cost effective to repair it before repatriating it. I strongly suggest you take lots of pictures of the bike before leaving it, because the assessors have been known to try to write a bike off for minimal damage, or it being damaged in transit. The bike will then come back when they have a few to bring back, so it Can be a bit of a wait. You can of course negotiate on this. One of my mates had to fly home due to a medical condition. The insurance paid for another mate to fly out and ride his bike back rather than recover it.
I've used Carole Nash travel insurance. Covers all medical costs and getting you home if need be. Also covers lost valuables and cash but cannot remember all the details. When going for travel insurance very important it covers you for riding a motorcycle. The more common holiday insurance does not!
holidaysafe.co.uk are the ones i've gone with for Italy trip next month. Looked through their polict and covers everything i can think of and a very good price too. Was directed to them by an earlier post on this forum.
