From a ski trip in the French Alps to backpacking South America, travel insurance is one of the most important things to purchase for any trip. When it comes to insurance, you insure what you can’t afford to pay yourself. Unlike health insurance in the United States, travel insurance is very affordable. SafetyWing is currently my go-to company for flexible travel medical insurance, and I currently use their Essential plan. In this post, I share their insurance and coverage options along with my personal review of SafetyWing.
Affiliate links are used in this post. If you make a purchase, I earn a small commission at no cost to you, which goes toward blog maintenance costs.
Why do you need travel medical insurance?
Travel insurance covers all the things that go wrong – the flight delay that left you stranded in Istanbul for the night or the bout of food poisoning that hits a few hours before your flight home from Mongolia. Both are true stories from my travel adventures and not fun memories. Both of these I claimed on travel insurance and were covered by my plan. I ALWAYS buy travel medical insurance for every trip, which usually runs $56-100/month depending on your age.
Who is SafetyWing?
Founded in 2018, SafetyWing was a fully remote Norwegian startup based in California run by nomads and expats providing insurance for budget travelers and nomads. (You don’t have to be a nomad or a budget traveler to use their insurance. It’s available to everyone.)
SafetyWing Travel Insurance Options
SafteyWing Nomad Insurance has two options: Essential and Complete. Neither plan covers pre-existing conditions. (I’m currently on an Essential plan.)
Nomad Insurance Essential provides short-term coverage for unexpected medical issues and emergencies while traveling outside your home country. Additional add-ons include adventure sports, electronic theft and U.S. coverage for non-residents.
You can pay monthly or in full for policies. Longer policies can be set to auto-renew. When you cancel a policy anytime and get a pro-rated refund. There’s no minimum time limit for policies, so you can buy coverage for the exact dates you need.
The Nomad Insurance Complete is long-term comprehensive coverage (12-month commitment) for unexpected and ongoing health concerns worldwide. These plans can be paid monthly or annually for a 10% discount. While adventure sports are included, additional add-ons include electronic theft (coming soon) and coverage in Hong Kong, Singapore and the U.S. (This policy is not available to U.S. residents.) Plans start at $150.50/month.
One of the best benefits of SafetyWing is that you can buy while you are abroad and get 24/7 customer support with a REAL human! (I can vouch that they are excellent at assisting and will follow up with you afterward!)
What does SafetyWing Travel Medical Insurance cover?
While it’s important to always read the full insurance policy, the items below are covered by SafetyWing for each policy type:
SafetyWing Nomad Insurance Essential Plan
Each Essential policy has a $250,000 USD max limit and a $100,000 USD max limit for U.S. residents over 65.
- Emergency Accident & Sickness Expenses.
- Emergency Evacuation & Repatriation. (Evacuation to a better-equipped hospital when needed is included with a $100,000 USD lifetime max.)
- Trip Cancelation, Delay or Interruption. (Benefits kick in usually for delays after 12 hours. $100/day for two days)
- Baggage Delay & Damage. ($500/item with a $3,000 policy maximum)
- Injuries from leisure sports and activities.
- Motor Accidents. You must be properly licensed, not intoxicated and wearing safety equipment to be covered. ($250,000 US max limit)
- Continued coverage in your home country after 90 days abroad. (30 days for non-U.S. residents and 15 for U.S. residents.)
For more details, read the full policy on their website.
SafetyWing Nomad Insurance Complete Plan
This is an annual comprehensive plan with $1,500,000 overall limit for people aged 18-65.
- Emergency medical treatment and hospitalization (Including evacuation to better-equipped hospital and transport of remains)
- Routine check-ups and preventative care plus doctor and specialist visits
- Psychologist and psychiatrist visits along with wellness therapies (chiropractor, dietician, etc.)
- Trip Cancelation, delay or interruption. (Benefits kick in after three hours.)
- Lost checked luggage and stolen belongings
- Injuries from leisure sports and motor accidents
- Maternity Care (10-month waiting period)
- Cancer Tests and treatment
For more details, read the compete policy.
Does SafetyWing cover adventure sports?
SafetyWing now covers adventure sports with a policy add-on for the Essential plan. It is included in the Complete plan. From paragliding to scuba diving, check out the full list of covered sports here. Organized and professional sports are not covered.
Does SafetyWing cover electronics theft?
Yes, you can add electronics theft coverage to a SafetyWing policy for an additional fee. It covers cameras, laptops and phones with a $1,000 USD limit per item and a yearly limit of $3,000 per policy. This benefit is only available as an add-on for policies over 28 days. Proof of ownership like a receipt is needed for claims. To read the fine print, check out this page with all the details.
This benefit is not yet available for the Complete plans.
What’s not covered by SafetyWing travel medical insurance?
SafetyWing doesn’t cover pre-existing conditions for either plan. The Essential plan does not cover cancer treatment, lost or stolen personal belongings (except for electronics if you purchase that policy add-on), or trips that were canceled before you left.
Where can you travel with SafetyWing Nomad Insurance?
You can travel anywhere in the world except for your home country and countries with U.S., U.K., EU or UN sanctions including Belarus, Cuba, Iran North Korea, Russia, Syria and Ukraine.
After being abroad for 90 days, you can get 30 days of home country coverage. (For U.S. residents, it’s 15 days.) This is only for the Essential plan.
Who is eligible?
Essential Plan: Anyone aged 69 and under. Their policies cover people from across the world while they are outside their home country. Plans can be purchased abroad. Over 180 countries are covered. One child under 10 can be added at no extra cost per adult.
Complete Plan: Ages 18-65 except for residents (people who live in the following places 6 months per year) of Belarus, Canada, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ireland, Palau, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the U.S. Please note that this policy doesn’t cover you in your primary residence.
How much does SafetyWing cost?
Plans cost just a few dollars a day and vary by age making SafetyWing one of the most affordable brands of travel medical insurance. Policy add-ons such as U.S. coverage, adventure sports and electronics theft are extra for the Essential plan.
Purchasing Process with SafetyWing
It just takes minutes to fill out the form online including your age, home address and countries you’ll be visiting. Their chat box makes it easy to ask questions and talk to a real human 24/7. Their customer service can easily answer any questions quickly. They are also great about following up when needed.
My Review of SafetyWing Travel Medical Insurance
This includes my experience with two claims in early 2024 and 2025.
In early 2024, I was abroad for about four months in Asia. During my trip, I started having some knee pain, so I went to Bangkok Hospital in Chiang Mai. Since an x-ray wasn’t helpful for my issue, the doctor ordered an MRI. I came back the next day and got the MRI and got my results an hour later. The MRI ruled out major issues with my ACL and meniscus, which was a relief. The total cost was $331.
I filled out the form online for SafetyWing but missed the part where I needed to upload receipts. (That was totally my fault and delayed things. And, they’ve rolled out a new claims process since then that makes everything even easier! More on that below.) I reached out to their customer service to fix my mistake. They were so helpful and responsive. They routinely checked back with me and made it clear that they hadn’t forgotten me. The claim was approved, and I was paid the balance after my $250 deductible. (This deductible has since been removed!)
I had a second claim a few weeks later for a skin infection for only $32. I filled out the forms properly this time and the reimbursement was much swifter this time direct deposited for the full $32 because I’d already met my deductible. Both reimbursements were easy direct deposits to my bank account.
February 2025 Claim Update
For the past six months, I’ve been covered by SafetyWing while I’m in Southeast Asia. Thankfully, I didn’t have to use the plan until this week when I had to see a doctor in Cambodia after a bad bout of food poisoning. It was a small expense (less than $20) but I wanted to try out the new streamlined claims policy as a test. It literally just took minutes to fill out the form and upload my two receipts (doctor and pharmacy). Honestly, it was the easiest claim I’ve ever made with any type of insurance in my life. Since there’s no policy deductible, the full claim was approved literally the next day and deposited the day after that. (It says five business days.) Now, this could be due to the small amount of the claim, but honestly, even the process of submitting the claim was so painless.
Overall, the process was smooth. It’s very important to have all your documentation together including the doctor’s report, payment receipts for the visit and any prescriptions. I would highly recommend using their plans.
Safe Travels!
