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Nepal is a safe place to travel, in terms of personal safety, but it also a poor country. Infrastructure we take for granted in the West may be be in bad shape or nonexistant. Roads can be very hazardous and walkways may have uneven pavement and yawning cracks. Prudence, and Camera Treks, requires medical insurance for the foreign traveler. Every year over 10 million travelers are hospitalized abroad and over two million require emergency medical transportation.

We REQUIRE that all participants have both comprehensive travel medical insurance and emergency medical evacuation & repatriation insurance for the full duration of any Camera Treks Tour. Your regular medical insurance policy may cover you internationally if the policy is a global policy (except for Americans traveling to Cuba). Do check with your carrier to find out if you have international coverage and what it covers. If your medical policy will not cover you on your trip with us we can provide information on carriers whose coverage is very good and whose cost is reasonable.

We also recommend all participants have comprehensive travel, cancellation, curtailment, and default insurance for the duration of our tours. Some travel insurance companies require that you buy insurance no later than 7 to 14 days after paying your deposit. If you wait longer, some companies may enforce stricter conditions, charge more for the policy or not even allow you to buy a policy. Do not delay in contacting an insurance company. To buy online, look at the companies listed below on this page as well as others you may find.

Emergency medical evacuation & repatriation insurance (often called Med-evac/Medivac plans or something similar) is a valuable tool in the kit of the traveler who heads to remote locals off the beaten path. At its most basic it is the emergency transport of patients by ground, air, or sea from one location to another when a patient needs urgent treatment that cannot be provided at their current location. Repatriation is returning a sick, injured or dead person to their home country for medical treatment or burial. Some insurers provide this or it can be purchased as an add-on. In all cases READ THE FINE PRINT.

Some evacuation insurance only evacuates you from a hospital, NOT off a mountain or out of a jungle! Med-e-vac from many of the regions where we travel can cost US$25,000 (twenty-five thousand U.S. dollars) and the heli-jets will not take you until you provide proof of insurance OR let them charge the full cost to your credit card(s). A Camera Treks employee will ask to see your medical and evacuation policies BEFORE we head off onto the tour so bring your paperwork proof of insurance (which you would need in the event of an illness or accident.) You will not be able to accompany us on the tour if you do not have this paperwork even though you have paid for the trip! Nor will you receive a refund. This is serious business; treat it as such.

Prudence dictates that you investigate other insurances, too. We do not require travel or cancellation insurance but, depending on your circumstances and home location (a snow belt where airport closures are possible, for example), it may be wise to purchase it. We will not provide refunds to you if you call us in PNG, for example, and say you are stuck in a snowstorm in Boise and cannot get to Port Moresby for at least three days! There are many providers of travel insurance so you may wish to consult a travel or insurance agent for one that meets your needs. Before you purchase, read the whole policy; the big print giveth, the fine print taketh away! And, of course, the proof of any insurance is when you actually have to use it.

If you are coming on our trip with lots of expensive gear it ought to be insured. If it is stacked under your Homeowners policy be certain you are covered abroad. Note that if you, a gallery or your web site provider, offer to sell your prints you are categorized as a "professional" and your insurance company will probably not pay out a settlement on your loss even if you have been paying premiums under a Homeowner's Policy meant for hobbyists. A savvy underwriter's agent will look for evidence of any sales after you make a claim and it applies even if you have never sold a single print! An example is using SmugMug as your web site host. You may not have your site set up to sell prints but SmugMug may have a notice that your photos are available to buy (where you do not even receive the money.)

As a new 'normal', make sure any plan you purchase will cover Covid-related claims.

Forbes Magazine has a good article on emergency medical evacuation & repatriation insurance. Give it a read read.

Here are two additional articles on medical evacuation insurance from Cover Trip and Annuity Expert.

Check out the companies below, with whom we have no affiliation, or search for others who may provide better deals. The list is in no particular order other than basic medical plans listed first, followed by Med-evac and gear insurance.

An asterisk * in front of the company name signifies that I have purchased a policy from the company in the past.

Here is a Search & Comparison engine to look at policies side-by-side, tho I have not used it. It only does a comparison, you have to research the specifics of the individual travel insurance policies

*Trip Mate. Travel Assure is also a name they use. I've not determined the difference except when a vendor uses them to provide insurance for clients they seem to use the second name. I have bought their policies for years, sometimes without really knowing it was them when I signed on, as many companies use them as their underwriter. See their site here.

*Allianz Travel Insurance offers a range of medical plans that can work well for international trips, whether you want to lock in travel insurance for a single trip, multiple trips or an entire year. You can use them to purchase a comprehensive international travel plan that includes all the major coverages you would expect, but you can also purchase specialized coverage for international medical expenses, car rentals and more. COVID-19 benefits don't apply to every plan. I have purchased their plans many times. See their site here

*World Nomads, a Travel & Tour Company, lets you tailor your travel insurance to your needs, but every plan includes coverage for trip cancellations and interruptions, emergency accidents and sickness, travel delays, delayed or lost baggage, and rental cars. Plans also include 24-hour travel assistance services. More than 150 sports and activities are covered in every plan. See their site here

AIG Travel Guard plans offer travel medical insurance for international and domestic trips. See their site here

*ihiBUPA, a Danish company, was the best, most incredible short-term insurer I ever used. They stopped providing coverage for Americans when Trump was elected president and, alas, the last time I checked, no longer provide travel insurance at all! Still, you can see their site here.

Medjet provides private or commercial medevac or air ambulance transportation from a hospital anywhere in the world to the hospital of your choice in your home country. NOTE: their coverage is hospital to hospital transport. Medjet is said to offer a broader range of destination countries than does Global Rescue, possibly making it a better option for travelers planning to visit more remote locations - as long as you can get to a hospital! And, they do not have any adventure travel exclusions. Prices, at the time of this writing, are $295 for an individual and $399 for a family. You can read about their service here.

*REI, Recreational Equiptment Inc. uses Trip Assure, where anyone with a membership can buy travel insurance whether the trip is with REI or not. I think you get a discount if you are an REI member. I have purchased a Med-evac plan from REI several times (but there is a trick to it!) See their site here.

Global Rescue is a provider of medical, security, evacuation and travel risk management services to enterprises, governments and individuals. Global Rescue, importantly, provides 'field rescue', that is, it covers your airlift from the location where you were injured. The company also offers evacuations for natural disasters, civil unrest, and other situations. At the time of this writing an annual membership for med-evac for an individual is $349. here.

insuremytrip is an option new to me so I do not have any real knowledge about them. See their site here

USI Affinity, an Ohio company from which one can select a number of options. See their site here

TCP & Co. Photography equipment insurance. See their site here.