Save up to £161.58 on Single-Trip Winter Sport Insurance

Airport parking and Hotels (APH), the long stay airport parking and travel extras specialist, is helping skiers and snowboarders this winter by highlighting the best and worst winter sport insurance policies. The information compares the cost of 20 travel insurance providers for a single and annual multi-trip for a family of four in Europe and worldwide. Visit the ‘Know Before You Go’ section of the APH website, www.aph.com/skiinsurance, for further details.

The research found that skiers and snowboarders looking for a single trip to Europe should swerve away from HSBC with the family single trip policy reaching as high as £106.02, compared to OUL Classic at only £25.00 and APH at only £29.95. APH also offers the most competitive family annual multi-trip insurance in Europe at £49.95 and Insure & Go offering worldwide at £64, both including up to 17 days cover. However Lloyds TSB proved to be the most costly provider for worldwide annual multi-trip insurance and single trip insurance at a whopping £200.14 and £210.01 for a family of four.

Many of the travel insurance providers were also found to offer additional benefits on policies with children covered for free with Complete Ski and AA. Halifax, Sainsbury’s and Complete Ski also offer up to 24 days of annual winter sports cover on annual multi-trip policies, and nearly all the insurers include off-piste skiing and snowboarding with a qualified guide.

Nick Caunter, managing director of APH, says “winter sports insurance is a vital purchase for snowboarders and skiers, but it is important to compare levels of cover and the premium to get the best value for money so we felt it was important to provide a useful guideline in the Know Before You Go section of the website for travellers heading to the slopes this season”.

Airport parking and Hotels Ltd is one of the UK’s leading booking agencies and has over 29 years’ experience as a retailer of pre-booked airport parking and travel extras. APH offers parking at all major UK airports, ports and Eurotunnel terminals plus airport hotels packaged with parking, airport lounges, travel insurance, car hire and holiday taxis. APH is also a carbon balanced company and has through the World Land Trust helped purchase more than 1,000 acres of Belize rainforest.

A recent survey states that 75% of British holidaymakers don’t check the terms and conditions when purchasing travel insurance and 56% fail to buy cover at all*

For ski and snowboard holidays this has serious implications. Not taking out any insurance can result in huge bills for medical expenses, transport from the mountain or repatriation to the UK.**

But what can often catch skiers and snowboarders out is not reading the small print and taking part in, and getting injured in, activities they are not covered for.

“Skiers and snowboarders often get caught out when it comes to insurance. Buying a travel insurance policy is often not enough. The Ski Club urges people to check that they are covered for wintersports and that they read the small print to ensure all activities they will be participating in are covered.” Said Caroline Stuart Taylor, Chief Executive of the Ski Club of Great Britain.

The Ski Club offers the following tips for buying snowsports travel insurance:

• If you think you may be taking part in any extra winter activities such as off-piste skiing or snowboarding, tobogganing, ski touring, glacier skiing, heliskiing or even just hitting the snowpark, make sure your policy covers you for this.

• Check what the provider means by off-piste. Does it cover off piste without a guide?

• If you, or your children, are taking part in fun races with the ski/ snowboard school ensure this is covered in your policy. Many policies do not cover racing, even fun, recreational races.

• If you are going on a ski mountaineering, hiking or trekking trip at high altitude check that your policy covers you. Many policies will limit cover to 3000m or less. If you are trekking above this height you will not be covered.

• Check that you have legal expenses cover – this will cover your legal costs if someone injures you and you need to take legal action.

• Don’t just go for the cheapest travel insurance policy. Cheaper policies, even those specialising in ‘wintersports cover’ may not actually cover the winter activities you’re planning.

The Ski Club of Great Britain offers insurance policies designed by experts especially for snowsports enthusiasts. Policies are available at standard, super and executive level, for single trips and annual multi-trips.

Ski Club of Great Britain policies cover as standard on and off-piste skiing and snowboarding (with or without a guide), snow parks, cross country skiing, glacier skiing, ski touring, recreational racing, snow-shoeing, dog-sledding, ice-skating and tobogganing. Executive policies cover all these activities plus heliskiing, cat skiing, bob sleighing and snow-mobiling. Ski Club Executive policies also offer no excess on any claim.

Go to the insurance section on skiclub.co.uk or call 0845 60 194 22 to take out policies. There is a 5% discount on policies taken out online.