Planning your holiday to Bali is an exciting time while you research where to go, stay, and eat, what activities to book, and how to get around. Thinking about insurance seems boring in comparison, but it is a critical part of planning that should not be overlooked.
Without appropriate insurance, your dream trip to Bali can become a nightmare. We see many posts on social media and in the local news about foreigners who get injured or sick in Bali and don’t have proper insurance coverage. GoFundMe pages are set up, the comments sections become minefields, and desperate family and friends overseas plead for help and information.
Although insurance can’t prevent you from getting sick or injured, it can make these events much less stressful and remove the financial burden.
What kind of insurance do I need for a trip to Bali?
Insurance can be tricky to navigate with policies filled with legal jargon and coverage discrepancies. The most common types of insurance are:
- Trip cancellation and disruption: This typically covers financial losses if you have to cancel your trip or portions of it for approved reasons (such as medical), or if your trip is canceled or disrupted due to flight delays/cancellations, missed connections, or other reasons. Claims might include flights, lodging, and prepaid activities.
- Travel medical and repatriation: This is critical to ensure you are covered in the event of sickness or injury. Medical care in Bali is relatively inexpensive; however, in the event of hospitalization, surgery, or an ongoing illness, costs can add up very quickly. Claims might include hospital bills, treatments, transportation, lodging, and repatriation.
- Dive accident insurance: Specific to scuba divers, this insurance covers dive accidents and related treatments, including hyperbaric chamber. Claims might include hospitalization, medications, hyperbaric treatments, and transportation or repatriation.
We recommend purchasing the appropriate policies for your planned trip and activities. Some of these may also be included in your credit card insurance if you use the card to pay for your bookings. Check your credit card policy to see what it covers, then purchase supplemental insurance to ensure you are covered in a worst-case scenario.
Do I need a separate dive insurance policy?
If you have travel medical insurance, you may think you don’t need dive accident insurance. Many travel medical insurance policies cover recreational diving; however, they may provide limited coverage and be less helpful in a dive emergency.
DAN (Diver’s Alert Network) dive medical insurance is your best option to ensure you are totally covered during your dive holiday in Bali. With DAN’s dedicated emergency line, you can connect to an expert who will tell you where to go and will coordinate directly with the medical facility. This kind of assistance is priceless in a stressful emergency situation. Depending on your DAN insurance policy, you may never even see a bill if DAN coordinates direct payment with the hospital.
Even if you are an experienced diver who follows all the rules and dives conservatively, you can still develop an “undeserved” decompression illness (DCI). The stress of such an event (and trust us, chamber visits are no fun) is a lot to handle, and having the DAN team’s ongoing support makes it much easier. This is why we partner with DAN to provide our divers with the option to purchase daily and weekly dive accident insurance. We also include DAN dive accident insurance for students taking the PADI Open Water Course, so new divers don’t need to worry about it during their certification.
DAN also offers additional insurance policies to cover lost equipment, trip interruption and cancellation, and other potential claims. We recommend adding this insurance, especially if you are going on a liveaboard.
Travel insurance bottom line
Make sure you have the proper insurance before visiting Bali. Read the coverage policy carefully to ensure you are covered for the activities you plan to participate in. Policies have strict limitations for activities such as scooter driving (driving license and International Driving Permit requirements), scuba diving (depth and training limits), and reasons for canceling or changing your trip plans.
We want you to enjoy your time in Bali and make it as stress-free as possible for you and your loved ones. Before you leave home, always buy insurance.
