Cycle Touring Insurance: What You Need To Know and the 6 Best Insurance Providers

Finding a good travel insurance policy to cover you for a cycle tour is really important. The risks of cycling in foreign places are generally higher than cycling at home, and being stuck with a huge medical bill is something you really want to avoid.

And while it’s important to be covered for your trip, finding good cycle touring insurance can be quite the headache.

Most travel insurance providers will only cover cycling if it’s incidental to your trip, i.e. if you hired a bike for a day during your two-week vacation, but not if the primary purpose of the trip is cycling. As you can see, cycle touring is not covered under these grounds.

Many travel insurance providers see cycle touring as an “extreme sport,” which means they usually won’t cover it in their policies. Cycle tourists, therefore, need to find a travel insurance policy that explicitly includes cycle touring as an activity. This can make the search for cycle touring insurance a little challenging.

In this article, I’ll walk you through everything you need to know about choosing a cycle touring insurance policy and show you 6 providers that I recommend.

Bicycle insurance vs cycle touring insurance

Remember when I said that finding good cycle touring insurance can be a headache? Well, one of these headaches is that most travel insurance policies won’t cover the theft of your bicycle. This is because bicycle insurance and cycle touring insurance are two different things.

Bicycle insurance covers theft, damage and vandalism to your bicycle.

Cycle touring insurance is travel insurance that will cover you for medical expenses, personal liability etc while you are cycling abroad.

Most insurance providers will either protect you or your bicycle, but very few will protect both under one policy. Those that do usually only cover a bike worth £1,000 or less. If this is you, then great! But if you’re the proud owner of a £1,000+ touring bike, this might not be good enough.

SportsCover Direct is the only provider I’ve been able to find that will allow you to add over £1,000 of equipment cover onto your travel insurance policy. They allow a whopping £5,600 of sporting equipment (bikes included) to be added to your plan, but you will pay through the nose for this.

If you want your bicycle to be covered as well as yourself, and don’t want to spend a small fortune on insurance, you’ll likely need to take out two separate policies:
1) Travel insurance to cover you for medical expenses etc while cycling.
2) Bicycle insurance to cover your bike against theft and vandalism.

If you own an expensive touring bike, you probably already have insurance for it. Just check that this insurance covers you in the countries you’ll be visiting and allows for cycle touring as an activity. You’ll also want to check if the insurance will still cover theft of the bike if it were to be taken from, say, a campsite or while it’s locked up outside a shop.

Luckily for me, my bike is not worth much in terms of actual money, so I don’t bother insuring it while I tour.

What you need to know when choosing cycle touring insurance

What doesn’t insurance cover?

Cycle touring insurance is unlikely to cover accidents that happen if:

• You are under the influence of drugs or alcohol
• You are not wearing a helmet
• You are cycling recklessly or unlawfully, such as passing through a red light
• You crash on a path or road where cycling is prohibited
• You travel to countries against FCDO advice, e.g. Syria, Afghanistan

Make sure to read up on the small print to understand what might make any claims void.

Does the policy protect your bicycle as well as you?

As I mentioned previously, there are very few travel insurance policies that will cover the loss, theft or damage of an expensive bicycle. Those that do will usually only cover a bike up to the value of £1,000. If your bike is worth more than this, consider taking out a separate bicycle insurance policy to protect it.

How long will you be touring?

Some cycle touring insurance policies have a limit on how long they will cover you. For example, Snowcard will cover up to 60 days of cycling touring only.

6 best cycle touring insurance providers

Below are my recommendations for some of the best cycle touring insurance providers. I’ll give an overview of each insurance policy and detail what it covers, as well as the quote I received for 3 months touring in Europe and 12 months touring worldwide to give you an idea of costs. (As a 28-year-old with no pre-existing medical conditions).

Note: The information provided below is accurate as of July 2023. Policy details and prices are likely to change; make sure to check the terms to ensure you’re covered for what you need.

1) World Nomads

I’ve used World Nomads extensively over the last decade, as their flexibility and great customer service have always made them an excellent choice. Their policy is available to residents from 130+ countries, covers over 200 adventure activities (including cycle touring), and can be extended indefinitely. The only caveat is that they do not cover personal liability for cycle touring. This is why I stopped using them for cycle touring trips, but the choice is, of course, yours.

You can read World Nomads’ policy on cycling-related travel here, but essentially, you’ll need to select the ‘cycling – level 2 – independent cycle touring’ add-on when buying your policy. World Nomads do not cover intercontinental cycle touring, but they are a good choice for a tour of any length that’ll be taking place on a single continent.

For 3 months touring in Europe, I was quoted £261. For 12 months touring worldwide, I was quoted £1,073.

2) Adventures Cover

The policy offered by Adventures Cover is, in my opinion, the most comprehensive and best-value option out there for cycle tours of 6 months or less. They offer a generous cover of £10 million in medical expenses, £2 million in personal liability and up to £1,000 for activity equipment. Just make sure to add ‘cycle touring’ from the activity options when buying your policy.

I was quoted £155 for 3 months touring in Europe and £605 for 6 months touring worldwide.

3) Big Cat Travel Insurance

Big Cat Travel Insurance prides itself on “whatever you’re doing, we’ve got you covered” and offers specialist travel insurance for backpacking, winter sports and extreme activities. When buying their policy, you can “add on” a range of different things to tailor the plan to your needs.

You must ensure you select the ‘activity pack’ when choosing your add-ons, otherwise, cycle touring will not be covered. You can also choose the ‘gadgets and valuables’ add-on to cover your bicycle against theft, loss and damage up to a value of £1,000.

For 3 months in Europe, I was quoted £84 on the Standard Plan with the “activity pack” add-on included. With “gadgets and valuables” added also to this, the total came to £140. For a 12-month worldwide trip, I was quoted £563 on the Standard Plan with the “activity pack” add-on included. With “gadgets and valuables” added to this, the total came to £733.

4) Yellow Jersey

Yellow Jersey are a UK-based insurance company designed specifically for cyclists. They offer policies for both bicycles AND for cycle travel. Their policies will cover you for up to 120 days.

Under their cycle travel policy, you’ll get £10 million in medical expenses and £2 million in personal liability. You’ll also get some great cycling-related benefits such as a £200 bike breakdown benefit, £250 cycle repatriation benefit and £2,000 gadget cover. If you’d like to add cover for your bicycle against theft, damage and vandalism as well, Yellow Jersey offers a separate bicycle insurance policy.

For a 30-day tour in Europe, I was quoted £99. For a 120-day worldwide tour, I was quoted £363. If your tour will be more than 30 days, you’ll have to choose “annual multi-trip” and select the number of days your trip will be.

5) SportsCover Direct

Under SportsCover Direct’s policy, you’ll need to select ‘cycle touring’ as an activity to be covered. They offer a comprehensive £10 million in medical expenses and £2 million in personal liability under their Bronze Plan. For a 3-month tour in Europe, I was quoted £154. For a 12-month worldwide tour, I was quoted £612.

SportsCover Direct’s Gold Plan will also provide extensive cover for lost, damaged or stolen bikes and equipment. This plan allows you to choose the total amount of sports equipment you want to cover — up to an incredible £5,600. Bear in mind that it does make the policy very expensive when you add on, for example, a £2,100 bike.

6) Snowcard

Snowcard are a UK travel insurance provider that specialises in winter and adventure sports cover. They can cover up to 60 days of cycle touring, which includes £10 million in emergency medical and rescue insurance and £2 million in personal liability.

The cost of their insurance plan varies depending on whether you’ll be touring on tarmac roads or off-road tracks, so be sure to check their activities covered page to see which level of insurance you’ll need to take out.

For a 30-day tour in Europe on tarmac roads, I was quoted £53.17. For a 60-day tour in USA/Canada on off-road tracks, I was quoted £409.31.

And there we have it — everything you need to know about choosing a cycle touring insurance policy and 6 great providers to choose from. What’s your experience with insurance for touring? Why not drop any positive/negative reviews of providers in the comments below to help out the cycle touring community? 😊

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Thank you for reading! If you found this post useful, I’d be grateful if you would consider using the affiliate links below when planning your travels. I’ll make a small commission at no extra cost to you. This will help me to keep this blog running. Thanks for your support — Lauren.

Hotels – Booking.com
Hostels – Hostelworld
Cheap flights – Booking.com
Travel insurance – World Nomads
Outdoor gear – Decathlon / GO Outdoors

Alternatively, you could buy me a coffee to say thanks!