Group expedition insurance

Organising an expedition means carrying more than a berth block. You are collecting names, dates of birth, residency details and proof of cover while the operator sets deadlines and your members keep changing plans. We take that off you. One enquiry covers the whole group, and the trip is assessed against cover written for expedition travel rather than against a holiday policy.

Cover for the activities retail policies exclude

Retail travel policies exclude or restrict the activities that make an expedition possible. Travel to Antarctica, the Arctic, South Georgia, Svalbard or Greenland involves remote routes, specialist activities and operator requirements that need a considered pathway. We assess whether your group and each traveller may be eligible for cover under the policies that cover expedition activity, subject to the carrier's terms.

The expedition groups we cover

Five kinds of group come to us repeatedly. Each one runs into the same wall for a different reason.

Amateur radio DXpeditions

A club team travels to activate a remote island or an Antarctic site, often reached by charter vessel and often for weeks at an uninhabited location. Transmitting equipment moves with the team, antennas and towers go up on arrival, and activation dates shift with the weather. One club officer is usually arranging the whole thing for everyone. See DXpedition travel insurance.

Citizen science and research expeditions

University field teams, NGO survey parties and citizen science berths on an expedition vessel. The host institution or the operator usually demands documented proof of cover before anyone boards, and fieldwork counts as more than sightseeing once small boat work and sampling are on the plan. Participants arrive with mixed ages and nationalities, and grant timelines do not bend. See citizen science expedition insurance.

Expedition photography and film

Workshop leaders, photo tours and documentary crews. The split between travel medical cover and equipment cover is where these groups get caught, and drones, long lenses, zodiac work and shore landings all have to be declared as planned activity. Crew often join late, and a leader who is technically working rather than holidaying is assessed differently from a paying participant. See expedition photography insurance.

Polar diving and ski touring

Dive teams and ski touring groups meet hazardous activity exclusions that void an ordinary policy outright, not merely limit it. Certification and depth conditions apply to the divers, crevasse and avalanche terrain applies to the skiers, and both need a realistic view of hyperbaric treatment access and of evacuation from a vessel or a glacier. See polar diving insurance.

Camping in Antarctica

Groups camping on the continent, whether that is one night ashore from an expedition vessel or a deep field camp for a season. Overnight exposure on the ice changes the assessment, and so does the point where camping stops and mountaineering begins. Flight supported logistics, weather driven changes and evacuation timelines from a camp all belong in the enquiry. See camping in Antarctica insurance.

Eligibility depends on the itinerary, the activities, residency, traveller details and the carrier's assessment.

One organiser, one contact

As the organiser you need answers without becoming everyone else's insurance administrator. One person handles your whole group, so questions, documents and next steps all land in the same place. That matters when an operator wants proof of cover by a fixed date, when a participant needs an activity clarified, or when the itinerary moves. No chasing across a dozen separate email chains.

One account manager handles your whole group. They coordinate the onboarding, explain what information the carrier needs and keep the group moving towards its deadline. They do not replace individual assessment. They make the process manageable for the person carrying it.

Each traveller is assessed on their own details

Your account manager collects each traveller's details directly. You are not retyping a roster, chasing private information or guessing at another adult's health, residence or travel arrangements.

The individual step matters more than it looks. One member lives in a different country. Another has booked separate flights either side of the voyage. Another joins six weeks after everyone else and expects to slot straight in. Each of those facts belongs to the traveller, and each is assessed on its own merits, subject to the carrier's terms.

It also gives you a clean record when the operator asks for evidence that every person on the manifest has arranged suitable cover. Documents are issued per person, because each person is assessed as a person.

What to send us first

A useful first enquiry describes the expedition, not the individuals. Destination, approximate dates, the operator, the expected number of travellers, the full activity list including the optional and weather dependent parts, and any insurance requirement the operator has already stated in writing. Say whether the group travels from one country or several.

Raise anything that sits outside ordinary sightseeing. Shore camping, diving, antenna and tower work, drone or remote photography access, glacier travel, fieldwork. Those are the details that decide the pathway, and they are far easier to resolve while the group is still planning than in the week before the manifest closes.

When your itinerary and activity list are ready, use the group enquiry form below. Tell us the destination, the activities, the dates and the shape of the group.