4 Best High Altitude Trekking Travel Insurance Policies

After years of experience and research, here are the current best trekking travel insurance options for high-altitude hiking and expeditions without altitude caps.

So, you’re planning an epic adventure, trek, or expedition, and you’ve just found out that your regular travel insurance won’t cover you above a certain altitude.

Yep, I’ve been there too.

It turns out that finding quality travel insurance that covers adventure sports like mountaineering or trekking at high altitudes is quite difficult. That’s because most regular & long-term travel insurance companies will void coverage above a certain altitude– usually in the range of 4,500-5,000 meters (14,760-16,400 feet).

Not convinced? Read the small print!

Overview: Best High Altitude & Trekking Travel Insurance

In summary, there are 4 insurance options that I've personally used to ensure coverage for trekking and adventure sports at high altitudes above 4,500 meters. Here they are– with an overview of changes in the past year:

• Global Rescue - now requires a high-altitude evacuation add-on if trekking above 4,600 m but still offers the most affordable annual policy with reliable heli-rescue.
• World Nomads - prices have increased & no more 7,000 m coverage on the Explorer plan. Limited to 6,000 m in altitude.
• Garmin Search & Rescue (only with an InReach device) - SAR High Risk now has 5,000 m altitude cap. Added a SAR High Altitude option for $999 per year.
• SafetyWing - New to the list: now offers coverage up to 6,000 m with the "Adventure Sports" add-on.

Verdict: After trying several coverage options for long treks and expeditions in the Nepal Himalayas, Tanzania, and South America, I've concluded that Global Rescue still offers the best coverage for my trips at the best price.

That said, the best rescue and travel insurance for you will depend heavily on your trip specifics and destination—whether you're tackling the Everest Base Camp Trek in Nepal, the K2 Base Camp in the Karakoram, or exploring the peaks of the South American Andes.

Note: I'll break down each option below. I update this regularly, but always check the policy details yourself as things can change fast.

Current Best Rescue Policy

In a rush? I recommend checking out Global Rescue. This is the policy I use as they offer yearly and trek-based memberships that include helicopter rescue coverage with no altitude caps on the high-altitude plan.

Get Global Rescue

Update: Changes in the High Altitude Insurance Industry

In recent years, the high-altitude trekking insurance landscape has shifted dramatically due to heli-evac scams in Nepal. This has been dude to trekking companies, especially on popular routes like Everest Base Camp, offering unnecessary helicopter evacuations & profiting from hefty commissions.

This issue has been ongoing for years—since at least 2018, with reports like Traveller Assist finding that 35% of the 1,600 helicopter rescues in Nepal between January and August 2018 were fraudulent, costing insurers around $4 million.

The result? Premiums have risen sharply, especially for Nepal and overall, high-altitude trekking insurance has become more expensive, often requiring costly add-ons for altitude coverage.

Sadly, the days of affordable high-altitude trekking insurance are behind us. If you want coverage for the high mountains now, be prepared to budget for it—it can nearly match the cost of the trek itself! Here are your options below.

1. Global Rescue Membership

Global Rescue offers arguably the most popular and best-value rescue memberships on the high-altitude and trekking scene. There's a reason why most of the major expedition companies and travel agents in Nepal recommend this plan to their clients.

As part of their Travel Services membership, they provide coverage for:

• Worldwide Field Rescue - deployable teams standing by to rescue members in dangerous or remote environments
• Medical Evacuation - deployable medical teams capable of transporting members back to their home country hospitals anywhere in the world
• Medical & Security Advisory - Global Rescue's staff includes paramedics, nurses, and military special operations veterans who are on-call to advise on security and provide virtual medical assistance in an emergency
• Other travel assistance services - including visa and passport, hospital referrals, translation services, logistics management, and coordination

While this rescue and evacuation insurance for trekkers used to have no altitude cap, you now need to add the "High Altitude Evacuation" if stepping above 4,600 m which almost doubles the price. However, with this add-on, there are no caps, meaning this policy will cover you at the summit of Mount Everest.

Memberships are available on an annual or short-term basis (7, 14, or 30 days), which makes this plan very flexible and affordable. However, prices have increased in 2024 and if you're doing more than one hiking trip per year, it's now worth getting the annual plan.

Important: Keep in mind that a Global Rescue membership is not a traditional travel insurance plan. This means that you won't be covered for things like trip cancellations, delays, baggage, or emergency medical and dental.

However, they do offer an add-on travel insurance policy with IMG (IMG Signature Travel Insurance), which will cover all of these things, on top of your high-altitude coverage and rescue/evacuation coverage.

Alternatively, a cheaper option is to consider an affordable general travel insurance provider like HeyMondo to complement your Global Rescue membership. HeyMondo offers insurance up to 5,000 meters in altitude and has an excellent Travel Assistance App available 24/7.

Student discount: Global Rescue offers student membership discounts which is great if you're taking a gap year or semester abroad.

2. World Nomads Travel Insurance

World Nomads Travel Insurance is one of the industry leaders in adventure travel insurance. You will need to check their PDS for coverage when trekking at high altitudes up to 6,000 meters, and make sure to check "trekking" and "hiking" in the quote.

World Nomads is the only traditional insurance company that I know of offering trekking travel insurance with a solid claims record and a good reputation in the backpacker and adventure travel community. Their travel insurance plans offer varying levels of coverage (Explorer and Standard) but are both quite comprehensive:

• Overseas dental and medical expenses (including altitude sickness)
• Trip protection (trip cancellation)
• Stolen credit cards
• Delayed baggage
• Travel Delay
• Emergency evacuation (medical evacuation coverage)

World Nomads have been around for a long time. In fact, I used to use their annual policies when I first started traveling full-time for work, before I switched to the more affordable SafetyWing insurance (4,500 m altitude cap or 6,000 with their "Adventure Sports" addon)– combined with the Global Rescue annual membership for expeditions.

3. Garmin Search & Rescue Insurance (With A Supported Device)

Garmin isn't a company that you'd traditionally expect to provide travel insurance or high altitude Search and Rescue coverage.

However, this global tech giant has recently begun offering Search and Rescue (SAR) Insurance plans to those who own one of their compatible satellite communication devices like the popular and affordable InReach Mini.

Here are their policies:

• SAR 100: $39.95 - no high-risk activities, only trekking at low altitudes
• SAR HR: $299.95 - covers high-risk activities like base jumping and wingsuits, but frustratingly no hiking above 5,000 m
• SAR High Altitude: $999.95 - high-risk activities & no altitude caps.

Important: You need to use a Garmin device to call the helicopter evacuation or search and rescue team. Because of this, the basic coverage is very cheap.

The way that this policy works is that Garmin will cover financial reimbursement of up to $100,000 USD for qualified search and rescue-related expenses (usually more than enough for heli-evac) when you use your Garmin satellite device for SOS, resulting in the Garmin IERCC coordinating your rescue.

Unfortunately, the basic policy for $39.95 per year has an altitude cap of 5,000 meters. While we used to be able to get coverage with no altitude caps on the SAR High Risk ($299.95), this has now been capped to 5,000 m as well.

Instead, if you're planning to trek at altitude, you'll need the SAR High Altitude Annual Plan, which costs $999.95– now much more expensive than the Global Rescue yearly plan with the high altitude add-on.

While the Garmin SAR High Altitude policy covers all adventure sports from rock climbing in remote areas to BASE jumping, to wingsuits– it's very frustrating that it will now not cover any trek or high-altitude mountaineering expedition above 5,000 m as of 2024.

In the past, I used the SAR High Risk policy for my trek up to Mera Peak in Nepal (6,476 m) and while I didn't have to activate it, it provided me with one of the most cost-effective trekking travel insurance policies for mountains above 6,000 meters. These days, I stick to Global Rescue.

Bonus: The InReach lets me stay in contact with family members with basic SMS messaging over satellite, anywhere on Earth.

How I Stay Connected Off-Grid

I've been using the Garmin InReach Mini satellite communicator for all serious treks and expeditions since 2020.

It lets me send unlimited SMS anywhere on earth and has an emergency SOS feature that could save your life.

View on Amazon

SafetyWing with Adventure Sports Add-On (6,000 m cap)

SafetyWing is a favorite among digital nomads for its affordable, flexible travel medical insurance. It’s very popular for long-term travelers, covering a wide range of general medical needs and I've been using them for years.

This year, they introduced an Adventure Sports add-on, and surprisingly, it now covers mountaineering up to 6,000 meters. That’s huge for trekkers tackling popular routes like Kilimanjaro or the Andes, where altitude coverage is usually hard to find at this price point.

Additionally, its similar to a regular travel insurance policy, so you'll also get coverage for:

• Hospital treatment for illness or injury (inpatient and outpatient)
• Emergency medical evacuation to the nearest suitable facility
• Repatriation if needed for medical reasons
• Emergency dental treatment
• Ambulance and emergency transport

Note: I haven’t personally made a claim with SafetyWing for high-altitude rescue, but after reaching out to Carl from their support team, I was assured that helicopter rescues are covered with the Adventure Sports add-on. Still, it’s worth double-checking yourself as well.

That said, if your trek stays under 6,000 meters, this is one of the most affordable options out there.

Why Choose Trekking Insurance Over General Travel Insurance?

Let's face it, there's a reason why a regular backpacking travel insurance provider will void coverage the minute you step over a certain altitude. That is, things can go wrong in the mountains.

The last thing any trekker or mountaineer wants is to fall into debt after a costly helicopter evacuation mission. Trust me, speaking from personal experience, I've seen people fall ill with altitude sickness to the point that they required evacuation.

In fact, these issues are likely more common than you think and happen all the time on popular trails like the EBC, Three Passes, or the Machu Picchu Trek.

However, with one of the above trekking travel insurance policies or rescue memberships, you should be covered for any medical emergency or evacuation as long as it falls within their policy schedules. Remember, it's your duty to read the PDS and make your own decisions based on your trip.

Best Travel Insurance for Trekking Up to 6,000 m