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You've booked the flights, reserved the lodge, bought the lift tickets, maybe even rented the gear. Winter trips have a lot of moving parts, and it's worth knowing upfront what's actually protected if and when trip happens.
The short answer: yes, travel insurance can cover a wide range of winter trip mishaps. Below, we'll walk through what's covered in different scenarios and with different plans, so you can figure out which policy might work best for your trip
As always, your specific plan documents will have the clearest answers for your situation, so review your plan details and give our friendly, licensed experts a call if you have any questions about your coverage.
In general, we don’t recommend dwelling on all of life's worst-case scenarios. But when it comes to travel, especially in winter, it's worth considering what might interrupt your trip and how you can protect your plans ahead of time.
From flight delays to twisted knees to gear that never makes it off the plane, winter trips have a way of throwing curveballs. Here's a look at a few common scenarios travelers run into, and what’s typically covered in each.
After a year of planning, the snowboarding trip your kids have always dreamed of is finally here. You've booked the flights to Vail, the lodge reservations, lift tickets, board rentals — the works. Then, the night before you leave, both of your kids spike fevers out of nowhere. Suddenly you're wondering if you’ll have to cancel the trip and lose everything you’ve spent..
Ski trips are one of the more expensive trip options, running on average about $1200-2500 per person for a five-day trip. For this reason alone, travel insurance is a good idea.
In this case, trip cancellation benefits can reimburse you for your prepaid, nonrefundable trip costs should you have to cancel your travel plans for a covered reason — like the sudden, covered illness of a family member or travel companion. That means you can reschedule your vacation when everyone’s healthy, without losing money
You've booked a long weekend in Jackson Hole with a group of friends, flights and lift tickets locked in months ago. The first leg of your flight goes smoothly, but during your layover in Salt Lake City, a blizzard rolls through and grounds every flight in and out. You spend the next six hours camped out near your gate, watching flight after flight get cancelled...
No matter how you’re getting to your destination, winter weather can eat into the vacation time you planned for. The good news is, travel insurance can help.
Trip delay benefits can reimburse you for meals and a hotel room if you're stuck overnight waiting out the storm, whether that's in Salt Lake City or wherever you land. And if the delay costs you enough time that you never make it to the mountain at all, trip interruption benefits can step in to cover what you'd already paid for and can't use, like an unused night at the lodge or a lift ticket you never got to redeem.
You've flown in a day early to get settled before hitting the slopes in Breckenridge. At baggage claim, your suitcase shows up, but your ski bag doesn't. An airline rep tells you it missed the connection and won't arrive until tomorrow, maybe. When it finally does show up, you unzip it to find one ski cracked straight through the middle..
Winter sports equipment is expensive (and bulky), and airlines don't always get it where it needs to go, on time and in one piece. Travel insurance makes sure you have what you need to enjoy your trip, no matter what.
Baggage loss and damage coverage can protect you if your skis, snowboard, boots, or poles don't arrive with you or arrive damaged, as long as the gear was checked rather than carried on. Seven Corners Trip Protection also offers an optional sporting equipment rental benefit, so you can rent replacement gear if your equipment doesn't arrive on time.
You're a few runs into your first day, finally hitting your stride. On what should've been an easy blue run, another skier cuts across your path out of nowhere. You swerve hard to avoid a collision, catch an edge, and go down. By the time ski patrol reaches you, your knee has swollen to twice its size. You're loaded onto a sled and brought down the mountain...
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than 124,000 winter sports injuries are treated in U.S. emergency rooms every year, with skiers and snowboarders averaging a couple of injuries for every 1,000 days spent on the mountain.
The good news is travel insurance can cover injuries incurred on your trip, and can also include evacuation and repatriation benefits if you need to be transported to a facility that can provide the level of care your condition requires.
With a Travel Medical plan, some winter sports may require adding Adventure Activities protection, and some may be too adventurous for your plan selection. To make sure you’re covered, it’s worth double-checking your plan document when you get a quote or sharing all of your planned activities with a Seven Corners agent before you buy. Our licensed agents can help you customize your coverage to ensure you’re as protected as possible for the activities you have planned.
You're three days into a ski trip to Chile when disaster strikes: you're walking back to your hotel after dinner and you get mugged. Your wallet and your passport are taken, and you're left on the curb with a possible concussion. You don't speak Spanish, you're not sure how a police report works here, you don’t know how to find a doctor, and you have no idea how to replace your documents so you can get home...
For travel and medical emergencies (in all seasons — not just winter!), Seven Corners Assist is available 24/7 to help you find care and communicate clearly no matter where you are, with translators available in over 130 languages
In emergency situations like this, our Assist team can help you:
Communicate with locals through live translation support
Connect with the local embassy to help you replace your passport
Find nearby medical care for any covered emergencies
Arrange a medical evacuation, repatriation, and more
In general, the sooner you buy, the better protected you are. If you're getting a Trip Protection plan, that's especially true. Since cancellation benefits are tied to purchasing your plan close to your initial trip deposit, buying early gives you the widest window of coverage, including protection against unforeseen events that pop up between booking and departure.
If you're mainly looking for medical coverage through a Travel Medical plan, timing isn't quite as make-or-break, though it's still smart not to wait until the last minute.
It’s important to note that plan availability also depends on where you live:
If you're a U.S. resident, you can buy Trip Protection or Travel Medical Excluding the USA. Frequent travelers may also be interested in Seven Corners Trip Protection Annual Multi-Trip and Travel Medical Annual Multi-Trip plans.
If you're a non-U.S. resident, you can buy Travel Medical Including the USA or Travel Medical Global.
With the details and scenarios out of the way, here's a simple way to decide which plan actually makes sense for your trip:
Want cancellation, trip delay, and gear rental protection built in? Trip Protection is likely your best fit, especially for trips with real financial stakes, like a prepaid ski chalet or a package resort trip.
Traveling internationally, with medical coverage as your top priority? A Travel Medical plan may be the better starting point, with the option to add Adventure Activities protection for winter sports.
Planning a ski, snowboard, or winter sports trip inside the United States? U.S. residents traveling domestically will want a Trip Protection plan, since Travel Medical plans are designed for international travel.
Are you traveling on a budget and not worried about protecting trip costs? A Travel Medical plan may be a more affordable way to cover you for medical expenses only provided you’re traveling internationally.
Traveling from outside the U.S.? Our Travel Medical options are built for international travelers, with or without a U.S. stop along the way.
Every trip is different, and the right plan often comes down to where you live, where you're headed, what you've already paid for, and how much protection you want around your gear and your itinerary. A licensed Seven Corners agent can help you sift through all of the options based on your specific trip.
However you get your thrills this winter — carving down a mountain, gliding across a frozen lake, or racing a sled downhill, the right coverage means you can focus on the trip instead of the what-ifs.
If you already know which plan fits your trip, or want help weighing your options, our licensed agents are ready to help you find the right coverage before you hit the slopes.
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