Get insured for your Summer Camp adventure!

If you’re looking for an alternative way to spend your Summer break this year, you may have booked onto a cultural exchange, or work program. or be considering the idea. If you’re able to commit some or all of your holiday, this kind of venture can be a unique and rewarding way of combining both travel and work experience. One popular choice is to work on an American Summer camp.

There is a time-honoured tradition for young Americans, to spend some time away from their parents in a beautiful setting, and enjoy a wide variety of sports, leisure and creative activities in their school holidays. You could be an integral and important part of the experience for the young people going on the camp, and also make new friends and gain useful skills, along the way.

The way camps typically  work, is that they charge you a fee to cover their costs in relation to an interview, processing your application, medical insurance etc. You also pay for your flight to and from the USA. At the end of your placement, you can receive some financial reward at the end of your placement too.This will be useful if you intend to take advantage of any time that you are free to travel round the USA, after your stint finishes. The terms and conditions relating to your employment vary according to your chosen camp, so do check specifically what is involved with your choice of camp organisation.

There are a multitude of roles involved with keeping the camp up and running, whether it be a job that involves regular interaction with kids, or a more logistical role. This may well vary according to your preferences, your age, and your personal skills and work experiences. Typical jobs include a sports instructor, special needs support, assisting kids  arts and crafts, maintenance, gardening or working in food preparation of housekeeping.

Whatever role you end up doing, the potential benefits include making new friends from around the world, exploring a different culture and country (both in your days off, and travel time after the Camp) , and also developing your independence and self-confidence, and demonstrating your potential worth to a future employer or academic institution.

If you’ve decided to spend your Summer in America or another country, or another similar project where you are either in paid or voluntary work, you will need to investigate getting travel insurance for your time away.

We have covered many young people who have been lucky enough to get  a job at a Summer camp, and they have been undertaking a variety of roles whilst away – ranging from sports coaching to lifeguarding to food preparation.

You might be wondering why you can’t take a standard travel insurance policy, or rely on the fact that your employer has arranged medical cover for you…..

The organisation that you’re working for, may well have some form of medical insurance, in case you become injured or ill whilst away, but this may be confined to covering limited treatments within the country that you’re based. If a serious illness or injury occurs, you may well want to be brought back to the UK for treatment to continue under the NHS, but the cost of repatriation back to the UK wouldn’t be covered by standard employer insurance.

Our Working Holiday policy is a specialist travel insurance policy which has been developed in response to the growing number of Brits who are combining their travel adventures with an element of paid or voluntary work. It offers comprehensive travel insurance benefits such as cover for personal belongings, your personal money and travel documents, and other benefits listed here under the ‘Compare our Working Holiday policy‘ tab.

You also have the reassurance that should you become injured or ill whilst at work (or in your leisure time), then you will be covered for the costs of medical treatment under your policy. In order to reflect the risks and responsibilities involved with your particular profession or occupation, there are four grades of Work Packs, which are applied according to the role you will be doing. Take a look at the four Work Packs here, and additional useful information. If necessary, the policy will also ensure that you are repatriated back to the UK, should it be appropriate to do so.

Other appealing policy benefits, include, being able to take the policy out for a maximum duration of two years away from the UK, and the chance to be covered for up to two return trips back to the UK, of up to 21 days at a time. If you need to come back more times, there is also the option to extend these benefits to up to four return trips back to the UK.

A new option that has also recently become available, is to add gadget cover on to your policy. This is a useful addition if you would like cover for an expensive mobile phone, laptop, camera or many other items of tech that people like to take away when they travel. We can offer cover in partnership with specialist provider Bastion, for up to 2 years away from the UK. Please take a look here for more information, and a link to the full wordings, terms and conditions.

The policy aims to provide you with both the flexibility of covering your individual work and travel plans, and also the invaluable reassurance that you are covered both in your work and leisure times, for problems that may arise.

So, if you’re planning to do work or volunteer abroad this year , please do get in touch to discuss your individual plans, with our helpful and efficient team, who can ensure that not only will you have the time of your life – but you’ll also be covered when life throws you an unexpected curve ball….

Give us a ring in our UK-based office on 01424 559205 Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm, or complete a Working Holiday enquiry form to us, and we will reply within one working day.
Read a testimonial from a Go Walkabout customer here about why he chose one of our innovative Working Holiday policies.

Take a look at our reviews on the independent review site FEEFO to see why we attract so many repeat customers who value our unrivalled customer service and great value policies.

Genuine customer feedback:

“I would certainly recommend this company, especially if you are going abroad for a long time and/or are working/volunteering.”

“I spoke to a team member who was extremely helpful and dealt with every question I had to create a package perfect for me! Would definitely recommend.”

“Mark was exceedingly helpful, taking the time to go through all the options, and finding the best policy for me and my career. Most companies did not have a comparable policy to cover what I required, and for it to be as inexpensive as it was left me very happily surprised! No other company was able to offer anything remotely as flexible or as comprehensive as Go Walkabout. Hats off to you guys!”