Insurance FAQ

We strongly recommend that you invest in Emergency Medical insurance to cover emergency medical expenses during the tour. It can reimburse eligible medical costs in case of a medical or dental emergency.

We also recommend Trip Cancellation and Interruption insurance. This coverage protects you financially in case you get sick or an unexpected event forces you to cancel your trip, come home early or delay your return home.

Some of our tours require travel insurance. This will be outlined in your Booking Confirmation email.

All our Eagle-Eye tours are pre-paid tours. According to our cancellation policies, your payment to us will become non-refundable if you cancel your participation after the deadlines outlined in our policies.

In general, Trip Cancellation insurance reimburses you for non-refundable costs if you are unable to join the tour. Trip Interruption reimburses you additional unexpected expenses incurred during your travel (e.g. additional hotel or flight costs due to weather delays or other delays that are not covered by your airline). It may also reimburse you for the unused portion of your tour if you have to leave part-way through a tour. It is important to check the details of your policy to confirm coverages and the amount of coverage. .

Here’s an example for a Trip Cancellation insurance claim:
Let’s assume you break your ankle two days before you are supposed to depart on our trip to Costa Rica and you can no longer join the tour. Because you have cancelled less than 60 days prior to one of our land tours, your payment to us is 100% non-refundable. If you have Trip Cancellation insurance in place, you would then make a claim with your insurance provider to recover your financial loss.

Here’s an example of a Trip Interruption claim:

There is a significant weather event that impacts your arrival to the tour start location and your flight is delayed, resulting in an extra hotel night, additional meals and a taxi to catch up with the group. These additional unforeseen expenses are eligible for a Trip Interruption claim.

To all our Canadian & US clients, we can offer Emergency Medical insurance, Trip Cancellation and Interruption insurance as well as All-Inclusive insurance policies for your trip.

If you are neither a resident of Canada nor the United States and are travelling to Canada for your trip, we can offer you Medical Emergency insurance only.

If you are neither a resident of Canada nor the United States and your trip destination is outside of Canada, we recommend you consult a local insurance agent to assist you with your travel insurance needs.

You do not have to buy travel insurance right when you sign up for your trip, but you can get additional benefits if you do!

Buying travel insurance at the same time as signing up for your trip is especially beneficial when purchasing Trip Cancellation and Interruption insurance, because it gives you the opportunity to add an additional benefit called ‘Cancel for Any Reason’ to your policy (more on this in the next section). Essentially, this provides a partial refund if you have to cancel for a reason that is not covered by your insurance policy.

We work with many fantastic insurance suppliers, but please note that they all have different timeframes for purchasing this extra benefit, from 24 hours to 2 weeks after paying your deposit.

If you think this is something you’d be interested in, please let us know immediately.

Please note that if you do add the ‘Cancel for Any Reason’ benefit to your policy, the same timeframe applies if/when you want to increase the amount of coverage insured.

If you are looking to buy Emergency Medical insurance for your trip, it is best to buy it when you are in good health and with no assumption that that may change.

We believe that the best practice for buying All-Inclusive or Trip Cancellation and Interruption policies, is to purchase the policy at the same time as submitting your booking. We would assume that your travel dates are your tour dates and estimate your trip cost as the tour price. Upon tour confirmation (typically between 120-90 days prior to our land tours) we can then adjust your travel days to cover your entire trip, in case you arrive early or stay longer after the tour. We can also increase the amount insured on your insurance policy to match your invoice, in case you have added additional hotel nights or other non-refundable expenses. In this way, your travel investment is appropriately insured throughout the booking process and a financial loss due to an unforeseen cancellation is minimized.

Think of something that may force you to cancel your trip and that something is not a covered reason listed in your policy you may want to purchase insurance with a ‘Cancel for Any Reason’ benefit.

Here are a few examples that we can think of:

• Your dog has fallen ill and you are not comfortable leaving him in someone else’s care. This is not a covered reason but may be a legitimate reason for you not to go, you may file a claim under your Cancel for Any Reason benefit and recover some of your pre-paid travel arrangements.
• You may change your mind about travelling more than 2 weeks prior to departure, even though we would not be able to refund your payment at that time, you could recover a portion of your payment through a claim under your Cancel for Any Reason benefit.

Cancel for Any Reason” coverage is not a free pass—it can still result in a significant financial loss. Terms vary by policy, but generally, if you cancel at least 7–14 days before the departure date listed on your confirmation, your insurer may reimburse only 50%–75% of your covered, non-refundable trip payments.

Most insurance policies cover pre-existing medical conditions that are stable for a period of time prior to when the policy becomes effective.

For Cancellation and Interruption insurance policies, pre-existing conditions would have to be stable prior to purchase of the policy.

For Emergency Medical insurance policies, pre-existing conditions have to be stable prior to the start of your travels.

The stability period is often 90 days, but varies depending on your personal situation. We can tell you more about the stability period that applies to you and please read your policy to understand what is and is not covered.

This might be a great option for you! But do your due diligence and find out the details!

In most cases, you need to pay the deposit and the tour balance with your credit card to be eligible for the trip cancellation & interruption insurance offered through your credit card provider. This may not be required for emergency medical benefits provided by your credit card. 

A few key aspects to understand: Do your credit card insurance benefits include medical coverage for out of state/province travel? What are the terms for trip cancellation & interruption insurance? Some of our tours require a minimum medical evacuation coverage amount, does your credit card cover this amount?

We can only offer travel insurance to:

• Residents of Canada or the United States who are travelling internationally, or
• International travelers who are visiting Canada.

If you do not fall into one of these categories, we recommend arranging travel insurance through a provider based in your country of residence.

For Canadian clients purchasing insurance from our providers: If Eagle-Eye Tours cancels the tour, resulting in a full refund or travel credit, you may also be eligible for a full refund of your insurance premium if your policy is no longer needed. If you purchase your insurance from another provider, please check their terms.

For U.S. clients:  If Eagle-Eye Tours cancels the tour, resulting in a full refund or travel credit, your premium may or may not be refundable. If no refund is available, you have the option to transfer your travel insurance coverage to a different trip.