To complete our guide about how to choose a travel insurance and our interactive comparison table of the best backpacker insurances, we decided to create special pages dedicated to the best travel insurance for a round the world trip.
In this article we will talk more about a travel insurance very well known from French backpackers: AVI international.
Who are AVI International ?
AVI International, as well as Chapka, ACS Insurance or SafetyWing, has been a travel insurance broker since 1981 (we were not even born 🙂 ). With more than 35 years of experience in the field, AVI has built an excellent reputation in the industry and now has more than 400 partners worldwide.
If they are so well known in France, it is certainly thanks to their collaboration with “Le Routarde” guidebooks… One of their products is called Routard insurance 😉
As with most other travel insurance, with AVI International, everything happens online. You will subscribe to your insurance directly on their website, your documents will be accessible on your account, your claims can also be made on the internet etc…
But recently, AVI has gone even further with a mobile application that will allow you to access all your documents offline, call the support desk with a single click (and the call is free) if necessary or access a FAQ full of useful information in case of doubt. It is quite reassuring to have access to this information on your mobile these days.
Marco Polo : The travel insurance for backpackers
The Marco Polo insurance was designed for long-term travelers and backpackers. It is therefore valid for trips of at least 2 months and at most 12 months. It has a very extensive coverage and offers very attractive price/quality ratio (especially since September 2014).
To give you an idea, it covers all the important points such as hospitalization, medical expenses, repatriation, luggage, civil liability etc… and all this is covered at the first euro without deductible and with largely sufficient guarantees!
This coverage offers very advantageous prices, especially for trips in Europe and families with rates starting at 29€/month. Of course, as with all other insurances, if you travel to the USA and Canada, the prices will be increased because medical expenses in North America are much more expensive!
As you will have understood, it is a very extensive insurance and it is perfect for backpackers. If you want all the details of this coverage, go to the AVI Marco Polo page to learn more.
BONUS: Especially for you dear readers, if you use the link below to subscribe to your AVI insurance, you will receive a TOTAL DISCOUNT OF 5%!!!! Isn’t it cool?
Marco Polo Insurance + 5% discount
Other insurances from AVI International
You may be aware of this, but AVI does not only offer insurance coverage for backpackers 🙂 . You will also find offers for your holidays of less than 2 months, if you are going on a working holiday visa, if you want to study abroad or if you want to try the expatriation adventure.
Here is an overview of the other interesting insurance policies at AVI international :
- Routard Insurance : Well known to French tourists and born from a collaboration with “Le Routard” guides, it is the equivalent of Marco Polo coverage for trips shorter than 2 months. If you think that the guarantees offered by your credit card are not sufficient, this coverage is for you.
Prices start at 19€ / week in Europe and 26€ / week worldwide. And if you need more information, check out the Routard insurance page on their website. - Working Holiday Insurance : This is the coverage that will allow you to go on a WHV (work permit) in Canada, Australia, Argentina or New Zealand with peace of mind. You will be insured for all manual activities (fruit picking in Australia, harvesting in Argentina…) as well as for short stays of up to 2 weeks in neighbouring countries. In terms of guarantees, nothing new and it’s very similar to what you have with the Marco Polo and the Routard insurance.
So if you are lucky enough to try the Working Holiday adventure (I say that because in Switzerland WHV do not exist 🙁 ), this insurance is for you. More details on AVI’s Working Holiday insurance page. - Other coverages: We will not go into the details of each other coverage that AVI International offers, but you should know that you will find insurance for the following special cases:
The little plus of AVI: the solidarity travel grant
We know that the travel insurance step is a pain for most of you, so when an insurance company makes an effort to make everything more human and invest in good causes, we may as well talk about it!
So what is this solidarity travel grant ?
Created in 2011, it rewards each year 3 travel projects that have an “international solidarity” dimension. Projects can be social, scientific, cultural or educational in nature and the scholarship is open to French, Belgian and Swiss people (youhouu). A sum of 1000€ per project is given and the Marco Polo travel insurance is offered to the winners
Having been in the jury in 2016, we saw many wonderful projects pass before our eyes and we would have liked to support more than 3 of them, but we had to choose carefully! In the end, we decided to reward:
- Plants and people: a project to develop urban green spaces and preserve traditional plant knowledge in a slum north of Lima, Peru.
- In my place: A documentary project combining the testimony of two generations of women in Peru: those who were victims of forced sterilization in the 1990s, and those who are now fighting for the right to abortion.
- the design and co-development of an animal-drawn tool for potato cultivation on the Bolivian altiplano
A little personal advice if you want to apply for the AVI solidarity grant, even if it is always great to want to bring a solidarity dimension to a long trip (like a trip around the world by volunteering or helping humanitarian associations), the projects that are rewarded have the “international solidarity” dimension that prevails and their instigators often use their skills to help other people. To submit your project, all the information is here
Anyway, Congratulations to AVI International for this great initiative and long live the solidarity travel grant.
AVI International : our opinion
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