Travel insurance - Tips & Advice - Holiday health

Everyone expects something different from their holiday. Some people love lounging by the pool for ten days, reading books, sunbathing and generally chilling out. Other people love nothing more that wandering around ancient ruins and historical sights. Then there are the adrenaline junkies who love white water rafting, abseiling and mountain biking.

For the latter group, a relatively high level of fitness is required. But what if you are planning something less strenuous and don’t generally get much exercise? For instance, what if you have decided to go on a holiday that will involve lots of walking or trekking, a certain amount of cycling and maybe some other outdoor activities?

The last thing you will want is to wear yourself out or possibly injure yourself, so what can you do to get yourself as fit as possible?

Getting started

Kat Campbell is a qualified fitness instructor at Riptide Fitness Centre in Brighton – she says there are some basic rules to follow.

'If you are planning on taking an activity holiday and you don’t normally get much exercise, I’d recommend going and seeing your doctor beforehand for a check up, just to make sure that you are in good enough health to take part. The older you are, the more important this is.'

Once you have a clean bill of health, the secret of enjoying your holiday is to do as much sensible exercise as possible before you go away to raise your levels of fitness.

Here are Kat’s tips for people thinking of going on an activity holiday who normally do little or no exercise:

• Get a medical check up and once you have the all-clear try and start as much in advance of your holiday as possible, but aim for at least six weeks.
• Start slowly!! If you were training for a marathon, you wouldn’t expect to be able to run like Paula Radcliffe from day one.
• Listen to your body – see how it feels when you are exercising and also see how it feels the next day. Expect a few aches, but if you are in pain stop immediately or take a rest day. If pain continues, go and see your doctor.
• Try and duplicate the type of exercise you will be doing on holiday – so if you are going to be cycling, go cycling, if you are going to be walking up and down hills, try and do the same.
• If this isn’t possible then just make sure that you are getting some cardiovascular exercise that will help raise your heart rate.
• If you are going to be walking a lot then it makes sense to break in a pair of proper shoes in advance – blisters can be nasty and could spoil your holiday.
• You should ultimately be aiming to exercise at least three times a week for a minimum of 30 minutes – this should be continuous effort. If this is comfortable then you can go for longer or with more intensity. If you can’t reach this level comfortably, aim to do as much as you can.
• If possible, exercise with the person you are going on holiday with – it can help with motivation.
• Swimming is great exercise as it is ‘low impact’ – you are not putting undue stress on your joints.

As Kat concludes: 'Once you get started, you might find you like exercising. But by sticking to these basic guidelines you should hopefully have a pleasant and injury-free holiday.'

It's important to have travel insurance so that you are covered for the non-contact activities you want to do, especially when there is a lot of physical exercise involved that could put you at risk of injury.

With Direct Line travel insurance, there are stipulations on the ‘insured activities’ our policy will cover. You can find a list of these activities in the travel insurance policy documents on this website.

Anything not on these lists, or that is not organised by your hotel, your operator or a recognised provider of the service, may be considered a ‘dangerous activity’.

If you hurt yourself while taking part, you will not be able to make a claim with Direct Line travel insurance.

If you are a Direct Line travel insurance policyholder and you are unsure about whether a certain activity will be covered, please call us and one of our advisors will be able to tell you if your cover is affected. 

Sometimes we can cover the activity for a small increase in your premium.

Related information:
Advice on activity holidays – more information about how your travel insurance may be affected by the activities you take part in on holiday.
Take a gap year – tips on how to choose where to go and what to do when you get there.
Advice on working abroad – we direct you to the best resources to use to plan a trip working abroad, as well as provide some advice on the type of travel insurance you may need.