I finally booked our travel insurance yesterday. I had a lot of suggestions from friends (it seems as though everyone has travelled recently), however most had only travelled for a month or so, as opposed to a year (or less or more).

We wanted to make sure that we were covered for everything that we would do. While no cover seemed to take care of you for getting blind drunk and hurting yourself, a few would cover us for bush walking, mountain biking and snowboarding – perfect. We’ll keep the drinking to a minimum then..

I quickly learned that travelling to North America is about the most expensive country in the world to get insurance for, presumably because of America’s ridiculous health care system. It looked as though we were looking at around $1100 each for the year.

In the end we went with WorldNomads. For Australians, they are now underwritten by Lloyds, and come recommended by Lonely Planet, and many smaller reviewers. They came in the cheapest by far – for 1 years’ cover (combined – for two people) it cost $1290.60. Their normal rate was $1434, but I found a 10% off coupon for Australian customers. When you buy your insurance enter “SAVE10″ in the Promotional Code field.

Some others to try are Travel Insurance Direct and 1cover.  We didn’t have any luck with them though.

It’s really getting serious now. 10 weeks till we go!