If you’re planning a trip to Russia and intend to engage in activities like skiing, mountain hiking, climbing, or any adventure sports, you will likely need special coverage in your travel health insurance. In this article, I’ll explain what the ‘Activity’ option is in your travel insurance to Russia from the Russian insurance company Solidarity, what activities it covers, and why it’s important if you plan to do more than just basic sightseeing.
✅ Basic Travel Health Insurance Coverage: What’s Normally Included?
The standard travel health insurance from Solidarity is designed to cover essential medical needs while traveling to Russia.
The basic coverage typically includes:
- Outpatient and hospital medical expenses
- Emergency medical assistance
- Treatment of chronic illnesses in case of emergency
- Prescribed medications
- Emergency dental care (up to €100)
- Medical transportation, evacuation, and repatriation
- Additional expenses like communication with the assistance company (up to €100) and costs for forced stay (up to €100 per day, maximum 5 days)
👉 However, the basic coverage has significant exclusions, especially when it comes to sports or adventure activities.
🚫 Which Activities Are NOT Covered by Default?
Standard policies usually exclude activities that involve higher risk, grouped into categories such as:
✅ Active Leisure (recreational activities with some physical risk):
- Sports and adventure tourism
- Hunting
- Sporting games
- Water attractions or water parks
- Boating, rafting, jet skiing
- Cycling
- Motorcycles, quads, scooters
- Hiking with ascents
- Cave exploration
- Off-road vehicle trips
- Horseback riding
✅ Extreme Sports and Activities:
- Alpine skiing
- Snowboarding
- Rock climbing
- Mountaineering
- Skydiving
- Paragliding
- Rafting
- Diving
- Windsurfing
- Wakeboarding
- Caving
✅ Professional Sports (professional training and competitions)
👉 If your insurance is only basic, and you have an accident while engaging in any of these activities, you would not be covered.
🏔️ What Does the ‘Activity’ Option Cover?
This is where the ‘Activity’ option comes into play. By selecting the ‘Activity’ option when purchasing your insurance with Solidarity, it covers the mentioned sports and adventure activities. This option will be marked as ‘Sport’ in the special conditions section of your insurance policy.
In other words:
✅ You can ski at resorts in Russia, like Krasnaya Polyana or Dombay, with medical and evacuation coverage.
✅ You can hike or ascend mountains like Elbrus or Belukha and be protected in case of an accident.
✅ You can rock climb, raft, or explore caves with the assurance of having medical assistance and transportation covered.
The insured sum remains the same (for example, €35,000 in the standard policy), but now higher-risk activities are also covered.
👉 Without this option, any medical expenses resulting from these activities would not be covered, and you would bear all the costs of rescue, hospitalization, or repatriation.
The Sport policy is more expensive because sports and adventure activities involve a higher risk of accident or injury, and therefore higher potential costs for the insurer (mountain rescue, helicopter evacuation, more complex treatments…).
❗ What the ‘Sport’ Option Does NOT Cover
While the ‘Sport’ option greatly expands protection, it does not mean total coverage for every situation. Other general exclusions still apply, such as:
- Accidents under the influence of alcohol or drugs
- Accidents while driving without a valid license
- Non-medical situations excluded in the general conditions
👉 The ‘Sport’ option adds sports coverage to the basic policy, but does not remove exclusions unrelated to sports.
📝 Why Is It Important to Have the ‘Sport’ Option if You Plan to Do Sports in Russia?
Russia is an ideal country for adventure lovers: mountains like Elbrus, ski resorts, trekking routes in the Caucasus or Kamchatka, rafting in Altai… but any accident in these activities can mean expensive rescues and costly private medical care.
✅ The insurance with the ‘Sport’ option protects you in these situations: it covers medical expenses, transfers, mountain evacuation, and repatriation, up to the insured limit.
✅ Additionally, having this option is essential for skiing, mountain climbing, or doing similar activities without assuming disproportionate financial risks.
Without this option, you would be unprotected, and all expenses would be your responsibility.
📌 In Summary
👉 The ‘Sport’ option in your travel health insurance from Solidarity means that you are covered for activities that are normally excluded in a basic insurance.
✅ If you travel to Russia and plan to ski, mountaineer, climb, or do similar activities, make sure to purchase insurance with this option.
✅ With ‘Sport’, you will have medical coverage, evacuation, medical transport, and repatriation, up to the insured sum of your policy (for example, €35,000).
Without this special coverage, an accident while engaging in these sports could leave you without assistance and with very high bills.
👉 And remember: if an incident occurs, always contact the assistance company immediately according to your policy instructions. Unauthorized expenses may not be reimbursed.
Important Note:
The information in this article is for guidance and based on the general conditions of the policy at the time of writing. Coverages, exclusions, and specific conditions may vary. It is the insured traveler’s responsibility to review their individual policy and consult directly with the insurance company for any questions before traveling.
