Last updated: 03/07/2024
Known for wildlife consisting of everything from mountain gorillas to lions, Uganda offers unrivaled experiences for adventure lovers and nature enthusiasts alike. Before making the long journey to the eastern African nation, it’s important to make sure you’re prepared and protected for what lies ahead.
While Uganda has no mandatory travel insurance requirements for foreign visitors, it is strongly recommended by travel experts due to high trip costs, the potential for expensive medical treatment, and safety concerns while traveling.
If you’re planning a trip to Uganda, Squaremouth recommends a comprehensive travel insurance policy that includes the following benefits:
From flights and accommodations to remote wildlife expeditions, traveling to Uganda can be a costly endeavor. In 2022, Squaremouth data indicates that the average trip to Uganda cost travelers more than $8,150.
Having a travel insurance policy with cancellation coverage is a smart way to protect that significant trip investment. With the Trip Cancellation benefit, travelers can be reimbursed for all of their non-refundable trip expenses if they fall ill, get injured, or experience other covered disruptions prior to departing for their trip.
Policies with Trip Cancellation also include Trip Interruption coverage, which can provide travelers reimbursement if unexpected events cause them to return home from their trip early. This benefit applies to travelers that have already departed for their trip and have unused, nonrefundable trip costs.
The most common covered reasons include unforeseen illness, injury, or death of the traveler, a traveling companion, or a non-traveling family member. Other covered cancellation reasons may also include terrorism, inclement weather, or a natural disaster, among others.
As of January 18, 2023, due to recent terrorist incidents in the country, the U.S Department of State has issued a Level 3 Travel Advisory for Uganda, urging travelers to reconsider their travel plan.
Most travel insurance policies include Terrorism coverage within the Trip Cancellation benefit. Travelers with this coverage can cancel their trip or cut their trip short in the event of a terrorist attack in Uganda, as long as they purchased a policy before the attack occurred.
Tourism to Uganda is mainly focused on the country’s unique landscape and wildlife. Seeing Uganda’s main attractions usually involves trekking to remote areas of the country, far from hospitals and treatment facilities. To be on the safe side, it’s recommended to have a policy with high medical coverage.
Travel medical coverage is broken down into two main components: Emergency Medical and Medical Evacuation.
The Emergency Medical benefit covers the costs of medical treatment in the event of an illness or injury during their trip. If a traveler gets sick or injured while in Uganda, this benefit can cover physician services, ambulance expenses, and other costs of treatment. Given the potential high costs of treatment while in Uganda, we recommend a policy of at least $100,000 in Emergency Medical coverage.
The Medical Evacuation benefit can transport a traveler to the nearest adequate hospital in the event of a medical emergency. For example, if a traveler experiences an emergency while exploring one of Uganda’s famous national parks, this benefit can cover the costs of an evacuation. Due to the potentially significant costs of an emergency evacuation, we recommend Uganda visitors find a policy with at least $250,000 in Medical Evacuation coverage.
For many tourists, getting to Uganda usually involves a long, multi-leg journey. For this reason, it’s important travelers find a policy that includes coverage in the event their travel schedule is interrupted by lengthy delays.
With the Travel Delay benefit, travelers can get reimbursed the cost of food and accommodations expenses incurred during a delay. A policy’s Missed Connection benefit can also reimburse travelers if a delay causes travelers to miss a connecting flight on route to or from their destination.
To be eligible for delay coverage, a delay must reach a certain length, which can typically range from 3-12 hours. The best policies for travel delay will have lower delay requirements and higher coverage limits, with some policies reimbursing up to $2,000 per traveler.
In addition, most comprehensive travel insurance policies come with both Baggage Delay coverage and Baggage & Personal Items Loss protection. Both benefits will offer reimbursement to travelers if their baggage gets damaged, delayed, or lost at any point during their trip.
Click here to begin your search for Uganda Travel Insurance.
Unlike any other African safari destination, Uganda is one of the world’s most biodiverse destinations, famous for its wildlife, mountain ranges, and freshwater lakes.
Destination Rank: 83
Percentage of Squaremouth Sales: 0.14%
Average Premium: $473.06
Average Trip Cost: $6,923.67
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Steven Benna, Lead Data Analyst: sbenna@squaremouth.com