We’ve spent a fair amount of time scouring the internet looking for medical insurance that will fit our needs as world travelers.

We looked for insurance that fulfilled our requirements as follow:

1. Canadian travelers were eligible for coverage
2. Medical expenses are covered globally without the requirement to re-book or register each new destination country
3. Affordable
4. Long terms 1 year or greater away from home
5. Term can be extended or renewed while on the road

We were surprised at how few options we were able to find meeting the above requirements.  In particular, there were very few plans that would cover us for a single trip away from home equal to or longer than 1 year.

Here’s what we did find.  If you know of others that we should consider, please tell us about them.

International Medical Group (IMG) – Global Medical Insurance.  This is the cheapest option of the two.  There are several plan levels allowing you to customize your coverage.  You also set your insurance deductible allowing you to further reduce the cost of your chosen insurance plan.  The basic silver package provides $5,000,000 in lifetime medical benefits, and $50,000 for emergency evacuation.  This is just medical insurance, no additional trip cancellation, lost baggage, or theft insurance is included.

World Nomads – These guys have plenty of recommendations from travelers who have used their product.  They are also recommended by Lonely Planet.  There is only a single plan available with no deductible.  The plan provides a similar $5,000,000 in medical coverage, and a whopping $500,000 for emergency evacuation.  In addition, this plan provides additional insurance for trip cancellation, lost baggage, and theft.

We haven’t decided which plan we are going to choose for our trip yet, when we do we’ll let you know.  Your comments on theses and other options are greatly appreciated and will help us make our decision.

This is a list of websites that offer low cost volunteer opportunities.  For us, the point of volunteering is to help offset costs such as food and lodging.  The thought that we will be giving our time to people who need it, is a nice bonus too.  Please leave a comment if you have any suggestions that should be included in this list.

World Wide

• WWOOF organisations link people who want to volunteer on organic farms or smallholdings with people who are looking for volunteer help.
• WWOOF Independents. We list all WWOOF hosts in countries that do not have a national WWOOF organization.
• True Travellers Society – The aim of our organization is to connect people to no or minimal fee meaningful travel and volunteer travel opportunities around the globe. We have created a central location where this information can be shared for free.
• Independent Volunteer – The difference between us and other websites is that we only list projects and organizations that charge low or no fees (other than reasonable food and accommodation costs).
• Ecoteer is a unique volunteer opportunities agency – offering a directory of cheap volunteer work opportunities, volunteer jobs abroad and working holidays.
• Omprakash – connect with our Partners to find an appropriate opportunity, share resources and advice with past and current Volunteers, and apply for Volunteer Grants to help defray travel costs.
• The Working Traveller – An online magazine with information on volunteering and working abroad
• The Jobs Abroad Bulletin – Affiliated with the Working Traveller above, contains postings for organizations looking for employees and volunteers.
• CUSO-VSO They send Canadians and Americans abroad to work on collaborative development projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Mostly longer term placements.
• World Wide Helpers gives volunteers & organisations the power to share, connect and make a difference.
• Free Volunteering Working under the philosophy that “your time is a sufficient contribution; additional financial donations should not be mandatory,” this site includes a database of free and low-cost opportunities.

South America & Central America

• Quetzaltrekkers – a non profit, volunteer-run trekking organization that operates in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala and Leon, Nicaragua.  100% off all proceeds are used to support local schools for low income families.
• Sonati. A non-profit organization dedicated to providing free environmental education and activities in Nicaragua. They run a hostel and treks where all the profits go to environmental education. Sonati is located in both Esteli and Leon Nicaragua.
• Volunteer South America. This site lists the free and low-cost volunteer opportunities in South & Central America. The site is designed for backpackers /independent travelers looking for a real volunteer experience abroad, without paying any middle-man or agency fees.
• Entre Mundos is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) which supports and helps local community NGOs in Guatemala.  They have a free searchable volunteer database.

This blog has been on our to-do list for a long time.  Since March 1st, 2010 to be precise.  That was the day Ashley and I decided that we were going to travel the world.  That was a big step for us.  One could argue that we had wanted to travel the world since our first week long trip to Cuba together in 2005, but this was different.  No longer are we wanting to travel the world, now we were going to travel the world.

In the beginning, we thought our trip would be very similar to the stories you hear over and over again from those fortunate youths who’ve made the journey before us.  We’d ask work for a year long leave of absence, go to all the must see sights, sleep in hostels and fly from one country to the next every odd week.  At the end of the year, we would return home broke, and resume work as if we had never left.  Or in the case that we were not granted a leave of absence from work, start looking for employment.

Things have changed a bit since the beginning of March.  We’ve decided that we want to experience the world, not just see it.  So, we are going to take a bit more time on our journey.  We’ll stay with locals where possible, and try our best to get jobs or work as volunteers along the way.  Of course living and working in a country for an extended period of time will give us a good experience of what it is really like to live in each place we visit, but it’s also going to take a lot more time.  At this point, we’ve more or less thrown the 1 year artificial time frame out the window.

So, how long will we be gone?  I don’t know.  We’ll keep at it until one of two things happen.  Either we get sick of it, or we can’t afford to continue (money, health, family issues, etc.).  It may take a year, it may take 5 years, or it may take the rest of our lives.  Mutually we’ve decided to start off in the more affordable countries, namely avoiding the USA, Canada, and the UK.  We are, after all, trying to stretch out our savings as far as they will go.  We’ve got our sights set on South and Central America right now, and that’s enough of a plan for us.

We’ve got a lot of work to do before we start on our journey.  The go date, by the way, is tentatively set for July 2011.  This is our to-do list as it was in March.  Unfortunately, we haven’t managed to cross very many items off of it yet.  Good thing this blog counts.

1. Sell our house
2. Sell our car
3. Sell everything that we can’t take with us
4. Store or giveaway everything else
5. Renew Ashley’s Passport
6. Purchase a travel laptop
7. Get vaccinated against whatever we can
8. Build a website
9. Ask work for a leave of absence, or resign
10. Plan our first port-o-call and get required visas, entry permits, and preferably find a job

We’ll try to write a few blog entries as we hit these things on the head, and a few more each time we think of something else that should have been on the list to begin with.

Now’s a good time to test out the blog, so please leave us a comment.  We look forward to reading what you have to say.  If you have any advice, or want to help us out by purchasing our house or other stuff, let us know.