Everything You Should Know About Polar Cruise Insurance 

I’m currently planning my own Arctic cruise. And because I also work with Rise & Shield, I went way down the rabbit hole on polar cruise insurance.

If you’ve booked (or are dreaming about) a trip to Antarctica or the Arctic, you’ll notice one thing fast: your operator insists on decent cover. Often with specific wording about medical evacuation, repatriation and even helicopter evacuation.

In this guide I’ll walk you through, in plain English:

• What polar cruise insurance actually is.
• Why normal travel insurance often isn’t enough.
• How helicopter evacuation really works in polar regions.
• What’s covered, what’s not, and where winter sports can sneak in.
• How I approached choosing cover for my own trip.

Quick note: I’m wearing my Rise & Shield hat today, but my aim here is simple: help you understand what you’re buying so you can pick the right cover, whether that’s with us or someone else.

Ready? Let’s role.

What is Polar Cruise Insurance?

When I say “polar cruise insurance”, I’m talking about travel insurance that’s built specifically for:

• Cruises and expeditions to Antarctica.
• Cruises and expeditions in the Arctic (Svalbard, Greenland, Iceland, northern Norway, etc.).

Standard policies often:

• Exclude polar regions completely.
• Don’t list Zodiac landings, polar plunges or sea kayaking as covered activities.
• Don’t touch the logistics or cost of evacuation from these areas.

That’s why we built our Travel Elite tier at Rise & Shield. We designed it to act as our Antarctica travel insurance and Arctic travel insurance tied to cruises and guided expeditions.

Why Polar Cruise Insurance is Different to Normal Travel Insurance

Here’s what makes polar trips weird from an insurance point of view:

• You’re days away from standard hospitals.
• Weather can shut down ports, shore landings and flights.
• Evacuation might need ships, planes and helicopters.
• Some activities sit in “adventure” territory, not casual tourism.

Because of that, operators usually want proof that your cover includes:

• High medical limits (in the millions, not thousands).
• Evacuation and repatriation.
• Insurance with helicopter evacuation linked to polar “gateway” hubs.
• Trip cancellation for the full cruise cost.

A generic “cheap and cheerful” policy will almost always fall short here.

What Does Polar Cruise Insurance Usually Cover?

I’ll use Rise & Shield’s setup as a real-world example, because that’s what I know best and what I’m using for my own trip.

With our Travel Elite plan, you get three big pillars:

1. Medical Expenses Abroad

This is the serious one. If something goes wrong on a polar cruise, the bills rack up fast.

On Travel Elite, medical expenses abroad run into the millions (for UK policies, up to £7,500,000), and evacuation/repatriation sits within that same limit.

In practice, that means:

• Hospital treatment abroad.
• Doctors, tests and scans.
• Transport to a better-equipped hospital if needed.
• Getting you home when it’s medically necessary.

For polar trips, your cruise operator will usually insist on a minimum. Our limits meet and exceed what most polar operators ask for.

2. Evacuation and Repatriation (Including Heli-evac)

Evacuation and repatriation are the bits that get you out of trouble and home.

With Rise & Shield, this covers:

• Emergency evacuation arranged by our 24/7 assistance team (Mayday).
• Transport to the nearest appropriate medical facility.
• Repatriation back to your home country if required.

For polar cruises, a key part of this is helicopter evacuation from specific “gateway” ports, which I’ll break down in its own section below.

3. Cancellation, Delays and Baggage

Polar cruises aren’t cheap. So decent cancellation cover is vital.

On our Travel Elite plan, cancellation limits go up to:

• £12,000 / USD 15,000 / EUR 14,400 per person for eligible non-refundable trip costs.

That’s there to help if, for covered reasons like illness or injury, you:

• Can’t travel at all.
• Need to cut your trip short (curtailment).

You also get:

• Baggage and personal effects cover if your kit is lost, stolen or damaged.
• Delay and missed departure benefits if weather or disruption knocks your plans off course.

For polar cruises, I always think of it as: “If the worst happens, can I afford to not have this?”

Activities on a Polar Cruise: What’s Actually Covered?

Most polar trips include more than just sitting on deck with a camera.

Typical things an operator might offer:

• Zodiac shore landings.
• Polar plunge.
• Guided hikes on snow or rocky shorelines.
• Sea kayaking, sometimes snowshoeing.

In our policy, Antarctic / Arctic cruises are listed under the Adventure Plus activity level.

That means:

• You need to select the Adventure Plus add-on when you buy your policy.
• The cruise and its included guided activities are treated as covered “adventure” activities, so long as they’re run by your recognised operator and you follow their safety rules.

Separate, more “extreme” stuff (like high-altitude mountaineering or full-on expeditions on the ice) sits in higher tiers or is excluded entirely. More on that below. Stay tuned.

Helicopter Evacuation on Polar Cruises: How It Really Works

This is the bit everyone (rightly) obsesses about.

Your operator’s small print will often say something like: “You must have insurance that includes aero-medical evacuation from Antarctica / the Arctic.”

Here’s how it works in practice with Rise & Shield:

1. Where Helicopter Evacuation can be Arranged from

For Antarctica cruises, we can arrange helicopter evacuation from:

• Ushuaia (Argentina)
• Punta Arenas (Chile)
• Port Stanley (Falkland Islands)

For Arctic cruises, evacuation can be arranged from:

• Longyearbyen (Svalbard)
• Tromsø (Norway)
• Reykjavík (Iceland)
• Kangerlussuaq (Greenland)

So when we talk about “insurance with helicopter evacuation”, we’re talking about reaching these key hubs, not plucking you off a drifting ice floe by magic.

2. Pre-approval and Medical Necessity

Two very important rules in our policy:

• All helicopter evacuations must be pre-approved by our 24-hour Emergency Assistance Centre.
• The method of evacuation (ship, plane, helicopter) is decided by our medical team, based on what’s actually safest and realistic.

So if you tweak an ankle and still walk, a helicopter is not happening. If your condition is serious enough and local logistics allow, then heli-evac can be used.

3. The Helicopter Excess

Because helicopter evacuation is eye-wateringly expensive, there’s a specific policy excess of £1,000 (or equivalent in other currencies) for medical helicopter rescue.

Everything above that falls within your normal Evacuation and Repatriation / Medical Expenses limits on the policy.

What Polar Cruise Insurance Doesn’t Cover (The Awkward Bits)

This is the part I really wanted to understand for my own trip. With Rise & Shield (and honestly, most insurers), you are not covered for:

• Independent or unsupported polar expeditions (no DIY ski crossings or private missions).
• Activities not listed under the Activities table or Add-Ons in the policy wording.
• Travel that goes against official government travel advice for your destination.
• Mountaineering expeditions to the Arctic or Antarctica that fall under the excluded categories (high-altitude expeditions, new routes, remote technical climbs, etc.).

There’s also an important nuance with our Activities Add-Ons:

When you step up into Adventure / Adventure Plus / Adventure Extreme, Personal Accident and Public Liability benefits are not extended to those activities.

So:

• Your medical, evacuation, cancellation and baggage cover still apply.
• But if you were hoping for extra lump-sum payouts or liability protection specifically linked to those adventure activities, that’s not what this section is for.

And as always, pre-existing medical conditions have to be declared and accepted up front, otherwise, related claims can be declined.

Where Winter Sports Insurance Comes In

Some Arctic travel insurance scenarios blend into winter sports insurance territory.

Think:

• Snowmobiling excursions on Svalbard.
• Guided snowshoeing.
• Ski touring or off-piste skiing on a land-based Arctic add-on.

In our policy, these sit under the Optional Winter Sports Cover section. It has its own benefits (ski equipment, ski pass, piste closure, avalanche / landslide cover), and its own date windows for when winter sports cover applies by hemisphere.

So if your polar trip includes:

• A proper ski package, or
• A land-based extension that’s more “ski holiday” than “cruise with a token snowshoe walk”,

…then I’d look at combining:

• Travel Elite +
• Adventure Plus Activities Add-On +
• Winter Sports insurance for those snow-specific extras.

For most standard cruises with Zodiacs, hikes and a polar plunge, Adventure Plus alone is usually the bit that matters most.

How I Chose My Own Polar Cruise Cover

When I started planning my Arctic trip, I worked through it like this:

1. Check the operator’s wording: They spelt out that my insurance must include medical, evacuation, repatriation, and helicopter evacuation from specific Arctic hubs.
2. Match that to the policy wording: In our case, that meant: Travel Elite for the higher medical and cancellation cover. Checked. Adventure Plus, because “Antarctic / Arctic cruises” live there in the Activities table.
3. Double-check the helicopter wording: I wanted to be sure the evacuation hubs in the policy matched what the cruise operator was asking for. (They do, for both Antarctica and Arctic cruises.)
4. Check what I’m actually doing: I went through the itinerary: Zodiacs, shore walks, maybe a polar plunge, possibly sea kayaking. All of that sits comfortably within the “organised activities” piece of the policy, as long as I’m with the guides and follow their instructions.
5. Decide whether I needed Winter Sports cover: For my cruise, I don’t have full-on ski days built in, so I’m skipping Winter Sports on this one, but I’d absolutely add it if I was tacking on skiing or snowmobiling days.

My Simple Checklist for Your Polar Cruise Insurance

Here’s the quick list I wish I’d had on day one:

• Does the policy clearly work for Antarctica travel insurance and/or Arctic travel insurance, not just generic trips?
• Are medical and evacuation limits in the millions, not low six figures?
• Is helicopter evacuation mentioned, with the right Antarctic/Arctic hubs for your cruise?
• Have you added the right Activities Add-On (for Rise & Shield, that’s Adventure Plus for polar cruises)?
• Are your planned activities (Zodiacs, hiking, kayaking, polar plunge) listed or clearly included via your organised cruise?
• Do you need winter sports insurance on top for skiing, snowmobiling or similar?
• Does cancellation cover match the full cost of your cruise and flights?
• Have you declared any pre-existing medical conditions?
• Are you travelling within any date bands or regional rules in the policy (winter sports seasons, etc.)?
• Are you following official government travel advice for all the countries on your route?

If you can tick those off, you’re in a good place.

How to Get Polar Cruise Insurance with Rise & Shield

If you decide to go with us (hi 👋), the flow is pretty simple:

1. Get a quote online: Use this link to get a quote. Add your dates, destination and trip costs.
2. Select Travel Elite: This is the tier we designed with polar cruises and expeditions in mind.
3. Add the Activities Add-On at Adventure Plus level: That’s what unlocks cover for Antarctic / Arctic cruises and the adventure side of your trip.
4. Add Winter Sports (if you need it): Only if your itinerary genuinely includes proper winter sports, not just a casual walk on snow.
5. Read your Validation Certificate and policy wording: Boring, yes. But this is where you confirm everything you’ve just read here actually matches your certificate and country of residence.

Once that’s done, you’ve got the boring-but-essential bit squared away, and you can go back to obsessing over penguins, pack lists and camera lenses.

My Final Thoughts

And there you have it: Planning a polar cruise is a big deal. The last thing you want lurking in the back of your mind is “but what if something happens and my insurance doesn’t work here?”

Doing this deep dive for my own trip gave me a lot of peace of mind. If this guide helps you feel clearer and more confident about polar cruise insurance, then it’s already done its job.