Wat is het verschil tussen biologische en biologisch dynamische landbouw?

WWOOFing is a great way to experience a country on a completely different way than when you 'just' travel. You generally perform work you haven't done before and live on a farm that you didn't know before. Besides all the reasons why you should pack your bag and start WWOOFing, please consider some points of attention regarding your travel and health insurance.

In general travel insurances are designed to meet the needs of travellers and many times even narrower just 'tourist trips'. When you stay on a WWOOF farm as a volunteer this might not be covered at all. This exposes you to risks regarding liability and health care related costs and other costs you thought were covered by your travel insurance. So before you do any volunteer work, always check the conditions and when the conditions don't give enough clarity contact your insurance broker or the insurance company. It's best to have a written answer to your question to avoid problems when you need to file a claim later.

Depending on the WWOOF farm you visit the type of work will vary. Your insurance might cover volunteer work, or even volunteer work on farms in general but there may be exceptions or surcharges for working with farm animals of large machinery. Check with your host farm what kind of work you can expect and again check your activities with your insurance conditions.

The duration of your stay may also have an impact on the validity of your insurance. At WWOOF farms it might be possible to stay several months while your travel insurance may only cover short trips abroad. When the farm work turns out to be even nicer than expected you might want to extend your stay. Not all travel insurances allow you to extend your coverage while traveling.

Some national WWOOF departments have explicit requirements for for your insurance coverage, some earn some money by highlighting a specific travel insurance. When enrolling for WWOOF-USA you automatically have an accident emergency policy, but health/medical related costs are not included. WWOOF-USA recommends 'volunteercard' as a travel insurance, but that insurance seems to be available for US and Canadian citizens only.

Insurances that cover WWOOFing

• Canadian nationals
• Belgian nationals
• Dutch nationals
• English nationals
• Non-European nationals (selection of nationalities)
• US nationals

Do you have any additions about WWOOFing in relation to travel and medical insurance? Please leave a comment below