As travel insurance companies continue to get more and more competitive, some policies are starting to offer inclusive cover of hazardous activities as standard. Whilst it is always worth double checking the fine print to be sure that the specific activities you might be trying are covered, I thought I would combine a selection of extreme sports and leisure, that once may have seemed for adrenaline junkies only, but are now becoming as much an obligatory part of a holiday as a novelty keychain.

White water rafting is a key example of a sport that contains many inherent risks by nature, but has enjoyed massive growth in support since its birth. Despite the fact that rafts are essentially one of man's oldest forms of transportation, white water rafting as a recreational sport has only really been around since its inclusion in the Munich Olympic Games in 1972. Today, entire families (supervised of course) can pile into a rubber boat and set off down the Colorado River for kicks.

Interestingly, whilst abseiling has now been considered safe enough to be covered inclusively on some insurance policies, I have yet to see rock climbing included too. This seems strange, not only due to the marginally similar degree of risk from hanging around on a cliff face by a rope - I suppose it must be a case of statistics and the greater percentage of folks climbing up rocks compared to the smaller number of those climbing back down again.

Snowboarding was born in the 1970s, but only became regarded as a sport worthy of Olympic status in 1998. Subsequently, it is expected that anybody going on a winter holiday today will have a go at the sport without a second thought; which is very impressive for a sport that bears so many similarities to skateboarding (which, incidentally, is also becoming included in insurance policies as standard). It seems that it may well be the popularity of snowboarding that is the biggest incentive for insurance companies to include it, as in 2008 5.1 million took part in the sport.

Water skiing has long been a holiday activity that some have not considered as hazardous enough to check whether it is covered by their insurance. Also, it has been one of those sports that people don't realize they want to do it until they have reached their destination and no longer thinking about insurance at all. It would seem lucky, and considerate on the part of the insurance companies, that it is now becoming covered inclusively as standard.

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