Basically, your standard health insurance is valid for any possible illness and injury incurring during your stay. Check with your insurance for procedures in case of an injury in Italy or en-route.
The institute does not offer any insurance.
No. Like any other travel operator the institute charges cancellation fees as regulated in our general terms and conditions. For the case of a possible illness or other unforeseen circumstance prior to your travel we recommend the signing of a precautionary travel cancellation insurance that will bear the expenses of the cancellation.
At TravelSecure you can sign a travel cancelation insurance online. We recommend the certificate without own risk to the price of 25 Euro. Please note the respective insurance conditions.
The dates of the courses include arrival and departure day. The first mentioned date of each course data is the arrival day: on this day the program starts with a welcome of all participants at about 6 pm. Thus we recommend that you arrive at the field station by 6 pm at the latest. The last mentioned date is the departure day. On this day the program ends in the morning with checking out of the apartments.
The typical course day is divided into two parts: during one half of the day the diver training participants do the practical part in the water while participating SCUBA divers accomplish a guided dive. The practical program takes about 3 hours. During the other half of the day both groups assemble within the course room to attend the biological course, studying organisms with microscopes and literature for about 2.5 to 3.5 hours and listening to a talk by the course director. Only the course Methods of Underwater Research can differ from this scheme due to its more project-orientated structure. During the first five days the dive students have to attend a 1 to 1.5 hours dive theory talk in the evening.
For the whole time of the course there is one planned day off, usually taking place during the last third of your stage. In the event of bad weather conditions it could be moved up.
For payment from outside Europe/Non-Euro zone we strongly recommend a Sepa - transfer (with IBAN and BIC) with expenses at the responsibility of the sender. Deducted bank expenses are charged subsequently by the institute.
Yes. The simultaneously offered integrated SCUBA diving course (except the course Methods of Underwater Research) certifies with a *Bronze brevet of the international SCUBA diver organization CEDIP.
With this license you can dive at any dive centre worldwide and rent SCUBA equipment.
Yes, completely. You can bring and use your own equipment, however this will not give you any price reduction.
If you wish higher-level accomodations you can book your own hotel room in the village. The accommodation part of the course fees are omitted while the course part itself raises a little bit. You can book here directly (walking distance in minutes):
Hotel Montemerlo *** (10 minutes)
Hotel Scirocco *** (7 minutes)
You can download a form as draft for the respective doctor as PDF file (11 kB) here.
There are guidelines for the medical examination by the Gesellschaft für Tauch- und Überdruckmedizin (GTÜM) with a list of qualified physicians at home (for Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Norway, The Netherlands - site in German only). We strongly recommend an examination to be conducted according to the guidelines of the GTÜM or any other experienced experts.
Please feel free to write an e-mail (ifm
hydra-institute.com) or call our office in Munich (+49 89 130 60 131). We are at your disposal at any time! German, English, Italian and passable French is spoken.