Travel to Help the World - Take a Volunteer Vacation
Would you like your next vacation to be meaningful? Would you like to travel to distant countries, live among local people and help to make their lives better? Perhaps you'd like a volunteer vacation.
Volunteer vacations don't involve staying in fancy hotels, dining out and taking a leisurely stroll on the beach. Volunteer travel involves working hard but gaining great satisfaction from your trip.
Survey Shows Increasing Interest in Volunteer Vacations
A survey by the Travel Industry Association in the fall of 2006 found that 24% of travelers would like to take a volunteer vacation. A volunteer, or service-based vacation, ranges from donating time to rebuilding areas like the United States’ Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina or Indonesian villages after the tsunami. Other volunteer vacations might include anything teaching English in Africa to working in a national parks, helping dig up dinosaur bones to saving endangered turtles.
Whatever your particular interest or wherever you might be interested in donating your time-there is sure to be a volunteer travel opportunity just right for you. Participants in volunteer travel pay their own way to a location and then donate their time to make the world a better place.
More Information on Volunteer Vacations
The American Hiking Society organizes volunteer travel to fix up national parks, while groups like Global Volunteers and Cross-Cultural Solutions send volunteers to help communities in the United States and around the world.
Travel to help fix up America’s national parks, many of which have had federal funding cut and are in a state of disrepair.
Over 20,000 Global Volunteers currently travel to help communities around the world. Many travel options are available from one week up to 40 week vacations where volunteers live and work with local people on projects such as building and repairing community buildings, teaching English or helping with health care. No special skills are needed.
At Global Volunteers, participants can travel to many different locations in the US and around the world. There is also a choice of causes from animal welfare (currently has up to 20 different options, for example), poverty, children’s issues and the environment, to name a few.
Offers different Volunteer Vacation programs from one to 12 weeks long in countries such as Brazil and Russia. Has 20 different sites in 12 countries. Opportunities for volunteer travel include child care centers and orphanages, health clinics and hospitals, schools and other community organizations.
Volunteer Close to Home
If you belong to a group or church, find out what volunteer vacation opportunities may exist for you. After Hurricane Katrina, for example, Habitat for Humanity sent building teams to the Gulf Coast. Other groups like the Sierra Club or the ASPCA also offer volunteer travel opportunities.
If you’d like to volunteer, don’t overlook projects in your own community. Is there a group fixing up a local park this weekend or doing a beach or lakeside clean-up? A lot can be accomplished in one weekend with a group of willing helpers.
Whether you travel a mile away or 3,000 miles, a volunteer vacation lifts your spirit and makes the world a better place. What more could you ask from a vacation trip?
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