Volunteering and Sightseeing – An All-round Experience
When it comes to choosing what to do with your annual leave, it might be a difficult choice between volunteering abroad and taking a more conventional sightseeing tour. But the fact is - you don’t have to choose one or the other, you can do both. Volunteering abroad gives you plenty of opportunities to see the sights, it will even give you a whole new take on them. And that’s part of the reason why it’s so popular.
Time off
Don’t forget that just because you are volunteering somewhere doesn’t mean that you won’t have time off. The projects that you’re volunteering at are grateful that you’re there and they won’t want to work you like a Trojan in case they put you off doing it again. The chances are that you’ll volunteer during normal working hours Monday through Friday, in some cases you will work a six day week but hours are usually flexible and it probably won’t be a conventional 9-5. So you’ll have weekends to visit nearby attractions, you might even be able to take a couple of trips out during the week, after work or before you go in for the day.
Consider your volunteer project a base camp. You can unpack there and get comfortable, and then on the weekends you can travel lightly. It saves you the effort of carrying all of your belongings around the country and also cuts the costs of your travels because you won’t need to eat out during the week or constantly find accommodation. That lifestyle can be emotionally and physically tiring. Limiting your travels to the weekend gives you all week to make plans and invite friends, and the security of having a place to sleep when you come back.
In many cases, especially with tourism or conservation projects, you’ll actually be working at some of the main attractions. For example, in Costa Rica you could be working along the beautiful coast, helping to save endangered turtles or in Ecuador you could actually be helping to protect the rainforests that so many travellers come here especially to visit. Not only will you see the sights, but you will go home knowing that you have helped to ensure that travellers will continue to see the sights!
Travel Advice
The local people you’ll meet while you’re volunteering will give you an edge when it comes time to sightsee. They’ll be able to give you advice on where to go and what to see. They live there, they know the area, they’re your best source of advice. You might find that with their suggestions you see the area’s hidden gems, free of tour buses and amateur photographers with a glob of sunscreen on their nose.
Extending Your Trip
Many people choose to leave some time at the beginning or end of their journey to travel as well. If you wait until the end of your volunteer work, you will have a good idea of where you want to go and be more confident than a tourist ever could. Often at the beginning of your trip you don’t know the area very well and have little or no ability to speak the language. By the end of the trip, you’ve got the hang of things and you’ll know exactly which bus to take and how to ask for directions.
Just because you spend your time volunteering doesn’t mean that you have to miss out on anything. The two activities complement each other well. And in the end, it’s not going to matter what you saw, but what you did – the difference you made and the lives you changed. That’s what makes volunteering a life-changing experience, that’s what makes you remember it for many years to come. And even if you don’t have time to see as much as you could have seen if you travelled for a month straight, you’ll get to know one area really well and you’ll see it in a way that tourists never do.
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