Volunteering abroad is an exciting opportunity, but it can be nerve-wracking if it’s your first time. Managing your expectations is important in order to get the most out of the trip, and to do that you need to ask the right questions.
But beyond your own personal expectations, it’s also important that you have the right information to choose a project which makes a genuine difference to the community and society as a whole.
Any good volunteer organisation should be happy to answer anything you want to know, so don’t be shy about asking. And if the answers you’re getting back are evasive or not fully transparent, you may need to consider a new project.
We chatted with volunteer sending organisation Original Volunteers for insight into some of the most important questions you should ask before volunteering abroad.
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Whether you’re renting a car at home for a day trip, or abroad for a longer journey, the numbers can add up really quick. Especially when you consider the daily cost of the car rental, paying for gas, and any extras you may need like the use of a GPS, baby seat, or exceeding your mileage.
While some destinations have great options for public transportation like buses or trains, others leave you with few options but to rent a car. And what are you to do when you’ve already spent so much on a trip and you don’t want to overwhelm your budget even more?
This guide will share the best tips for saving money when renting a car. There are a surprising amount of discounts out there if you know where to look, as well as tricks for saving when you book.
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If you’re planning your next trip, you’ll most likely think about your flight, transfers, and accommodations. However, there is one vital aspect of traveling that you might have forgotten: travel insurance.
Most people don’t think that getting travel insurance is important, but it is highly recommended to do so to mitigate travel risks.
Searching for the best travel insurance in Australia can be quite daunting, however when comparing insurers to find the best possible policy, the following are some of the benefits you should expect.
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Singapore is a spectacular city; a city of sharp and constant contrasts, which perfectly blends old and new. Temples and mosques sit in the shadow of skyscrapers, luxury condos back onto ancient jungles, and wild monkeys roam nature parks and reserves.
There’s no shortage of things to do or places to see in Singapore, and its central location has made it one of the world’s most popular stopovers. It’s one of those places a lot of international flights pass through.
But take our advice: even if Singapore has landed on your itinerary as a layover, stop and spend a couple of days exploring the island. If you think it’s just another boring metropolis, you’ve got another thing coming to you!
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How many of you have looked back on your Facebook to an old travel album and felt somewhat disappointed at the low-quality photos and videos you took?
In your head, they’re crystal clear but the media doesn’t hold up. The thought of having them printed and framed wouldn’t sit well nowadays. It’s a disappointing feeling, to say the least.
Travel is kind of weird because, on the flipside, we also have a bit of remorse for having spent too much time trying to capture a moment with our phones/camera versus just being in the moment.
You can’t help but think you didn’t maximize the trip because too much of it was spent behind the lens, working, or trying to think of the perfect Instagram caption.
Want to know how to create better travel memories (the type you’ll also take home via photos, film, and other ways)? Read on.
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When it comes to traveling, how you prepare and plan for a trip will greatly determine the whole experience. There are so many modes of transport and choosing the right one is highly influenced by a number of factors.
Bus travel is a favorite for those traveling between New York City and Philadelphia, for both its cost and convenience. You’re definitely not pressed for choice when it comes to NYC to Philly bus deals; there are around 114 buses a day that take the two hour journey.
With so many buses available at all times, that means that as a traveler you have the power of choice over your journey. With that in mind, the following are things you should consider when traveling by bus between Philadelphia and NYC.
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If your first language is English, it can be easy to take advantage of the world dominance of the language. In many countries we can get by okay, and with some accompanying hand gestures generally make ourselves understood.
But if you are travelling for new experiences, sticking with your mother tongue will mean you are missing out on opportunities to learn about and truly appreciate other cultures.
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For those who aim to see the world but have limited funds, hostels are a lifesaver. These budget accommodations offer a good night’s sleep to those on the go, offering a variety of rooming options at various price points.
London is an expensive city, in which a hostel can make a significant impact on your travel budget. Here’s some expert advice from Safestay London for choosing the hostel of your dreams and avoiding the horror stories that deter so many from this great travel option.
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Our smartphones have become like our own personalized travel agents these days. From finding flights, to accessing real time translations, they have become a one stop shop for everything we need to search for, book, and enjoy our holidays.
Through the use of helpful apps, we can now easily travel all around the world like a pro. Though the usefulness of an app can definitely be regional; for instance what might be a brilliant app for Australia, might not do you any good in Europe.
When travelling through Europe you are faced with a wide variety of transportation options, hotel decisions, languages, currency conversions, etc. As such, knowing what the best apps are to help you with your journey is vital in order to enjoy a flawless travel experience.
The following are our favorite apps for European travel. I guarantee you’ll be well taken care of if you have these seven apps on your phone!
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For anyone with a severe case of the travel bug, you likely spend your day-to-day fantasizing about exotic holidays; snorkeling alongside whale sharks in the Maldives, watching the sunset over the African plains, riding a camel through the desert backed by the pyramids of Giza.
But it’s one thing to be inspired to travel to Egypt, and another thing entirely to start planning your own trip. Social media inspires wanderlust, and Instagram feeds our never ending bucket-list, but how did that traveler who you’ve seen on camelback actually get to Egypt?
Which hotels did they stay at, which restaurants did they visit? It’s great that their photos have inspired us, but if only we had access to their whole itinerary. Wouldn’t that make travel planning easy!
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As adventure travellers, Mike and I often find ourselves travelling to off the beaten path destinations. Whether it’s engaging in all day treks in search of wildlife, or biking down the world’s most dangerous road in Bolivia, for some reason we’re drawn to a destination’s less explored places.
Getting off the beaten path has led to some incredibly unique and memorable experiences, but one definite hazard is that once you leave the main tourist route, you do put yourself at a bit of a risk in terms of safety.
It’s often the case that exploring off the beaten path means finding ourselves off the grid, without a means of communicating. But there’s one device that aims to change that, and become the ultimate device for outdoor networking, allowing you to stay in contact with friends and access emergency assistance without needing the internet or a phone signal.
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Humans have always been a nomadic species. Our adventurous spirit has long seen us travel the world in search of new lands and experiences. Even today we yearn to escape the confines of our regular lives in search of new cities and countries.
While travelling to a destination allows you a glimpse into a different culture and way of life, choosing to live abroad takes the experience to a whole other level. You’re able to fully immerse yourself into a destination, and gain a behind the scenes look at what a country is really like; the experience opens your mind to new ideas, helps you grow as a person, and gives you a greater sense of self confidence.
Whether you choose to backpack across Europe for 12 months or migrate to another country permanently, you become what is known as an expatriate (expat for short); a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than their own.
To live abroad is something everyone should experience at some point in their lives, but you do have certain responsibilities as an expat. And one of those is staying on top of tax.
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It feels like there are a million different secrets to finding cheap flights these days, and everyone has a different opinion. Some people will tell you to make your booking on a Tuesday, some might tell you to use an incognito window, or that you should cozy up to an air hostess for their friends and family discount!
But the one secret I’m loving at the moment are cheap flight subscriptions, where there’s a team of travel nerds who run algorithms and send you email alerts when they find crazy low prices.
I’m signed up to a number of these subscriptions, though I definitely have my favorites. And one of them is Dollar Flight Club. While many subscription services exist offering notifications on flights only out of America, Dollar Flight Club is something for everyone.
They search the web for flight deals leaving your home airport, where-ever you’re based in the world, and the deals they find usually save you around $500 on international flights.
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As I’m sure you can imagine, telling my family and friends that I was off on a solo travel adventure was met with considerable concern.
A bright-eyed but relatively naive 18-year-old, I was fresh out of high school, and a number of relatives who believed the trip was irresponsible launched a full-scale campaign to stop me.
Fortunately, such efforts were in vain, and my parents really got behind me, encouraging and supporting my goals for a solo adventure. And it was the best learning experience / adventure of my life.
I traveled solo from 2007 – 2012, through Europe, Africa, South America, and the Middle East. Not only does travelling alone completely push you out of your comfort zone, challenging your insecurities and helping you overcome your fears, it forces you to interact with those who you wouldn’t normally interact with.
But before you start your solo trip, you need to know about all those things that you must have with you when you are travelling.
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Booking flights can either be impulsive, or carefully planned out, and years in the making. But either way, it’s something that almost every traveler will have some degree of experience with.
After 10 years + years of travel, booking flights has become close to second nature, though even as a frequent traveler, there are a number of things you really need to consider before clicking that final purchase icon on your screen. In some cases it could be a real money saver, in others save you from a nightmare flight.
So whether you’re a first time traveler, or a frequent traveler who often makes bookings without stopping to think, make sure you consider the following five things.
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Summer is upon us (and by “us”, I mean you lucky folk who live in the Northern Hemisphere), and now is the time to figure out where you want to spend June, July and August.
And since we’re only 6 – 7 weeks out, you might already have a destination in mind. Perhaps you see yourself with a sun hat on a beach in Ibiza. Or spending days discovering ancient churches in Rome.
But for those of you who haven’t yet decided where you’ll spend your summer, there’s a fairly easy way to decide. We personally choose our next destination based on where we can find the cheapest flights. And the following is a free subscription we use to find them.
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Choosing the wrong luggage for a trip leaves you with a cumbersome problem – you can’t just take it home and switch it! But there are so many types of bags available these days, that making an informed decision can be the most difficult part of your trip!
Whether it’s trying to lug a suitcase through the jungle and beating the crap out of your wheels (been there), or throwing everything into a hiking pack for a stay at a luxury hotel, a travel experience is often about choosing the right kind of bag.
The most important thing to remember is that different types of luggage will be suitable for different types of trips. So in this article we’ve broken down four popular styles of travel, and the type of luggage that is best suited to that trip.
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There’s a lot of advice out there about staying safe while traveling, from taking precautions at the airport, to using public transport, or actually wandering around. But after an incredible day of exploring, we often get back to the hotel, kick our feet up, and let our guard down.
And I totally get it – you’re on vacation, and the last thing you want to do is worry about hotel security. But hotel stays carry an inherent level of risk, and everything from break-ins, to fires, to bed bugs, and terrorist attacks could potentially affect you.
While it’s not worth becoming too paranoid about some of these, after-all you’re much more likely to be killed by a vending machine than a terrorist, it’s definitely in your best interest to take a few precautions to protect against common hotel risks.
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If you’re like most people, you might have a list of things that you wish to do before your life comes to an end. They are the things that make your life more meaningful, and for the travel enthusiast, this is often called a bucket-list (list of things you want to do before you ‘kick the bucket’).
But the world is full of incredible experiences and destinations, so where do you even begin?
Generating a bucket list is pretty simple, and while it’s likely something that you’ll keep adding to throughout your life, it should only take a couple of minutes to start one. All it requires is putting your dreams and aspirations into writing.
But if you’re truly stuck for where to start, the following are 5 ideas that commonly feature on almost everyone’s list!
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Nestled in the heart of Central America, between Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador, Honduras is a country that not a lot of people know about. And those who do? Well, they seem to only hear the bad things.
Honduras has a long history of military rule, corruption, poverty and crime which have rendered it one of the least developed and most unstable countries in Central America. And yes, it has somewhat of a negative global image.
But, little of the Honduran violence affects tourists, and most visitors to the country are free to enjoy the national parks, small towns and ancient ruins of the Latin American country without incident. This is in fact a vibrant and fascinating country, and one of the cheapest in the region; you’ll be able to do activities for a fraction of the price you’ll pay in its neighbors.
Honduras has a notorious reputation, but with these safety tips anybody can have a safe and happy time seeing the raw beauty and fascinating culture within this Central American country.
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As travelers, we live in a world where nothing can be said to be certain except for death, taxes, and airport delays. And indeed, with upwards of 509,000 flight delays recorded globally each MONTH, and 29,000 + cancellations, even those who travel infrequently are likely to run into some form of delay.
So how do you kill the time at the airport? If you’re in good company, it won’t be hard to pass the time with a couple of the following games.
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Virtual Private Networks (VPN) have been around for a while now, and while they might have previously been viewed by travelers as a ‘nice thing to have’, nowadays they’re internet security 101, and firmly on the list of “must pack”.
A program you run on your devices which gives you security and privacy when you surf the internet, the perks of using one as a traveler include getting access to region-restricted websites, minimizing your risk of being hacked while using public WiFi, and preventing your bank accounts and email from being frozen.
The following are 7 reasons why you shouldn’t travel overseas without a VPN, plus a description of what it is, how it works, and why you need one.
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It’s not something anyone likes to talk about, but it’s something I guarantee that every traveler will experience at some point, regardless of whether or not you have an adventurous appetite.
Travelers diarrhea is the most common travel-related illness, and a very real health problem faced by developing countries. It is estimated that 15–20 million travelers will experience traveler’s diarrhea annually, which means that roughly 40,000 travelers got the runs today.
So what do you do if you find yourself with Delhi belly / Montezuma’s revenge, and have to make a sudden break for the bathroom? Follow these tips to prevent travelers’ diarrhea so you can still enjoy your holiday.
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There’s definitely something romantic about the idea of a round the world adventure of a lifetime. Our last RTW took in 11 countries over 6 continents, 13 flights, and 35,000 miles … for cheaper than the cost of having purchased each leg individually!
Almost equally as entertaining as the trip itself, were people’s reactions when they asked where we were going next. It was quite a mouthful, but I eventually managed to run off Sydney, Singapore, Cape Town, Istanbul, Venice, Vienna, Barcelona, Cancun, Panama City, Buenos Aires, Auckland, and back to Sydney, all in one breath!
For us, this was the perfect balance of romance and adventure, and we managed to include a huge number of bucket-list experiences like cage diving with Great White Sharks in South Africa, and swimming with Whale Sharks in Cancun, all into the one trip.
If you’ve ever thought about booking an around the world ticket, it’s an incredible option with endless possibilities. The following overview will help you decide if booking a RTW fare is right for you.
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Whether you’re visiting relatives in New Zealand or soaking up the bright lights of Hong Kong, travelling with kids can really make those grey hairs sprout.
And the stress seems to ramp up days before the trip – youngsters spit the dummy for random reasons and teens whinge when they realise they might miss the Aussie tour dates for Taylor Swift.
But family travel can be much more Zen-like if you follow these three tips.
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