Yesterday, I was on the VolunTourist, a weekly webcast of Voluntourism.org, to share about our website and traveler’s philanthropy. Among the many things we discussed were our vision for Travelanthropist and how we see voluntourism within the context of traveler’s philanthropy. I thought I would share some of those thoughts here since we have not done so for a while.
Most websites we’ve come across on travel philanthropy and voluntourism are targeted at industry players, very few are meant for travelers. We recognized the need for a website about travel philanthropy …

Volunteer tourism or “voluntourism”, which has been increasingly popular among leisure travelers, is extending its reach into the workplace. Some folks are taking sabbaticals from their jobs to be philanthropic volunteers. Some companies not only permit employees to take sabbaticals, they are putting programs in place to encourage employees to be involved in charity travel.  Both companies and employees see charity travel as a win win situation.
Multinational companies, such as India’s Infosys Technologies and global accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, view charity travel as an opportunity to give employees work experience in …

In this age of rapid, proliferated, and uncensored information, you can pretty much find anything by googling. Before you go and celebrate this amazing information access, consider this — it may be a double-edged sword — you get the quantity but how is the quality? You get tons of information instantly — often more than you can handle, but then the real work begins when you have to sort through them for reliability and revelance. As a traveler, Google will provide you no shortage of volunteer travel organizations and programs …

We’re a huge admirer of charity:water and have been raving about them for their simple yet life-changing mission to bring clean drinking water to people in developing nations and for their marketing and fundraising prowess. We love founder, Scott Harrison’s story even more because the seeds that spawned this whole movement were planted from a volunteer tourism trip.  We’re seeing, in real-time, the far reaching effects of voluntourism. In two years, charity:water has raised over $7 million and funded 1,247 water projects in 14 countries around the world.  You can …

Latin America is a beautiful region with a lot to offer and has long enticed budget conscious travelers with its lower prices. Stretching from the Caribbean Sea to the coast of Cape Horn, Central and South America offer extreme variety — from forests filled with wildlife, long stretches of Caribbean beaches, red-hot volcanoes, Mayan ruins and stunning waterfalls, the biodiversity of the Amazon Rainforest to the peaks of the Chilean Andes, to the direst desert, to the ice fields of the Southern Patagonia Icecap.
Latin America has vibrant and varied national …

BudgetTravel.com unveiled their list of the most affordable new hotels around the globe. We’re not sure what criteria was used for the hotels to make the cut except that all the hotels are under $150. Sometimes it’s difficult to define affordability because to some $150 is very affordable, others not so. Sometimes a cheap hotel is just that — cheap. We reviewed the list and further refined it –  taking into account hotel aura and amenities, location, and cost. We’ve identified 12 hotels on the list, with fabulous design and …

National Geographic Society’s Center for Sustainable Destinations‘ 6th annual survey highlights 133 worldwide destinations and how they rate in sustainability, social and cultural integrity, aesthetic appeal, tourism management, and future outlook. The Center gathered a panel of “437 travel experts from various fields — historic preservation, site management, geography, sustainable tourism, ecology, indigenous cultures, travel writing and photography, and archaeology” to assess the destinations based on authenticity and stewardship, not popularity. According to NG, “The condition of any destination is a mix of what local governments, residents, and businesses …