Guest post from Christopher Hill of Hands Up Holidays on volunteer travelers’ expectations and challenges faced by travel operators.

Volunteer travelers’ expectations for their volunteer trips largely depend on who is volunteering. While there are ‘general’ expectations that are applicable to most, if not all volunteers, such as a sense of purpose and fulfillment…

Guest post from Carolyn Lane on her journey from voluntourist to founding a non-profit using photography to connect and impact communities around the world.

In 1995, I used a small inheritance from my grandparents to take my first ever “volunteer vacation” with EarthWatch to Lombok, Indonesia. There I experienced being an “invited guest” in another country, as opposed to being strictly a tourist…

A family trip abroad with the children often requires thoughtful planning and preparation. To make the trip fun and memorable, parents are always on the hunt for some great travel tips.

We discovered one family with considerable travel experience and plenty to share. The Cummings-Lazenby family traveled and volunteered around the world for a year with their two children, then ages 14 and 10.

Looking for a memorable family vacation?

Family voluntourism, which combines touring and volunteering, is a great travel option that creates lasting memories, builds cultural awareness and relationships and perhaps, transforms your kids into little global citizens. There are plenty of project opportunities with flexible schedules all around the world for you to chose your next family adventure!

Royal Carribean’s Oasis of the Seas has added a few new excursions for its Cozumel, Mexico cruise, including voluntourism. The cruise line’s “Voluntourism: The Mexican Red Cross Landscaping Project” offers an afternoon of volunteering with the Mexican Red Cross.

Are you overwhelmed by the number of apps hitting the market these days? Sure, many of them are nice to have. But do you really have the time to keep track of dozens of travel apps? We think these 20 travel apps are pretty useful and will make your life on the road easier. Best of all, 15 of these are free!

Looking for an unforgettable family volunteer trip this summer that takes you to an exotic locale far from your familiar ways of life?

Volunteering on Safari with Eco-Resorts. Explore the stunning beauty of the Mara region of Kenya while being fully immersed in one of the most culturally rich lands, gain insights to the local tribes, experience the natural beauty of marine and wild life and help some of the most impoverished people in the country.

Many travelers today are looking for authentic travel? What is causing this desire for authenticity? What is authentic travel? Could it actually exist in our increasingly “packaged” world?