Overseas travel and volunteering

[outrageousrich]

Has anyone gone overseas to volunteer. I am looking at traveling several destinations and volunteering any chance I get. In addition, is it possible to buy a one way ticket to...lets say New Zealand and just plan my trip from whatever destination I am in at...so if Im in New Zealand...I plan a trip to Malaysia during my time in New Zealand...when Im tire of Malaysia I plan a trip to Viet Nam so on and so forth. Just a where ever I want to go I can plan, just don't want anything pre planned.

I hope this makes sense

thanks in advance

[BMW Power]

Yes you can buy one way tickets and go with the flow, but if you plan everything in advance you will save yourself lots of $.

[lilmira]

Isn't it kinda frown upon going to a country which you have no right of abode with only one way ticket and no apparent reason?

[chkolny541]

good luck visiting a country in which you need a visa!

[adidas]

Had this site saved, might help you out in ur endeavor

http://www.workaway.info/

[kaput]

.

[davidI]

Do some research on volunteering before you follow through with this. A lot of the volunteering programs are more harmful than good - I dated a girl who worked for the UN in Kenya for 2 years and she really beat some new ideas into me which are probably counter-intuitive from how we were raised.

Read Dead Aid.

My advice is that unless you're planning on going somewhere for 6-12 months to help out, that you just go travel and support the country by being a tourist and trying to stay / dine at local owned businesses.

[thrasher22]

Volunteered in south africa for 3 months last fall and had a great time. There are plenty of (reputable) websites that have a huge range of really cool opportunities... if you're willing to pay. The upside to paying is you usually stay in much nicer accommodation (I lived in a beachside penthouse, while the regular volunteers were in a nice farm house) than if you showed up for free and might get a food allowance and someone there for you if you get in trouble.

I used www.wava.com and they were very helpful, but if I was to do it again I'd track something down on my own. You just need to do a lot of research.

Website I've been cruising for years is http://www.helpx.net/. Its like woofing, but has a wider range of opportunities (all free, posted by the people who need them).

And as a few other people mentioned, make sure to look into your visa's ahead of time. Some require proof on onward travel, whether its by train, plane, bus, etc. If you can't get a visa on arrival, you usually have to send it to your embassy, which is often in Canada, so its well worth it to have them ahead of time so you're not fedex'ing it around the world while you're on the road (but do able, I've done it a bunch). Just FYI, Vietnam is one of them... or at least used to be.

I booked my plane tickets before looking into my SA visa and overstayed by almost 3 weeks and now am not allowed back until I pay a couple hundred dollar fine :rofl:

[outrageousrich]

Thanks for all your comments! I will do my due diligence