Volunteering abroard

[lord-of-creation]

I've been looking in to travelling from September for a few months. However, I've decided rather than going around tossing it off and not achieving a right lot, that volunteering could be a better route to go down

It is a lot more expensive than I thought it would be but I've picked out 4 volunteering opportunites. All 4 involve caring and working with animals as it is something I'm interested in and don't think I'm overly suited to looking after African children etc.

One is in Guatamala for 5 weeks at a wildlife rescue/rehabilitation centre. An extremely wide variety of animals which should be interesting.

The second is a 4 week stay in costa rica learning to surf and being involved in turtle conservation.

The third is game monitoring and caring for lions and elephants a sanctuary of a Big 5 game reserve in South Africa.

The last is in Australia working for 4 weeks at a Koala sanctuary.

All include accommodation and meals (accept that this will be very basic, especially in Guatamala). It doesn't include flights though.

Does anyone know my best way of sorting the flights out around this. How cheap can I expect to get a 5 or 6 flight ticket and where is the best place to look?

Also, has anyone done anything along these lines and give their experiences of it?

Cheers

[v15ben]

There are lots of good opportunities out there. Companies like i-2-i offer some really interesting projects and you do get a real chance to get involved. It is slightly sterile in some ways, but still great fun. In terms of flights you should be able to get a round the world ticket made up of individual sectors. I'd get someone like STA or Flight Centre to see what flight options are out for each stage there then try and find the cheapest places to buy each individual flight.

I did 7 weeks as a volunteer building a classroom and delivering books and sports kit in Tanzania. A truly amazing experience and I found it got me out of my comfort zone in a positive way and I did things I never thought I'd do. I'd love to volunteer again and will be going overseas again soon for more experiences like this!

Edited by v15ben on Thursday 20th May 22:40

[lord-of-creation]

Cheers ben

Just to get an idea, for something like Manchester - Cape town - Melbourne - San Jose - Guatamala - Manchester would I be looking at around £1k or far more than that. Obviously it won't be as easy as that either as there probably won't be direct flights from Melbourne to San Jose or from Guatamala back to the UK.

[v15ben]

I'd be budgeting closer to £1500 or even a bit more for that route. It depends on how many airlines offer the routes you need and as you said, if there are direct flights between some of the places.