Now that I’m back home (not for a long time) and I have been talking with my family and also my friends, most of them ask me the same question: how do you do for volunteering so far away and then traveling the country?

So today I will explain my super-secret and also give you some ideas how to manage to have such a good experience while doing your best abroad.

Here I will write a list I follow every time I want to have a new experience:

1. What kind of volunteering you are up to for?

Depending on your skills and also on your abilities you will be ready for applying in a specific field.  The most popular ones are work exchange, where normally your job there is in a hostel. Perhaps you must take care of the area and may help out cleaning or in administration. Another possibility is being in an ecovillage or on a farm and the work is taking care of the animals and do daily routines with them. If you are in the education field may your interested in teaching or tutoring a group of kids, this is also another option when you want to volunteer.

TIP: Be sure you are applying to a position you can cover perfectly with your skills. Be honest and wonder if you are really willing to work there so maybe is not motivating for you and then you can feel yourself in a non-desirable place.

Is essential to have a good choice.

2. Where do you want to volunteer?

Once you have the idea in your mind what you want to be helping with, it’s time to decide where you want to go to accomplish your thoughts.

Therefore, if finally, you go to the third world you will need some pieces of advice ( I will write a post about it).

is also a good thought going somewhere you know it’s easy for you traveling around so in your days-off you can have the chance to explore the zone.

3. When and for how long you will stay?

Depending on the place you want to stay and also on their program, you will be available to stay longer or shorter. Facilitate this info when talking with the coordinators. They will thank you for it.

About getting in touch with NGOs, hostels or people who can need help, there are lots of web pages to take a look into. The one I use the most is Worldpackers but there are others like VolunteerMatch, Catchafire or Idealist.org.

So what I normally do when programming my next story is to use part of the time on doing volunteering and then, before finishing my stay there, take profit of my time there while tripping around and so visiting cities and villages around. It’s also a good plan if you want to know a little bit more about that place: culture, people and, why not, gastronomy.

If you have any other question or you want to add more info please feel free to leave a comment or get in touch with me. save travels!

Safe travels!