If you’re interested in using part or all of your holiday to give something back, there are many opportunities for volunteering holidays in active travel destinations at home and abroad.
For instance the Tirol Tourist Board is offering 10 volunteer conservation projects which involve giving up a day or two of a holiday to help protect local wildlife or habitats. These range from tracking and counting wild deer populations, to working on an Alpine dairy farm, to helping reintroduce the endangered Bearded Vulture in Hohe Tauern National Park.
These packages cost from about £200pp and include seven nights accommodation. See tyrol.com for more.
Alternatively, why not volunteer to teach surfing in South Africa? Volunteering travel charity GVI have been sending Brits abroad since 1997 to help others during their holidays. Their trip to Cape Town in South Africa will see you help teach underprivileged children from local townships to surf and care for their coastal environment. In your free time you can discover the wildlife, winelands, mountains and more in this spectacular country for yourself. Cost for two weeks is from £995.00. gvi.co.uk
For a conservation working-holiday with a difference, try and bag yourself a place on a Biosphere Expeditions trip. These range from protecting snow leopards in Kyrgyzstan to surveying the population of endangered tigers on the island of Sumatra. On these expeditions you will work as part of small international teams housed in basic accommodation, looking for tracks, setting camera traps and working with locals. biosphere-expeditions.org
