The 100 Best Volunteer Vacations to Enrich Your Life


Book Description

Travel industry experts report that more and more people are combining vacations with volunteer work—the growing phenomenon called "voluntourism." Professionals predict this will be a key growth area for years to come; the voluntourists themselves find it a rewarding activity, good for body and soul. And nobody provides such a fun, inviting overview of the possibilities as savvy travel writer Pam Grout in the latest title in our 100 Best Vacations series. With its elegant two-color design, playful cover, and winningly positive goal, it’s a travel guide with heart, inexpensive yet inspiring—an ideal gift book for people who care to share. From building houses in Appalachia to saving sea turtles in Costa Rica to teaching English in Thailand, this book is a rich resource of ways to use your skills to help out the world and reap some lasting benefits yourself. Like its two predecessors, it includes an engagingly descriptive menu of choices for tastes and talents of all kinds, along with detailed specifics to turn good intentions into satisfying reality. Throughout, sidebars describe nearby places to visit, little-known facts, and more, providing depth and variety, while a comprehensive resource listing gives additional information about the different organizations offering volunteer vacations.




The 100 Best Vacations to Enrich Your Life


Book Description

Imagine studying French in a Maine village, learning about nutrition at a historic North Carolina spa, or helping rebuild the devastated communities of the Gulf Coast. Weave a Navajo rug; make a film in New York; learn to surf in Mexico; or choose any of scores of other possibilities.




Volunteer Vacations


Book Description

For the increasing number of people looking for ways to make a difference while on vacation, this fully updated edition is filled with in-depth information to get them ready for their adventure, including contacts, locations, costs, dates, project details, and profiles of 150 select organizations that run thousands of programs in the United States and around the world. Including new details about long-term projects and organizations specifically tailored for families, seniors, and people with disabilities, this definitive sourcebook provides a wealth of opportunities for anyone interested in taking a truly meaningful vacation and provides new anecdotes about all kinds of jobs and the positive impact they had on volunteers' lives.




The 100 Best Worldwide Vacations to Enrich Your Life


Book Description

Travelers are showing a huge interest in the fast-growing sector known as experiential tourism-vacations that encompass heritage, culture, nature, ecology, and soft adventure. In the footsteps of the briskly selling The 100 Best Vacations to Enrich Your Life featuring North American destinations, our new title extends these ardent travelers' sights to global scale. From helping to build a health clinic in Tanzania to learning massage in Thailand to aiding green turtle conservation in Belize, The 100 Best Worldwide Vacations to Enrich Your Life is full of fun, meaningful, and memorable possibili.




The Reader's Digest


Book Description




Frommer's 500 Places Where You Can Make a Difference


Book Description

Inspired by the eye-opening events of 9/11, the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, more and more people are waking up to the value of service – and realizing that their vacation may be the best place to incorporate it into their hectic lives. Even more profoundly, many travelers are deciding that the best way to recharge may not be lying on a beach, but stepping outside of their normal routine to make a difference in the lives of others. The result is an experience that allows travelers to explore a culture in great depth, make new friends, and come home feeling that they have learned and benefited even more than those they have helped. The book will provide a diverse range of volunteer vacations, with most trips easily accomplished within a one or two-week vacation. Following the highly successful format of Frommer’s 500 Places To Take Your Kids Before They Grow Up, chapters will be organized by subject, providing dozens of unique vacation ideas for any traveler: Introduction: How you know if a volunteer vacation is right for you, and what to ask Sharing your knowledge: teaching vacations Animal welfare: surveying wildlife, animal rescue Working with children: orphanages, at-risk youth, street kids Scientific research: archaeology, marine life Healing the environment: conservation work, trail building, tree planting Building better communities: construction projects and manual labor Share the health: AIDS education, working with the disabled, feeding the hungry Teaching through sport: coaching and training Bridging cultures: working with indigenous peoples, historical preservation, music Special events: becoming a festival volunteer Crossing generations: helping seniors Getting political: elections, human rights, refugee relief, community organizing Peace-building: conflict resolution and security Religious service: retreats and faith-based assistance Bringing expertise: opportunities for those with specialized skills Serving your kids: children-friendly trips that will open their eyes to the world




Library Journal


Book Description




The Voluntourist


Book Description

Ken Budd’s The Voluntourist is a remarkable memoir about losing your father, accepting your fate, and finding your destiny by volunteering around the world for numerous worthy causes: Hurricane Katrina disaster relief in New Orleans, helping special needs children in China, studying climate change in Ecuador, lending a hand—and a heart—at a Palestinian refugee camp in the Middle East, to name but a few. Ken's emotional journey is as inspiring and affecting as those chronicled in Little Princes and Three Cups of Tea. At once a true story of powerful family bonds, of sacrifice, of self-discovery, The Voluntourist is an all-too-human, real-life hero whom you will not soon forget.




Ask a Manager


Book Description

From the creator of the popular website Ask a Manager and New York’s work-advice columnist comes a witty, practical guide to 200 difficult professional conversations—featuring all-new advice! There’s a reason Alison Green has been called “the Dear Abby of the work world.” Ten years as a workplace-advice columnist have taught her that people avoid awkward conversations in the office because they simply don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Green does—and in this incredibly helpful book, she tackles the tough discussions you may need to have during your career. You’ll learn what to say when • coworkers push their work on you—then take credit for it • you accidentally trash-talk someone in an email then hit “reply all” • you’re being micromanaged—or not being managed at all • you catch a colleague in a lie • your boss seems unhappy with your work • your cubemate’s loud speakerphone is making you homicidal • you got drunk at the holiday party Praise for Ask a Manager “A must-read for anyone who works . . . [Alison Green’s] advice boils down to the idea that you should be professional (even when others are not) and that communicating in a straightforward manner with candor and kindness will get you far, no matter where you work.”—Booklist (starred review) “The author’s friendly, warm, no-nonsense writing is a pleasure to read, and her advice can be widely applied to relationships in all areas of readers’ lives. Ideal for anyone new to the job market or new to management, or anyone hoping to improve their work experience.”—Library Journal (starred review) “I am a huge fan of Alison Green’s Ask a Manager column. This book is even better. It teaches us how to deal with many of the most vexing big and little problems in our workplaces—and to do so with grace, confidence, and a sense of humor.”—Robert Sutton, Stanford professor and author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide “Ask a Manager is the ultimate playbook for navigating the traditional workforce in a diplomatic but firm way.”—Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together




Transitions Abroad


Book Description