Adventures for a Cause

By Jacqueline Miller

Have you wanted to do something really different on your next vacation but are just not sure what it is? What if you could help advance an important scientific project? Get involved with wildlife conservation initiatives? Cycle for kids in Cambodia? Would any of these get you excited enough to roll up your sleeves and get involved?

•  Hidden Places •

For this travel company (hiddenplaces.net), it’s all about journeys, not vacations. Being a meaningful part of a community, pitching in for sustainably, and helping others in their struggles. You can join a trip that’s already gearing up, book a private and custom trip for your own group, or join one of the organization’s fundraising projects or fundraise for your own cause. 

100 Miles for Elephants is one of Hidden Places pre-planned trips. Poaching has plummeted Tanzania’s elephants dramatically. There are now only 45,000 elephants there compared to 316,000 that roamed the plains in 1979.

For a week, you and highly experienced guides, will walk 12 miles a day across an area where no safari vehicles are allowed, following rivers, camps, groves of acacia trees in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park. There’s even a good chance that you will be walking amidst the Great Migration.

The trek raises funds for community scouts who use dogs to track down poachers. Poachers fear the dogs so their presence is a big deterrent. The trek also supports the K-9 Tracker Dog Unit in Serengeti which has been highly successful in intercepting poachers. 

Another one of Hidden Places trips bring you to see one of the most spectacular of the big cats, snow leopards, which are also in serious decline with only about 6000 left in the world. This is due to the snow leopard being hunted for their coats and for body parts that are used in traditional medicine. The “Trekking for Snow Leopards” trip helps save these incredible endangered creatures. As a team member, you travel with local conservationists up to 12 miles a day reaching altitudes as high as 14,000, and help by raising $500 for a local initiative mitigate the human-snow leopard conflict in Nepal.

•  WORLD EXPEDITIONS •

According to its website (worldexpeditions.com), “Responsible travel practice is at the heart of every program we offer as a fundamental and long held philosophy. When you book one of our adventures you’re supporting true sustainability in the protection of local communities, natural environments and wildlife.” So just what do they offer?

Through its special fundraising division, Huma Charity Challenge, you can take on a challenge of your choosing and fundraise for your favorite charity or you can join one of their adventures and fundraise with others. They have helped raise over $5 million for charities while you walk the Great Wall of China, climb Mount Everest or cycle through Vietnam. 2020 trips include Free the Bears in Laos, Walk Camino in Spain (charity of your choice), Climb Kilimanjaro, Peru Trek Inca Trail, and several others. For a complete list, visit humacharitychallenge.com.

•  Good Travel •

According to its website (good-travel.org), the company “promotes and facilitates travel that gives back to the local community, economy and environment”, claiming they “aim to educate, inform and share knowledge with travelers and businesses to encourage sustainable and responsible tourism.” The company hopes their vision for tourism will change the face and experience of travel, and ultimately create a better world. So what are some of their “good” travel experiences?

For 2020, they have three planned trips. The first is “Possibilitarian Retreat Australia” in March. The goal of this experience is to get you inspired and reconnected with yourself and the world. Highlights include Vallori Thomas’s Possibilitarian workshops said to enable you to uncover the possibilities in your life and discover how to make them a reality. She is a practitioner of Context Mastery. You also get to enjoy the spectacular Bouddi Peninsula and leave a positive legacy by supporting a local Australian project. 

In the summer there are four trips to Peru for moms and daughters (the early July trip allows sons as well) to immerse themselves in Peruvian culture with the girls involved in Peruvian Hearts projects. Peruvian Hearts works to end poverty and gender inequality by educating young women and creating community leaders in Peru. Every aspect of the trip has been designed to ensure the local community economy and environment benefit from your visit. You also get to hike one of the 7 wonders of the world, trek with llamas, make chocolate, visit indigenous communities and shop at local markets.

In August 2020, it’s Greece. So what’s good about this trip? You stay in an Earth Check certified hotel involved in a variety of activities to support community groups; take tours that specialize in responsible travel and encourage real-life interactions. Eat at restaurants that value environmental sustainability and give back to the community. A small portion of your trip fee gets donated to an organization that helps an area densely populated by immigrants. The organization offers free music lessons. 

There are lots of other travel company that offer trips that “give back” including Sierra Club outings. Through Sierra Club you can be involved with sanctuary service projects, work to improve Southwestern desert habitats, help preserve a legendary stretch of wild coastline, and a host of other great causes.

So the next time you are thinking about a vacation, think not only about you, but about others. It just may be the best vacation you ever take.