Inspiring volunteer travel ideas for the Christmas Holiday season

Award winning volunteer travel operator Hands Up Holidays (www.handsupholidays.com) is offering five meaningful and enriching vacations with a taste of volunteering over the Christmas and New Year season for guests to choose from:

1. South Africa – this is a 9 day luxury voluntourism adventure covering Cape Town, Table Mountain, Cape Peninsula, kayaking with penguins, Stellenbosch winelands, a special Christmas Eve dinner with local hosts, a Christmas picnic lunch, a luxury lodge safari, and 3 days volunteering in an AIDS orphanage. New Years Eve will be on safari!

Previous client feedback:

“The trip was absolutely spectacular. From beginning to end, the tour was top-notch. Our tour guide could not have taken better care of us. What a privilege it was to work with the children and to see a completely different part of Cape Town. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my holiday!”

Renee Kuo – travelled to South Africa in August 2008

Starts Dec 24 – just two spaces left!

The price is £3,350 per person, sharing a room, plus flights.
To book this volunteer adventure or find out more, go to www.handsupholidays.com/tours/southern-hospitality-in-style

2. Peru – a rewarding 15 day volunteer holiday encompassing Lima, Cuzco, the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, exploring the Amazon, and 4 days taste of volunteering in a village near Cuzco, where guests can help volunteer teach, paint, garden, and help prepare for Christmas festivities.
Guests can spend Christmas Day with the children and have New Years Eve in colonial Cuzco after hiking the Inca Trail!

Previous client feedback:

“Peru was the most exciting country I have travelled to. The time in the village impacted every one of our group, giving us an opportunity to give something back to the country we fell in love with. ”

Dr Liz Fitzmaurice, Jan 08, travelled to Peru with a group of doctors and others from New Zealand and England.

The price is £1,600 per person, sharing a room, plus flights.
Starts 20th December – just five places left!
To book this or find out more about this voluntourism trip, go to www.handsupholidays.com/tours/incas-amazons

3. Book now for India – to Calcutta and the Sunderbans where you can experience a 11 day cultural immersion by engaging with a community on a remote island in the beautiful Sunderbans, after two special days touring Calcutta, including Christmas Day.

Guests will go on boat trips in search of tigers and spotting birds, really get to know your gracious hosts, and what’s more, you get to spend four rewarding days volunteering alongside them in helping construct a conservation centre, or you can help plant mangroves.

You will spend New Years Eve with your new friends in this island community.

Previous client feedback:

“Our stay in the Sunderbans was without doubt one of the most important and rewarding – as well as one of the most fun – experiences of our lives. The chance to leave the developed world behind and immerse ourselves in the incredible beauty of nature and the rhythms, activities and relationships of village life was priceless. We all cried when we left and can’t wait to go back.”

Lee Ann Merrill – visited the Sunderbans with her family in Dec 07.

Trip starts 24th December – just 1 place left (for a female only, willing to share with another female)!

Price is £900 per person, sharing a room, plus flights.

Go to www.handsupholidays.com/tours/sunderbans-smiles to book now or find out more about this volunteer travel experience.

4. Morocco – a 9 day volunteer vacation, exploring magical Marrakech, the enchanting Sahara desert, relaxing in the beach-town of Essaouira, and three days volunteering in a Berber community, helping build a library, IT and reading rooms.

Previous client feedback:

“We want so much to return – it was without question, the most wondrous holiday I’ve ever taken.”

Kathleen Beller – travelled to Morocco with her husband and three children, April 08

Guests would spend Christmas Day in Marrakech, and New Years Eve at the beach!

Trip starts on Dec 24.

The price is £1,100 per person, sharing a room, plus flights.

Only four places left! Go to www.handsupholidays.com/tours/taste-of-morocco to book now or find out more.

5. Fiji – a 9 day luxury volunteer travel adventure trip that takes guests to 5* resorts, and spend 3 days volunteering with single mothers and their children, helping with repairs and renovations, or assisting in the bakery.

Previous client feedback:

“The experience of a lifetime. Everything went so smoothly and was so well planned. Thank you for everything!

It was a very well rounded trip – I really feel like I got the full experience. The activities were awesome and the volunteering was incredible! It is truly an amazing and inspiring establishment and the women and children there were so welcoming of Bonnie and I.”

Annie Pritchard – travelled to Fiji in July 2008.

Guests would spend Christmas Day in a luxury resort, and New Years Eve on Denerau Island!

The trip starts on Dec 24. Only four places left!

The price is £1,400 per person, sharing a room, plus flights.

Go to www.handsupholidays.com/tours/taste-of-fiji-in-style to book now or find out more.

Come and join Hands Up Holidays for your Adventure that Counts over Christmas and New Year!

Keywords: volunteer travel, voluntourism, volunteer holiday, volunteer vacation, taste of volunteering, volunteer, luxury volunteering