7 Ways to Give Back on Sabbatical
As well as what you take personally from your experiences, travel is also about the impression you leave. Here are seven ways to travel positively:
1. Pack for a Purpose
Make space in your luggage to fit supplies needed in your destination. For example, stethoscopes, pencils or footballs. ‘Pack for a Purpose’ specifies what is required. On a LiNGER trip, we can help you get the supplies to the right place.
2. Volunteer
Use your skills to advise a microbusiness; help track wildlife populations in the rainforest; serve free breakfasts at a local school. A LiNGER trip can weave these kinds of immersive interactions into an itinerary in most destinations, lasting for a few hours to a few days.
3. Interact
In remoter places, you will be as interesting to local people as they are to you. Learn some local words from your guide. Carry some small children’s books in your day pack – you never know when you’ll encounter a cluster of curious kiddies, glad to receive them.
4. Donate to a local cause
We can recommend bona fide charitable causes in your destination if you’d like to make a difference through a contribution.
5. Visit off-peak
If your timings allow, consider travelling in low season. Beyond the benefits of fewer tourists and lower prices, you will be spreading the local financial benefit of your visit across the months during which some communities can struggle.
6. Off the beaten path
Discover the hidden gems, a world away from the tourist traps, where the experiences are more genuine and where your investment as a visitor will make more of a difference.
7. Stays with a conscience
Avoid the generic in choosing where to stay. At LiNGER, we will always recommend small, independently-owned accommodations which employ locally and care for their staff well; source food locally where possible; and support local environmental or social projects.
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