Green Force - Non-Profit Green Holidays
If you are looking for an easy way to take your green holidays, then you want to look for a company that have plenty of experience - and can offer you an amazing experience.
To save all the effort of researching destinations, then resorts, then hotels and all the individual tours through reputable companies, you can take your first green holiday with the relative ease that someone has done all the hard work for you - and you only need to research them!
This is especially a great idea if you are not 100% up to date with all the green issues surrounding travel and don’t want to end up knee-deep in information that you are not quite sure what to do with.
What Makes Them Green:
Well firstly, they are a non-profit organisation which means that they are not just in it for the money, and secondly a nearly all their holidays involve supporting a community or researching wildlife data.
Examples include working to ‘create a UNESCO Seascape reserve’ in Fiji, and working with Maasai and Quechua communities in Tanzania and Ecuador. They don’t just fly you to these places and leave you to it - they teach you the language and cultures, and then support you throughout your stay.
What They Do:
GreenForce work with many organisations around the world to make sure that they are focusing their efforts in the right places, but also to make sure that they follow agreed code of practices for relevant work and expeditions.
They also make sure that you enjoy yourself as well! Included in most of their expeditions (which can be anything from 2 weeks to 12 months) are trips to the famous sights in that country - for example and elephant-back safari in India or a week in Zanzibar or even a trip to the Galapagos Islands.
They are even carbon neutral - with regards to the flights taken to their destinations.
Where Do They Go:
With worldwide destinations including The Bahamas, South Africa, Fiji, India and Nepal there is something for everyone, everywhere. Prices for expeditions range from £850 for 14 days to £2,400 for 10 weeks - usually inclusive of all food, accommodation and training.
Your green holidays or adventures could include:
- Panda Conservation in China
- Marine Conservation in Fiji or The Bahamas
- Working with the Red Cross in the Andes
- Living and working with the Maasai in Africa
- Teaching in Schools across India and Asia
- Surveying Great White Sharks in South Africa
If you were looking for something particular of something long term, this company can put together bespoke trips to almost anywhere doing almost anything.
You can also offer to work abroad in a paid position for up to a year in Australia or Ecuador for example, and they will support you throughout and assist you in finding work and making contacts.
But Flying Isn’t Green!
No it’s not - and you don’t need to travel to the other side of the world to help a charity or support children or adults in a needy community - but helping kids in an after school club in Wales is nothing compared to teaching English to Nepalese children in the Himalayas.
You want adventure, but you want to be a bit environmentally sensitive about it. And this is where you can do it. GreenForce do not include the flights to the expeditions allowing you to decide how to get there - and for how long you stay.
If you were to sail to South America, travel to Africa by Train or get to Australia by coach (the OzBus) then you could add much more to your adventure. Taking a longer holiday increases you enjoyment of the whole experience and will of course lessen the times you need to travel to different places each time.
Flying to Mexico and then travelling through central America on public transport could save you 5 or 6 separate trips to Belize, Costa Rica, Panama and Guatemala for example - saving long-haul flights. You will see the people, learn the language and get involved in anything you want along the way.
If you then add on a boat to Ecuador or Peru, you could stay there volunteering or teaching for a year or more all for the ‘green cost’ or that one flight.
Worth a look: try www.greenforce.org