Taking a Gap Year is the buzz around Europe.  What’s all the noise about?  Gap Year is a year (or some increment of time) a person takes off to travel before going to college, into a career or in between jobs.  This time off is Europe’s answer to riding out the college/work unfriendly times of this worldwide recession (read up on our crappy economic times in our What is a College Degree Worth These Days article).  Lucky for you, most Americans aren’t catching on to the trend and by choosing …

Let’s be honest with ourselves for a minute:  we all love animals (sometimes more than humans) and when they get hurt (especially baby ones) we get choked up inside.  Something about little furry baby animals brings out our emotional side.  You can’t avoid getting a fuzzy, warm feeling when looking at this koala for instance.  Still don’t give a crap about baby animals?  Maybe these wildlife volunteerships can warm your cold heart:
Wild Dogs: Zimbabwe, Africa

  
For the love of puppies!  These dogs are not your average domesticated house pet.  Around since …

When bringing your own bag to the supermarket, sorting your plastics and biking to work isn’t enough, green volunteering is your answer to making a real eco-difference.  As much as we are doing our part in contributing to world conservation efforts, so much more is out there.  Step it up by doing just a little more (and in return, get a great travel experience too).  Outdo yourself and go the extra green mile:
Better than Your Own Bag
Refusing plastic bags at the market has become somewhat common practice in the states.  …

Wwoofing – Not barking but “World Wide Opportunities On Organic Farms”-ing.  What’s the deally?  This network was developed to link volunteers to organic farms with available volunteer opportunities.  You volunteer on an international farm for an agreed amount of hours and they feed and house you.  Pretty fair deal.  Nothing extravagant here but given the prices of organic, fresh-from-the-ground food (which is a myth in metropolitan U.S. cities) and housing, it’s a good trade off. 
Why care about organic farms?
The problem is that factory farming has overrun the United States meat …

Madagascar…
Mostly known from the Pixar movie by the same title, Madagascar is an insanely beautiful African island that is home to some of the wildest animals and most interesting tribal people (to illustrate: this is a statute on a tomb).   Two animals, the lemur and the fossa, are ONLY found in Madagascar and their numbers are declining sharply due to various reasons.
On the Lemur Side…
The Fossa, a Lemur-eating predator, is on the loose in Madagascar and lemurs are being killed to the brink of extinction (as if they aren’t already …

You may sympathize with those signs and banners that read “Free Tibet”; maybe you even went out and bought the T-shirt. As much as we commend your attempts to spread the word (and be fashionable), here is a chance for you to actually do something to help Tibetans living in exile:
A brief history:
Tibet is a small Asian country that has been raped in every way possible by the Chinese from the 1949 Mao communist era until the present. Tibetans’ traditional beliefs were very much like those of Native Americans …

Lets see, what can you do in a week? Get a great tan laying on the beach, organize your closet, maybe build a tree house? OR-you can change your life (and the lives of countless needy others) forever.
Cross Cultural Solutions, a well-established volunteer network, is currently offering week-long volunteer programs in the following locations (from October to December): Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Peru, Morocco and Russia. These short programs are perfect for commitment-phobes. All of these countries have struggling economies which have lead to widespread …

Revolutionary Renegades! Hopeless Hooligans! Dudes of Do-Good-ers!
Even on a budget, traveling is a luxury. As a tourist, all evidence of poverty is usually hidden from sight and overpowered by Holiday Inns and Grand this-or-that hotels. As a backpacker, your travels are much closer to the ground floor. Along with famous sights, tastes and sounds, you see the true state of places. As a backpacker, in comparison with a tourist, you see yourself as poor. But, as a traveling American, in comparison with most locals, your …

Couchsurfing.com is hiring! Those clever couch-lovers have come up with new and interesting ways to improve their couchsurfing community.Every year, for roughly six month stretches, they set up a “collective” in some part of the world (the current collective is in Costa Rica). These collectives (really like a temporary office) are made up of diverse volunteers who work together to stay true to couchsurfing’s global connection and appeal. All accommodations are covered and no experience is necessary for some of the positions offered. Why not apply …