Author – Puviarasan |

Last month I had an opportunity to travel to France for a volunteering program. It was an amazing learning experience. But I want to talk why this opportunity was the best way to travel the world and of course, cheaply. It was my first trip outside India. Hobby of volunteering starts with thought to give back to the society and do something useful. But there are many underlying benefits and only few see it.

Joining the likeminded people around the world 

Every time when I meet such groups, I end up meeting good number of people who think like you or pursuing things as you. I was waiting a train station at Laragne, a small town at South of France. I had three good hours to catch my train. I met this person called Elliyas who is from USA but moved out of the country just to travel to places to pursue his interest in mountain climbing. Our conversation jump started when we came know that we are reading the same book Shantaram, from there we spoke best place in South America and Europe to surf, how to take care of finances when travelling solo, best and cheap recommendable surf boards. This happens to me every time when I travel. I happen to meet that one person who is just like you.  

It’s cheap 

Travelling to a place as a tourist and as a volunteer has its own differences. As a volunteer my accommodation and food are completely taken care. This gives me additional privilege to explore and travel to nearby places. In fact, my program was fully funded where they had taken care of my travel, visa and local travel expenses. But it depends on the country you are coming from. Volunteers coming from underdeveloped or developing countries are sometimes fully sponsored.

You get to know the place better than anyone else 

Good part of volunteering is that you work with local people and get to meet them very frequently. There cannot be better people than locale to advise on best places to explore nearby. They give you the best and most reliable information about the local places.