How Seniors 50+ Couples and Others Find Safe Meaningful Solo Travel Opportunities For Free or on a Very Low Budget
Would you like the opportunity to travel the world for free or cheap?
Would you like to do it on your own? Or perhaps with a friend or spouse?
Read on then my friend, because I have just discovered some great travel opportunities for you. THe kind of opportunities that include lots of FREE STUFF!
But first, I beg you’ll indulge me this tragic personal story to add the appropriate context…
I cried when no one came to play with me.
Being six at the time, I thought that’s how it worked. Because that’s what I saw happening for my older brother. Kids rang the doorbell, and he got to go outside and play.
But no one rang for me.
So I sat and cried then. To be honest, It made me feel worthless.
Unfriended. Lonely.
It’s part of our social genetics, I guess. Our pack DNA.
We hate to be excluded. To not be part of the fun. Not part of the “pack”. The group.
It hurts, physically, to not be invited, to not be included. To be left out.
Sadly, I would discover this pain lasts far beyond the grammar school days. It can haunt us our entire life, if we let it.
But we don’t have to let it!
I recall times when I was a single guy, often in between relationships, when this feeling of exclusion and loneliness would come over me. And I would have to remind myself, very consciously, that no one was coming to ring the doorbell. No one was coming to play with me.
If I wanted to play, I would have to get up off my donkey, and go find someone to play with!
Turns out 60 is no different from 6!
Except I’m little smarter now. (I hope!)
I don’t cry anymore. Except when I hit my thumb with the blasted hammer. But even that is more like a verbal vomit of all the bad words I know, than tears.
In a previous post, I talked about my 10 favorite ways to find friends. Someone to play with. I put that link here for easy reference.
There’s no use in crying about being alone, I found this out. No one comes to your pity party. No one can fix your aloneness, but you. Who said, “If it’s going to be, it’s up to me.” Very smart.
We must get out there and say hello! We must be the one who knocks on those doors.
“Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
And as “The Blessings in You” poem reminds, “Someone, somewhere needs someone like you.”
If you remember, number 10 on my list of ways to find friends was Volunteering.
But here’s the twist –
What if volunteering could be fun and adventurous!
Have you ever considered, do you even know about Vacation Volunteering?
I just found out myself!
Vacation Volunteering is you, fulfilling your dreams of travel while helping others too!
You get double the reward. See the world, and discover that there is indeed a great need for you!
How about you:
- Helping someone learn conversational English
- Or, basic mathematics,
- Or parenting skills
- Or providing essential transportation services
- Or helping with childcare
- Or tutoring on basic computer/internet skills
How would you feel if tutoring someone on the skills you find most basic, was the very thing that lifted them up and out from poverty? Or perhaps, allowed their child to have a better future. Or, in the case of essential, but lacking health care, any future at all?
Volunteering can do all this. For you, and for the people in need of you.
And all this, while you get to see the world! To travel to exotic locations. To really make a difference in the lives of others. On a discount. Or Free.
Don’t wait for that knock on your door. You go knock!
First up in the Volunteer Vacation opportunities…
GlobalVolunteers.org has this exact opportunity just waiting for you to accept!
On their website I quickly see these amazing opportunities for you, and more:
- Deliver essential services, transportation, healthcare, water, food
- Teach conversational English
- Support Community Development
- Healthcare
- Tutoring in all sorts of subjects, math, computer, parenting, health
- Childcare
- Pregnancy
- Building and Maintenance
Get excited at the possibilities. Please take a few minutes right now to go and watch some of the videos on their website. See the amazing travel possibilities they offer. They need you. And you just might need them too. Especially if you are looking to travel on a budget. Or travel and do something truly meaningful and memorable.
Ask them, “How can I help?”
Or call them up if you prefer, and talk to one of the Global Volunteer representatives at 800-487-1074
Global Volunteers has a world of help you can offer while fulfilling your wildest travel dreams.
But wait…There’s more!
Perhaps you’d rather something more tame, like volunteering on an organic farm in Tuscany, in exchange for free food!
Where would you like to WWOOF?
What’s a WWOOF?
According to their website:
“Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) is a worldwide movement to link visitors (WWOOFers) with organic farmers, promote a cultural and educational exchange, and build a global community conscious of ecological farming and sustainability practices. WWOOF started 50 years ago and has grown from a small group in the 1970’s to a worldwide community of hundreds of thousands of people today.
As a WWOOFer, you will participate in the daily life of your host, help on the farm, learn about sustainability, experience a new culture and meet new people, and receive free room and board during your stay.
As a host, you will open your home to receive visitors who want to connect with organic food, farming and support the sustainability movement.
WWOOF is organized nationally so to join, select the country you are interested in from the map and get growing!”
Free room and board – see the world – and get the opportunity to help out!
I think it was the legendary business trainer and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar who stated,
“You can have anything you want in this life, if you’ll just help enough other people get what they want.”
Looking back over my life, these 60+ years, my fondest memories come from the times I was helping others. Friends, business associates, family.
The best things in life seem to come from helping. Contribution.
With WWOOF you’re helping out on a farm, learning and doing. Which is way healthier than sitting on the couch moping you’ve no one to play with. And they let you stay for free!
Dude, get off your donkey!
Your last excuse for not traveling has been bucked. Go out. See the world. Knock.
- You don’t need a travel companion. Friendly people are already there, waiting for you!
- You don’t need money for hotels, or sightseeing, fancy or overpriced tourist restaurants. You stay for free! And they give you plenty of useful stuff to do. And healthy food to eat!
- And you don’t need to agonize over extensive and complicated travel plans. I hate that part.
Agendas, schedules, calculating individual costs, coordination of transportation and venues. All that planning takes the fun out of travel for me. Truthfully, I miss the days before online everything, when you would have a travel agent book everything for you, and you just showed up and had fun.
With WWOOF, you go, stay on the farm, and the locals can really direct you to the best places to see around town. Not the greedy and commercialized tourist traps. You get to see and know the good stuff. Because your hosts live there!
Whether you want to help entire communities through Global Volunteers, or one farm at a time with WWOOF, there is literally a whole world of discount travel opportunities waiting for you.
Traveling solo?
Volunteer Vacations are perfect for fun, safe travel alone if you’re single!
Someone is waiting there for you. A friendly face excited to see you. Excited to meet you!
And you know you are going to be safe, because they could not have run these programs for decades without ensuring the safety of their guests.
You can also travel as a couple or group, if you, and your spouse or significant others, share a mutual desire to travel and help.
Volunteer Travel lets you get out from the dull, day-to-day existence that so often consumes us in retirement. Ditch that same old, same old for some exciting worldwide travel. You help them. They help you. With significant travel discounts! Best of all, you once again have the feeling that you are needed. That you matter. Still. Because you do. You can!
Stop waiting for an invitation to enjoy and participate in life. The knock ain’t coming! Because the invitation is already out there. It’s been sent. The invitation is open to you and they are waiting for your reply. You simply did not know the invitation was on a website! (These modern times!)
If you are bored, feeling lonely, feeling useless, but deep inside you know you have more to give to this world, this life, I urge you to check out these two websites for starters. Watch their videos. Explore their content. Get excited for all the possibilities.
“Someone, somewhere needs someone like you!” But they may not be in your city or town. They may be anywhere across this world – and right now holding your ticket to travel!
Here are those links again – get going!
And growing!
GlobalVolunteers.org
Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms
You’ve been invited! To travel for cheap.
Will you accept the opportunity? Cae to help?
Traveling to new places is great. New environments stimulate the senses. Even refresh our cellular biology. But the change from environment pales in comparison to the changes that occur from getting out of our comfort zones and trying, and succeeding at doing something new.
It’s the experiences of life, not the things we buy, which bring the most joy. The greatest satisfaction. The best stories. The fondest memories.
What will be your next adventure?
Care to help? And help yourself in the process?
Volunteer Vacationing might be right for you.
“Bene Vivere!”
Bob (Elderbob) Schwarztrauber
P.S. Be sure to watch for Part II where I’ll share with you another exciting and affordable solo travel opportunity. Expect it to be quite an eye-opening education!
