Types of family volunteering holiday
The wonderful thing about volunteering with your children is that you'll make a difference to the place you visit, and have a lasting impact on the way your kids see the world.![]()
Just as families all have their quirks and differences, so do volunteering placements that welcome families into the fold. In one way, your choice is often dictated by the school holidays or the length of time that you can commit to a project. Whatever you choose, you will be immersing yourselves in local life, embracing cultural differences from food to language head on, and learning a lot about wildlife and habitat. You may want to be by the sea, or the deserts and bush may be calling you. You may want to combine your volunteering with more family fun afterwards, in which case somewhere like Costa Rica often ticks the right boxes for family volunteers. No matter what you choose, these are trips that will boost children’s confidence levels, open their eyes to different lifestyles and, almost certainly, convert them to conservation for life.
Our Family volunteering Holidays
Family volunteering with turtles in Costa Rica
Family turtle conservation volunteering in Costa Rica
From
£1289
7 days
ex flights
Family volunteering with monkeys in South Africa
Hands-on family volunteering with monkeys in South Africa
From
£769
10 days
ex flights
Family volunteering with bears in Romania
Unique family volunteering holiday at a bear sanctuary
From
£925
7 days
ex flights
Thailand family volunteering with elephants
Elephant and Karen Hill tribe community volunteering
From
£450
6 days
ex flights
Family volunteering and safari holiday, South Africa
Take your family on an unforgettable African adventure
From
US $1095
14 days
ex flights
Family volunteering in Tanzania
Memorable family holiday which makes a difference
From
£450
14 days
ex flights
Wildlife conservation
Think Namibian deserts, Sri Lankan jungles, Romanian forests and magnificent mountain ranges and you are starting to enter the world of wildlife conservation volunteering placements. They are really ‘out there’, with up at dawn trekking to monitor where bears have gone the night before, or where elephants have passed with their young. They are about living with remote communities, such as the Orang Sungai tribe in Borneo, working to preserve habitats for orangutans and other primates, or staying with a Karen hill tribe community in Thailand, assisting with village projects and helping semi-wild elephants.. As well as expert conservationists and scientists who know and love these landscapes and their inhabitants like they are their own family.
Marine conservation
There aren’t too many of these that work with young people, but they do exist and so if you have water babies these are trips of a lifetime. You all need to be passionate about the ocean, happy to live a beach life that is very much in keeping with the local community, and be willing to participate in conservation tasks at strange times of the day. In Costa Rica, for example, you may have early starts to avoid the heat of midday, and late night sessions monitoring sea turtles. It won’t all be ducking and diving, however. You might be putting data into a computer, talking with local communities about conservation efforts or doing boring old cleaning jobs.Animal welfare
Animal welfare volunteering differs from wildlife conservation because the focus of the conservation work is on sanctuaries and rehabilitation centres, working with animals that have been orphaned, harmed or mistreated. In most cases these are formerly wild animals, such as bears in Romania that have been forced to perform for tourists, monkeys in South Africa that have been mistreated as pets or orphaned, or elephants in Thailand and Sri Lanka that have been abused through logging or entertaining tourists. In other cases they may be domesticated animals, such as horses in South Africa, which have been neglected and abused. Working with well established rescue centres and sanctuaries, these are also important projects and often suited to younger children who aren’t ready to go trekking the wilds all day long yet.
Our top Family volunteering Holiday
Family volunteering with turtles in Costa Rica
Family turtle conservation volunteering in Costa Rica
From
£1289
7 days
ex flights
Tailor made:
Tailor made: Flexible departures July - December (nesting season)
Tailor made: Flexible departures July - December (nesting season)
Travel Team
If you'd like to chat about Family volunteering or need help finding a holiday to suit you we're very happy to help.
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Tips from our family volunteer holiday experts
Ellie Petrie, from our supplier Pod Volunteer:
“Our horse rehabilitation project accepts families. It’s a lovely project as you can really get involved in the family environment that they have there. It’s run by two women originally from Gloucestershire, then they moved over there and set up the project about 20 years ago now. The volunteers get involved with helping out with the horses and helping with the rehabilitation of an individual horse if they’re there for over four weeks. But while they’re there, they get involved in the local community, in whatever the family’s doing, and just mucking in wherever they can. So it’s really nice for families to go along and help in all the aspects. We have different minimum ages for each project, and for that project there’s a minimum age of 12.”
“Our horse rehabilitation project accepts families. It’s a lovely project as you can really get involved in the family environment that they have there. It’s run by two women originally from Gloucestershire, then they moved over there and set up the project about 20 years ago now. The volunteers get involved with helping out with the horses and helping with the rehabilitation of an individual horse if they’re there for over four weeks. But while they’re there, they get involved in the local community, in whatever the family’s doing, and just mucking in wherever they can. So it’s really nice for families to go along and help in all the aspects. We have different minimum ages for each project, and for that project there’s a minimum age of 12.”
Jon Arnold, from our supplier Oyster Worldwide, offers advice on volunteer holidays for families: “If this is their two week holiday that they’re doing over the summer, it’s giving the kids much more of a cultural understanding, it’s giving them a lesson in how great it is to volunteer, and really making the most of their holiday time. They’re not just staying in an all inclusive holiday resort and lying on a beach. They’re actually really doing something really worthwhile with those two weeks. And these are projects that we’ve picked particularly because there are things for the children to do and to contribute to as well – the minimum age is around seven.”
More about Family volunteering
Find out the best time to go family volunteering on holiday abroad, based on your children's age and your school timetable.
This family volunteering holidays guide has two aims. The first is to show you that such wonderful things exist. The second is to show that they involve proper work.
Most volunteering projects that open their doors to families are in pretty far flung places. Think Peru, Thailand, South Africa and Borneo.
You might want to contribute towards the conservation – but you might also be wondering if this kind of trip will actually work for your family.
Though your daytimes are full of conservation and rehabilitation tasks, organisations will always ensure there is a day or weekend built into your itinerary for fun.
Be inspired by a mother and daughter who went off on a family adventure of a lifetime, helping with a sea turtle conservation project in Costa Rica.
Romanian bear sanctuaries don’t get the money they need, so volunteers are essential. Take your family volunteering with bears in Romania, and be inspired by the difference you can make.
Baby monkeys need round-the-clock care – something kids can do just as well as adults on a family volunteering holiday with monkeys in South Africa.
We have some fantastic family volunteering advice here, not just from our expert conservation and volunteering organisations, but also from those families who have been there, done that and want to go back.
Should I take photos? Should I visit an orphanage? Should I bring gifts? Read on for some more of our thoughts on responsible family volunteering holidays.
