Over 50s volunteering holidays guide

Why pay to volunteer?

Although you will be working and giving up your time, a volunteering holiday is not free. This is an organised holiday, booked through a tour operator that carefully vets every project to ensure it delivers genuine benefits to local people, the environment and wildlife. The cost of your holiday also goes towards your food (usually all meals are included), accommodation, training and valuable pre-trip and in-country support. It’s also the chance to travel to remote corners of the world, connecting you with people and wildlife in a way few travellers experience. When you take all this into account, a volunteering holiday is an economical way to immerse yourself in a country.

Anne Smellie, from our specialist supplier Oyster Worldwide, explains what goes into the cost of a volunteering holiday: “There are a huge number of projects out there, some genuine and some less genuine. We make sure you are choosing the best project in terms of ethics, safety, accessibility and knowledge of the country. It can take us a couple of years to get from first contact with a project to first volunteer on the ground. We visit all of the projects and know them intimately before anyone goes anywhere, and doing that research takes time and money. You are also paying for what’s included: accommodation, food, transfers from the airport, help and support, full time staff there who can look after you. Projects are taking on unskilled volunteers and families up for making a genuine contribution, but it costs them more money to do this than using fully trained people who can hit the ground running. We also give everyone a full briefing before they travel and an induction once there. It’s not like going to a resort where you just need to find out where the pool and the bar are; you need to be prepared culturally, work out if you’re fit enough, find out about the language and if you need to learn it. A lot of detail goes into preparing.”