Kenya Safari Holidays and “VolunTourism”
Posted by: admin in Kenya Tourism, kenya safari holidaysI read an interesting article on the web from The Baltimore Sun regarding “VolunTourism” which combines a holiday with an amount of time giving something back.
Here’s a brief snippet:
“As David Clemmons, founder of VolunTourism .org, frames it: "This is more than just putting heads in beds."
Volunteer vacations or service trips have been around for years in the form of tax-deductible trips arranged by nonprofit organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, Earthwatch and Global Volunteers.
But volunteer tourism is different. Instead of focusing on away-from-home volunteer projects, often long-term, voluntourism combines a pure holiday - say, a 12-day safari in Africa or a week in New Orleans during Mardi Gras - with a short-term volunteer undertaking”.
When I last visited Kenya I spent some time on the Masai Mara, courtesy of Virgin Holidays and whilst there myself and a number of other travel agents spent a day in a local Masai village painting a new school building. (I’m about to add a video to the main Kenya Holidays website showing us actually doing it).
So in a way we were taking part in “VolunTourism” without realising.
I can recommend it as we had a great day, met the local people in their own surroundings and put just a little back into the area that we were enjoying from a “tourist” standpoint.
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December 10th, 2008 at 6:15 am
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I purchased a safari from African Serval Cat Safaris and I must say that I was extremely impressed with the services they provided.
The hotel accommodations were great and so was the food and , most importantly, the safari itself was very interesting. It was my first safari and the only thing I regret was not booking one earlier. The guides were knowledgeable and the service was superb.
I was also surprised that I was able to live like a millionaire for a week and visit the very same
romantic places that I read about in books as a child and saw in movies so many times, all for a very reasonable price.
I strongly recommend this company and their safaris to anyone contemplating a visit to Kenya.
Sincerely,
David Kessel
Palms Springs, USA
December 29th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Thanks David,
Sounds like you had the same sort of experience that I enjoyed on my first visit to the Masai Mara.
You say: “It was my first safari and the only thing I regret was not booking one earlier”.
I felt exactly the same. I thought the whole experience was magical and cant’ wait for my next trip.
Colin