Africa Travel Sale: 20% Off Tours

Starting tomorrow, you can save 20% off of selected trips to Africa if you book with the Adventure Travel Company.

Bookings must be made and paid in full by July 31, 2009 and travel must occur before March 31, 2010. Be sure to mention promo code ACA20_0709 when you book.

Trips that will be on sale include the 14-day Gorilla Encounter through Kenya and Uganda, the 11-day Highlights of Tanzania, and for those with a lot of travel time available, the 58-day Ultimate African Overlander from Nairobi to Cape Town.

The website has a longer list of trips, and agents can provide you with even more trips that aren’t listed on the site.

The closest I’ve come to Africa is the elephant habitat at the Oakland Zoo, so all of these trips look good to me. Take advantage of these great deals, and let me know where you’re going!

Adventures in Africa: Volunteer Abroad

Here’s your recommended blog of the week: Christine’s Adventures in the Real Africa 

My friend and title character, Christine, recently made a big decision to leave behind the corporate law career that so many of her peers went into and to spend a year volunteering in Zambia. The one in Africa. That’s volunteering as in not getting paid. In Africa. For a year.

Maybe that doesn’t sound like such a big deal to you, maybe it does. Personally, I think it’s hugely courageous of her. She left her husband and dog in Chicago (not for good, just for now), gave up a comfortable job, a comfortable apartment, an altogether comfortable lifestyle, and put herself into a most unfamiliar and uncomfortable situation. I’m sure she’ll adjust in no time because she’s got brains and guts and heaps of moxie, but it’s a big change nonetheless, and she’s doing it simply because she wants to help people. 

There are a lot of ways you can combine travel with your goals as a student, as a professional, or as a human being. Find a volunteer project abroad, study abroad, or just take the time to educate yourself about the issues impacting the areas where you’re going. There’s nothing wrong with a holiday full of museums and pubs and beaches, but if you choose an experience that takes you even deeper into a culture and helps you connect with the people around you, you’ll be able to look back on someone you were, not just something you did. 

• Teach English Abroad 
• Adventure Travel with our friends at Travel CUTS
• Travel/Field Research with the Earthwatch Institute
• Meaningful Travel with i-to-i