Program Reviews

I made very close friends while on this trip in India. I loved the elephants and seeing the magnificent sights. The children in Delhi were adorable, lovable, and thankful. The group leaders were orderly and I felt extremely safe! I think it was definitely worth the visit.

I just graduated from school this year so this trip was my first time traveling alone for such along time.
12 weeks sounds like forever but at the end it really showed me how time flies...

To be honest, my first week was the worst. On one hand I was so overwhelmed from all the new experiences but on the other hand very exhausted from meeting so many new people and finding my place in the hostel. I was laying in my bed and was asking my self how I should survive three month in Capetown.

After I was over my first and last down in my hole time in Capetown there was no space for beeing homesick anymore.
I've started to enjoy every moment of my trip.
The city is amazing! One of the most exiting and interesting cities in the world. I found some lovely friend who I will keep in touch with.
Everything was going to be easier from one day to another. In the hostel because you finally found friend but also in your project. After the first few days you know the rules in the class, you start to remember nearly every name and you know the personalities. It was one of the most amazing feelings to be part of the hole school life.
The only thing that was very hard for me to understand was the fact that you are not there to change the hole country even if you want to. I met a lot of volunteers who felt nearly the same way, useless.
It took me a while to understand to learn how to be proud of the small things I achieved. A smiling child that has a fun time because of me or a child that can finally understands how to solve easy maths stuff, is more imported than the big things. At the end three month is only a short period of time in my life and in the life of the kids. I cannot change the circumstances the kids have to live in or the way their parents treat them but I can help to built a save place at school where the kids can learn and play. After I learned that lesson it was much easier to be happy, working in my project.

I can recommend a project like this to everyone who wants to combine doing something good with having great experiances with the people in the hostel and all the great stuff you can do in Capetown. The organisation want you to also have a lot of free time so this is perfect for everyone who loves traveling and for everyone who is open minded and for everyone who thinks that he or she can handle also bad and hard experiances, but they will also change your view on life completly.

As my first travelling experience i was so nervious. Fortunately the staff helped me with all my doubts even I was already situated in the volunteer house.
I loved getting involved in culture and language. I learned a lot of this country and the custom.
The most important thing that I save from the volunteering is the orphanege where i work with.
The kids are really amazing. The lack of everything that they have is regrettable. But that is why I want to go back again as many times as I can. I fell in love with the kids. They need help and love.
Since the first time I saw them i knew that something in me would change.
My intention to go on this experience was to cheer their hearts, but they stole mine.

When I decided that I wanted to travel to Thailand, I did hours worth of research to find the perfect program. When I found Volunteering Solutions, I realized that they offered trips during my timeline, were affordable, and had a variety of different trip experiences to choose from.

I decided on the Summer Special, which is 3 weeks of volunteering and traveling throughout Thailand and added an extra "beach week" at the end of my trip.

I am fortunate to have traveled to many different countries throughout my lifetime with many different programs and I admit, I was a little skeptical about this program at first because I had never met anyone who had traveled through them before. My best friend and I decided to go to Thailand together, just in case things didn't go as planned, so that we could go off and travel on our own if need be.

I am happy to say that our trip to Thailand was everything we hoped it would be and more.

We spent time on Khao San Road (the backpackers hub), toured famous temples in Bangkok, and taught students at the Wat Pho Temple. We traveled to Surin by 7 hour train ride, bathed elephants in the river, and cut down sugar cane and palm fronds to feed them. We had the chance to experience Buddhist Lent in Surin, which educated us so much about Thai culture and beliefs. We volunteered at a preschool in Surin where we taught children in the mornings and completed various school improvement projects in the afternoon.

On a free weekend, many members of our group traveled to Angkor Wat Temples in Cambodia. It was an absolutely breathtaking addition to our trip and our Thai guides helped us plan our excursion so it was both safe and affordable.

We trekked through Khao Yai National Park where we saw exotic wildlife and were truly immersed in the jungle. For those of us who stayed for the beach extension, we stayed at a beach side resort with private beach bungalows and a private beach and pool. We explored multiple islands during our stay including Koh Phangan, Koh Nang Yuan, and Koh Tao. We hiked, snorkeled, and lounged on the beach. We went to a Black Moon Party where we enjoyed bumping music, neon body paint, and delicious food.

This trip literally encompassed almost everything that Thailand has to offer. Our Thai guide was extremely knowledgeable about everywhere we traveled and all the experiences we took part in. The trip was very organized and I felt safe at all times.

Another part of the program that I really enjoyed was that it included volunteers from the US, Canada, and Europe. Having diversity among our travel partners made our exploration of Thailand more fun and always allowed for interesting conversations and opinions. By the end of the trip, we were like family and it was so difficult to leave each other after an entire month of bonding experiences.

Overall, I would HIGHLY recommend volunteering and traveling through Volunteering Solutions, especially to Thailand on the Summer Special. My best friend and I who traveled together enjoyed the program so much that we are already looking at trips for next year through VolSol.

If you are questioning whether or not to take the next step of traveling, I say go for it. Educating yourself through travel is one of the best life decisions you could ever make! :)

I absolutely adore children and teaching so we decided that working in the kindergarten for the street children would be a great place to devote our time! It was so great working with so many sweet little kids they were so great and loved learning! I especially loved the play time with them it was so great! I also loved that we got to stay with a host family. They helped us to understand their way of life so we could connect on a better level with the children!

I loved my time in Vietnam. It was an incredible experience to be able to put my worries aside and focus on just those I was there to serve. It helped me grow a lot and taught me hard work. It also was so fun! I always felt safe with VS which is why I have continued to go back with them for all of my volunteering trips!

This is the trip that changed my life forever. It was my first volunteer trip and I can say it made me a better person. My favorite story from this summer was about this little boy. He was the mean boy at the orphanage, he bit, he scratched, he punched. He was always so angry! Having a sister with autism I grew up learning behavioral therapies so I decided to try just a basic therapy with him. I asked my cousin to help me with it as well. We decided every time we saw him we would give him a hug. At first he hated it he would try to hurt us. As the days passed he finally just became tolerant of our hugs. Toward the end of our stay something incredible happened. Each morning as we entered the orphanage the kids would come running to hug us. All except this boy. Well one of our last days there tears swelled in my eyes as I saw the first of the group of kids running toward us to be this special little man I had grown to love! He came up and gave me a hug. It was then I knew if anything I was able to reach one little boy and he turned out to be the sweetest of them all, just wanting a little love never having gotten it before. The rest of our stay we hugged with him and told him we loved him and he returned the favor. I will never forget this amazing experience!

This was my first time traveling so far away from home by myself. I was really nervous at first but once I arrived I lost my nervous feeling.The other volunteers staying in the house were so inviting and tons of fun to be around. During the first weekend we learned about the Thai culture and went on tours of the city. After that we started our volunteering program (mine was the Children's Home) and it was amazing! I couldn't have picked a better program for myself. The children were so happy to have new people to play with and warmed up to us really quickly. They sang and danced for us and we taught them new games to play. On our free time we were able to do all of the tourist activities you would want to do as well as travel to other cities and see more of Thailand than just Chiang Mai. One afternoon we went to an old quarry that was turned into a lake they called the Grand Canyon. It was the most beautiful place I have ever seen and we spent all afternoon swimming and enjoying the amazing weather. It was an experience of a life time and I would do it all over again if I could!

Last summer I went to Rabat by myself with Volunteering Solutions for 1 month. I didn't really expect much from the program, I just wanted to take part in a real and shocking experience which would turn my world around. And I found it. In Rabat I lived a live changing experience, which has made me feel lucky ever since and made me learn more things about myself. I also met wonderful people at the Orphanage and most important, I learned what it is like to dedicate yourself and your time to someone or a project, making my 4 week trip worthy as I made other people happy for just a few weeks. I also loved the city of Rabat and the other places in Morocco I went to with the other volunteers I met there. I specially loved the city of Chefchaouen, which I completely recomend to visit for a couple of days, and most of all, the trip to Sahara Desert stopping by at Merzouga for at least 3 days. I also recommend to women going to Rabat to volunteer to bring lots of long dresses or skirts if they make the trip during summer as it gets boiling and its hard and ridiculous to walk around in long trousers when its almost 35 degrees.

I was so nervous about coming because I was by myself and it was my first time travelling so far away. Turns out I had nothing to be nervous about. I had the best month of my life and I feel like I truly found myself. I definitely caught the travelling bug as we were able to do so much as well as volunteering, like touring Bangkok, visiting temple ruins, national park tour and a weekend trip to Cambodia (which was something we did ourselves but all the tour guides encouraged and helped us through the whole thing.) I also loved that we had so much variety volunteering from teaching in Bangkok to childcare in Surin to looking after the most beautiful elephants at the elephant village! I had the best tour guide there ever was. She really took care of us like a mother and she truly became a dear friend. I would 100% reccomend this program, Making dreams come true and meeting and making friends with people all over the world. The best month of my life!