GVI: Volunteer in Greece

I travelled to Greece in June 2018 and had the best two weeks of my life.

Despite a rocky start of being refused boarding onto the airplane, from the moment I landed I felt both welcome and appreciated. Arriving many hours late, a GVI staff member waited for me all day in the airport and then sorted us accommodation in Athens, having missed our bus earlier! The warmth I felt from this lovely woman was immediate and continued for the whole trip...

Once we had finally arrived at the campsite the next day I was introduced to the rest of the staff as well as the other volunteers and within a few seconds made friends that, even though they live far away from me, are still part of my life now.

We stayed at a campsite on the most beautiful beach, surrounded by sand dunes and with stunning sunsets every single night. And this was the beach where our daily surveys took place. Each day we ventured out to locate and protect the turtle nests that had been dug the previous evening. Seeing the tracks they leave in the sand, and coming to understand them really makes you feel special!

By the end of the two week experience a significant goal had been reached. Over the summer the GVI team, along with Archelon (a neighbouring turtle conservation charity) had helped to protect over 1000 turtle nests, ensuring the hatchlings had the best chance of survival. There aren’t words to explain how rewarding it is to be involved in work like this. The celebration that evening was one to remember.

Volunteering for GVI was such an incredible experience. The scenery is reason enough to go to the area, but meeting new friends who also care about conserving nature, and knowing that we’d done some good for the turtles was the highlight of this fabulous trip. I cannot wait to get back!

In June of 2019, I volunteered with GVI in Greece, Giannitsochori, for two weeks on their turtle program - but I wish I had stayed longer! It was an incredible experience and your work really does make a difference to the conservation of turtle populations. The accommodation is in a tent, about a 2 minute walk away from the beach. The GVI staff were always around and happy to help with any queries or issues and I felt incredibly safe on this program. I would recommend to anyone with a passion for marine conservation, those who wish to make a difference/sustainable impact, or anyone who loves the outdoors!

I had originally signed up to go on this trip to do something more with my summer than just a normal vacation. What I got was so much more than I thought I would from this experience. I got to meet some amazing people and I had a blast. If I had been told beforehand that I would be waking up at 5 AM, I would have thought that I wouldn't be able to wake up, but the opposite was true, I found it so easy to wake up as I was going to go on a survey that was crazy cool. Finding the turtle nests was surreal. I still marvel at how turtles can nest in the way that they do. It was so peaceful walking down the beach in the early mornings. I would go back in a heartbeat and do it again. The staff was amazing. The campsite was really cool as well, being only a few minutes from the taverna and the beach. This trip was eye-opening to so much more than I thought it would be. We did some beach cleans as well as learning about the different effects that we have on the environment. It is an experience that I will never forget and that I highly recommend to anyone thinking about doing something similar.

I did 2 weeks of turtle conservation in Greece in August of 2019 and it was a genuinely life changing fortnight. I had never done anything thing like this before and had never travelled alone before either but I'm so glad I did because at the end of my time I felt like I had done something fulfilling and meaningful with my summer, and I had! So I had signed up for 2 weeks abroad doing wildlife conservation and didn't really know what to expect, but it was brilliant, every day I would get up early,(just before 6) and get ready to start my day witha morning survey, this is where you patrol a section of the beach with a small team from your camp and see what overnight activity had occurred. It was really exciting because you never knew what you were going to see. Tracks from hatchling throughout the night, live hatchling, fresh nests and predated nest were some of what I got to see. On my first day I was lucky enough to watch 7 hatchling head down the beach into the sea and it really was an amazing heartwarming moment, watching them take their first steps towards the vast ocean and you're their watching it... Very priveldiging. It really made it feel like you were doing something good, helping this species and making a genuine impact, which truth be told you were! But there was more to it than that, whilst i were there I met some amazing people and made some life long memories, the atmosphere of base camp was just amazing. No bad memories from it, everyone who was there, was there for a similar reason. You all had something in common because you'd all chose to be there and to help turtles so getting along with everyone was really easy. There was always someone or something going on at camp as well and it was just a really happy, relaxing place to be. Midday and evenings were filled with things like be ah clean, public awareness walks or shading turtle nests from light pollution. No matter where you were or what you were doing, there was always a nice vibe and whoever you were with was worth talking to and a good laugh. My biggest regret from the whole trip is not going for longer... 2 weeks isn't long enough! And the hardest part was leaving and saying goodbye. It was a special 2 weeks and has genuinely changed my life. I encourage anyone to do the same, life's to short, go for it!

I spent 4 weeks in the campsite at Giannitsochori, a tiny coastal village an hour from Olympia, this August. It was the best month I've ever had. GVI's on the ground staff make a compelling and motivated team, and working so closely with fellow volunteers almost guarantees you'll make good friends even if you only stay a fortnight. The location is beautiful, and you have enough free time to really appreciate that; with weekends off you can take trips to explore the area or spend time relaxing on the beach. You will learn a lot about not only the turtles themselves, their habitat and biology, but also about public awareness and interaction of locals and tourists alike, and the challenges of marine conservation on a beach that's a tourist hotspot. Patrolling the beach at night during nesting season and witnessing a turtle laying eggs is an incredible experience, matched only by later seeing hatchlings emerge from those very nests and take their first steps toward the sea. The sense of unity and delight in these moments is incredible. And to be able to continue this experience not only for a day, or a week, but a whole month (or longer!)? Certainly there are no words for how lucky I was to be able to partake in this series of events.

Im in my gap year and wanted to do something meaningful to help endangered animals but also find something which would help me to gain confidence and life skills.
Greece turtle volunteering provided just that for me.
This was my first trip abroad by myself and I was nervous but I absolutely loved my experience in Greece, all staff and volunteers were so welcoming and willing to help you in any way they could.
Camp was basic but it had everything I needed and only a 2 minute walk from the beach!
I got to get involved with resource making, which included shading for the hatchling's, bamboo collecting and cutting for protecting the nests. We also took turns to cook dinner for camp, which was challenging but I have learnt many skills from doing this! Morning surveys and night surveys were amazing. On morning survey you would wake up early, meet the team and go out looking for turtle tracks and nests, recording and protecting them as we went. On Night survey you would get the chance to see mother turtles laying their eggs!
I was only meant to stay two weeks but I enjoyed my time so much I was able to extend my stay, all made very easy to do by the staff.
Overall, my experience in Greece was incredible and I had the time of my life knowing how much I was making an impact on protecting turtles but also making amazing friends. I would 100% recommend.

I went on the under 18 trip this summer (2018) and it was incredible! I met a lot of amazing people, I've stayed in touch with a lot of the group, and the supervisors were all lovely and enthusiastic. I think it is a very worthwhile cause and we all learnt a lot about turtles and about the importance of protecting them. I would 100% recommend to anyone interested as we had a lot of fun and the project does a some really important work.

Hi I'm Daisy, I'm from Britain and I have just done a month with GVI in Greece working with turtles. I have seen things that I never thought I would see and made life long friends from all over the world. With this program we did a variety of things from seeing turtles laying nests at night to seeing baby hatchlings hatching in the morning, the feeling of knowing you have helped an endangered species is probably one of the best things you can feel.

The day to day life in camp if your on a morning survey is you get up about 5.30 then at 6ish you head off down to the beach. You would check for tracks and nests or for hatchlings etc and then protect and make note of what's happened. Once your morning survey was done you head back to camp this is normally around 9.30 10 then you have free time until about 5.30 which is when you have presentations. For me free time was napping in the hammocks but for most it was heading to the beach and tanning or sitting at the taverna. For the first 2 weeks of your trip there's an education program and this taught me so much about the world and epecially conservation and what effects it so much for example plastic pollution, since learning about that and seeing photos of how it harms turtles I try my hardest not to use plastic. After 2 weeks you do other activities like shading where you put shading up to shade the hatchlings from lights you also do data logging or beach profiling.

You get the weekends off and getting to experience the Greek culture is amazing, the whole GVI environment is relaxed and welcoming, from the moment you meet the staff in the airport even after leaving the camp, the staff are very supportive and extremely passionate about what they do it makes you want to do more. For me it's made me want to go on other GVI programs doing conservation for animals and also welfare for children. The staff are brilliant and very knowledgeable so any questions you have they can answer.

My favourite thing in Greece was being able to see and help the turtles then building protection for them in person, its a once in a life time opportunity. Eventhough the smell was hard to cope with exevations were fun to see and do too, seeing what happens to the eggs and nests after they have hatched is very interesting.

I would totally recomend GVI Greece to anyone who loves conservation or science but even if your like me who didn t know anything about conservation but loves sealife and wildlife it's amazing and now its completely changed my life for the better and the way I see things now. Don't hesitate just go for it.