But as a budget traveler, I’ve never had the cash for those ventures. To be honest, I just can’t afford to pay $2000 for a two-week volunteer stint in a country where the cost of living is probably less than $200.

The good news is that for someone with a good sense of adventure, who is willing to take a few risks, there are plenty of options out there. A large number of local organizations would love a skilled volunteer from abroad, even for a short term. If your budget isn’t big enough for one of the larger international volunteer organizations, here’s a few tips from someone who’s volunteered more than a few times in several countries across South East Asia:

1. Pick a country

2. Identify your skills: Volunteering is about helping other people, so take some time to seriously consider what you have to offer.

3. Research local organizations: With the internet, you should be able to find and contact a number of organizations working out of the country of your choice from large international non governmental organizations, to small grassroots outfits.

4. Make contact: Narrow down your search to those groups you think might best benefit from the skills you have to offer. Then send out a few emails making contact with the organization. Try and be brief and succinct. Introduce yourself and describe your skills and qualifications. State your time frame and availablility. If the organization is interested, suggest they contact you to continue discussions, or ask that they suggest another local group who may be interested.

5. Make plans: Once you’ve got an organization that’s interested in working with you, you can begin to make plans. In addition to looking for a good deal on plane tickets and health insurance (defintiely buy travel insurance), you should also be preparing for whatever task or project you are going to undertake abroad. Make as many preparations and gather as many materials as you think you made need. You could be totally wrong, but you could save valuable time as well. Especially if you will only be in the country for a short time, you want to maximize your impact as much as possible.

6. Make back-up plans: Obviously, the danger with arranging things yourself is that you might fall on some unscrupulous liar who only wants to take advantage of you. These are far fewer in between than you fear, but it can happen, which is why you should always have a back up plan, whenever you travel. Sometimes even something as simple as miscommunication can make you unhappy and frustrated with your volunteer project. So make contingency plans. Even once you have settled on an organization to volunteer with, bring along the names and contact information of other groups in the region. That way, if things don’t work out, you know of other people you could still work with. Even if someone is meeting you at the airport, make sure you have the name of a hotel and some local currency with you, just in case.

7. Get on that plane, and have that adventure! If you’ve gotten this far, you’ve invested a lot of time and effort into your volunteer experience but the chances are that despite all the frustrations and the exertion, it will be worth it. You’ll have the pleasure of knowing you are providing a community with the best you have to provide and the satisfaction of having planned the whole thing on your own. Quite likely you’ll have saved yourself a few bucks in the meantime and that means the local economy is more likely to benefit from the extra cash you have to spend.

Volunteering abroad, the alternative way can often get you the experience and contacts you need for the job of your dreams, but it’s also likely to get you friends forever and memories that will last you for the rest of your life.

Sure, I got the bewildered looks from co-workers who called my venture “random,” and while it may not be the conventional tourist fare, volunteering abroad gives the unconventional tourist something other than what a lot of spring breakers-gone-wild might not get – a vacation they’ll remember!

Whether you enjoy working with children or animals, nature preservation, or you would like to put your handyman skills to work while building a new house for a needy family – i-to-i (the agency I volunteered for) has a cause to meet nearly every volunteer’s desires.
Inspired by my love for endangered sea turtles, I signed up for a weeklong conservation project in Costa Rica. I also got to ride some of Costa Rica’s famous waves during surfing lessons included in the program.

The tropical Central American country of Costa Rica is a lush world of eco-friendly adventure amid beautiful beaches and rainforests filled with thousands of unique species and plants. For the most part of my project, I found myself waking up in the middle of the night, taking two hour shifts to either join in on beach patrols looking for nesting turtles or guarding nests from poachers and preying animals.

If a nest hatches, volunteers get to release the tiny babies into the ocean. Before you start envisioning petting and holding baby turtles every day, remember that it takes 40-60 days for a nest to hatch. Agencies will warn volunteers that they might not actually see a turtle during the whole time they are there!

Our accommodations were basic at best. Our co-ed living quarter was a hut and flushing toilets were nonexistent in our humble abode. We took baths by a well deep in a forest, much to the amusement of the monkeys watching from trees above!

Despite uneven sleep patterns and rustic lodging, coaxing my first baby turtles out of their nest was a magical experience. I got to release them out into the ocean and watch their little heads bob in the moonlit sea. The best part was catching a giant greenback mother turtle lay her eggs on the beach.

People have asked me why I paid to be a volunteer, and I tell them being able to watch animals perform prehistoric rituals and help to preserve that phenomenon is something no tour guide can ever give you. I also got to meet volunteers from a round the world, catch my first wave during surfing lessons and chat with locals – some who have dedicated their lives to saving endangered sea turtles.

That experience is priceless.

Visit http://www.i-to-i.com for more information.