The working day  doesn’t start too early at La Casa delle Acque, a small organic orange farm at the foot of Mount Etna in Sicily. It’s around 8 O’clock. The sun has lit [...]

Slowly edging our way along the river bank, the light from our torch scanned for the unmistakable orange glint reflected in the eyes of this night-time killer. A close relative of the [...]

Sometimes a great meal is great because of the cuisine. Sometimes it is the companions or the ambiance. This unlikely photo is of me having one of the meals I remember most [...]

I was asked recently for a recommendation on a Spanish language immersion program but came up empty. While I have wanted to take Spanish classes in Mexico or elsewhere in Latin America, [...]

The Amateur Traveler talks to Chris Guillebeau from the Art of Non-Conformity about his years volunteering in West Africa with the NGO (non-governmental organization) Mercy Ships. Chris and his wife volunteered with [...]

The staff and I piled into an antiquated 1980 Toyota Landcruiser. Like all of my other experiences in Bolivian vehicles the seat belts were missing. There were four of us in the [...]

On January 12, 2010, a severe earthquake (magnitude 7.0 on the Richter scale) shattered the heart of Haiti and practically destroyed the capital city of Port-au-Prince.  An estimated 270,000 people died, 300,000 [...]

The Amateur Traveler talks to Lillie Marshall of AroundTheWorldL.com about the 3 months she volunteered in Ghana in sub-Saharan West Africa on her round the world trip. She worked for the program [...]

Would you ever travel without a camera? Dog Meets World has a heart as big as its dream: photographing children across the world, in their own environments, and giving to them printed copies. Dog Meets World seeks to make photo-diplomats of travelers, enabling them—you!—to connect to the people and cultures they visit. To do something so simple, and in the process, make a lifelong impact. All one needs is a camera, a portable printer, and a tiny stuffed dog called Foto.

I predict there will be an increase in volunteering this year as Disney has announced a program where they will trade you a day of volunteering for a day at a Disney [...]