Do Good, Feel Good On Volunteer Vacations In Beautiful Places

From Bocas del Toro to San Miguel de Allende, families, couples, and solo travelers can volunteer in the communities they visit.

Vacations tend to be selfish, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But if you’re eager to make your next vacation more meaningful, to leave your resort and really get to know the locals, and to depart not just feeling rested, but renewed, volunteer a few hours, a day, or even an entire week within the community you visit.

These resorts in two beautiful destinations embrace and honor the heritage of the people who live there. They seek to educate visitors on local needs and spur you on to action. One thing’s for sure – this won’t just be your standard vacation.

Stay At Casa Cayuco Eco-Adventure Lodge, Bocas del Toro, Panama

Just a short, 45-minute flight from Panama City is the beatific island of Bocas del Toro, a tropical paradise where Casa Cayuco Eco-Adventure Lodge nestles into the jungle and beckons to travelers seeking remote getaways. This is the place to be when you want to commune with nature – not the manufactured sort so prevalent on resort properties, but the authentic kind, where the natural rhythm is undisturbed, where you can visit with indigenous people and immerse yourself in local traditions.

Casa Cayuco provides the best local experience and an opportunity to learn about and lend support to the neighboring community. Quebrada De Sal, or Salt Creek in English, is a Ngäbe-Buglé indigenous village and the largest in the Archipelago of Bocas Del Toro. The roughly 1150 people who live there rely on the school system as the primary form of organization and centralized structure. Without plumbing, electricity, or other basic services, the community has never had a hospital, pharmacy or medical facility… until Casa Cayuco stepped in.

When the eco-resort began operations 20 years ago, it committed to supporting Salt Creek, first by constructing school buildings, then by setting up electricity and clean water for the students. Now, Casa Cayuco is knee-deep in its establishment of a medical clinic within Salt Creek. They’ve partnered with Floating Doctors and built an outpost for rotating staff to tend to community members. Eventually, the two-story structure will contain exam and treatment rooms, along with dorm rooms and facilities for medical staff that will allow for year-round routine and preventative medical care, emergency services, health care education, and empowerment. They are also investing in a state-of-the-art solar power system.

So how can you get involved? Just by staying at Casa Cayuco you’re helping, as a portion of each stay goes to ongoing projects within the village. Want something a little more hands-on? Use the extra space in your luggage for donations to the school and medical outpost. Pack for a Purpose maintains an up-to-date list of the most pressing needs, which might include general school supplies, first aid and health supplies, and simple outdoor recreational toys like frisbees and balls.

Finally, financial support is of greatest need as Casa Cayuco works to complete the medical clinic and stock it with staff and medicine.

Stay At Rosewood San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

There’s so much to love about San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, from the crayon box full of colors that dress every building to the papel picado that decorate the cobblestone streets. Art galleries, incredible cuisine, tequila, architecture, history, and the kindness of the people make this place special, somewhere you’ll want to revisit again and again.

You can add an interesting layer to an already fascinating vacation by getting involved in sustainability while learning farming techniques you can use at home. Begin by anchoring your stay at Rosewood San Miguel de Allende, the gorgeous center of this incredible city. The service here is unparalleled, and that extends beyond the guest experience. Rosewood San Miguel de Allende makes all the arrangements for a visit to Via Organica, a 35-acre demonstration school and ranch that promotes a local, healthy lifestyle, nutrition through organic agriculture, elimination of waste, and protection of the planet. If your kids – or you – don’t know where your food comes from, it’s a real wake-up call to visit this farm.

When you arrive, you’ll meet Rosana Alvarez, who will take you on a tour of the operation; introduce the kids to the goats, chickens, and cows; and teach the whole family about how to create a garden or an entire community that is self-supporting and healthy. Not only does the farm incentivize locals to stay in San Miguel de Allende, but it educates visitors about native plants such as agave, ancestral ways of planting, organic practices, and how to feed your family from your own backyard. You’ll learn how to compost, how food discards can be reused rather than wasted, and just how flavorful veggies plucked from the garden are compared to the store-bought variety. Don’t miss lunch at the onsite restaurant, where everything on your plate originated right there at the farm.

Via Organica planted the aromatic herb garden at Rosewood San Miguel de Allende and provides a cooking class for Rosewood guests that teaches them how to use fresh ingredients for better health. As Alvarez says, volunteering at the farm as a family allows you to reconnect with nature and introduce your kids to the soil, something she finds incredibly healing for those who volunteer.