Having vacation time to explore nearby places makes volunteering with ILP irresistible! Here's everything you need to know about how vacationing works when you're volunteering with International Language Programs.
The best part about volunteering and teaching English with ILP is that you not only get to immerse yourself in a new culture and help teach kids English, but you also get plenty of time off to explore the nearby cities and countries around you!
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Vacationing with ILP can come with a lot of questions. We want to give our volunteers a lot of freedom and independence to travel the world, but also priortize keeping our volunteers safe. Here is an in-depth guide of our most FAQs about vacationing with ILP!
- Who Plans The Vacations?
- When Are Vacations?
- How Do I Plan A Vacation?
- How Much Do Vacations Cost?
- Where Can I Go On Vacation?
Who Plans The Vacations?
A huge draw to volunteering with ILP is that you get to choose your experiences! Some things are already taken care of and organized for you (like how your housing and meals are set up or what you'll be doing as a volunteer), but what you do during your free time and vacations is much more open!
You'll get together with your ILP group and chat about what sounds fun. Where do you want to go? What do you want to do? You make the decisions!
Submitting vacations plans
We do require that volunteers send in "vacation plans" to the ILP Support Team a few weeks in advance. ILP does approve your destination requests and there are a set of rules that volunteers have agreed to which remain while on vacation (some activities will not be approved), but we're not going to say, "Okay, you're staying here and going on this tour." Your group gets to plan and decide. Cheers!
Do we have to stay with our group?
Our Code of Conduct must still be followed even when you are on vacation. It's there to help you choose safer situations, and that includes traveling in groups of at least three people.
Most ILP groups love to travel together because you've become such good friends, but know that if you can't all decide on somewhere to go, you can split off into groups of three or more. Especially with our bigger groups, it may be more trouble than it's worth trying to plan a trip that makes all 17 of you happy.
When Are Vacations?
You'll have two weeks of vacation time spread throughout your time abroad. It usually works out to be a solid week off from volunteering, and a couple of 3 or 4-day long vacations (including weekends), a total of 9 week days off during your semester.
You can also take little weekend trips because you won't be volunteering on Saturday or Sunday. Every ILP location has loads of destinations that are close enough to explore over a weekend, so you're totally set if you want to see as many places as you can.
You won't know your vacation days until you arrive in-country. They tend to change semester to semester, but once you find out, you'll be able to start planning where you want to go (and believe me, you'll have a hard time narrowing it all down!).
How Do I Plan A Vacation?
If you've never planned a vacation before, the first thing to know is that it's a lot of work! It's pretty time-intensive if you're doing all the research you can about the cheapest places to stay and the best things to do, especially if you've never visited that area before.
Make sure to delegate and divide the job up within your group! One person should not be planning everything. This is an experience you all want to be a part of!
*For volunteers in India — this location is a bit unique because we work with a tour guide here! Touring India with a guide is just a much easier way to see all this country has to offer, so while planning the details of your vacations is traditionally something ILP volunteers do, that's not the case for our India groups. It's a pretty big perk! You'll have a list of destination options so that you can still pick things you're most interested in, but you don't have to spend time figuring out the details of how you're going to get there and where you're going to stay because your tour guide will have it all taken care of.
Here are a couple of details you want to make sure to consider when planning a trip:
Pick A Place
This may be the trickiest part of the whole process … if you're in Mexico, you'll need to decide between World Wonders and ah-mazing beaches, or painted towns and hot air balloon festivals. Rough life, right?
Need some inspiration? The ILP blog has posts about our favorite hidden gems and some pretty rad travel destinations our volunteers love to visit during their semester — in great detail too!
You can search the ILP blog instead of scanning through all of our blog posts. On desktop, visit the ILP blog, then scroll down until you see the search bar on the right side. Type in the name of your vacation spot (or ideal country) and see what pops up!
Plan Your Transport
A lot of countries have tons of ways to get around (again, you'll get a little more info on what's best for your country once you've been assigned and accepted as an ILP volunteer). You may decide to get there quicker and fly, or save money by hopping on a train or overnight bus. Some locations prefer to hire a private driver.
Once you are in-country, your Head Teacher will likely have access to a book full of what past ILP groups did when they went on vacation. Past volunteers' tips can be invaluable.
The biggest thing to know is that this is the first thing you want to plan, as early as you can, as soon as you know where you're headed. You'll often be able to find better deals and avoid tickets selling out if you arrange transportation at the start of your semester abroad.
Book a Place To Stay
Where you stay can really make or break a vacation. Do you want to stay somewhere affordable so you can spend more money on tours? Or would you rather invest a little money in a nice place to stay with warm showers and a pool?
Make sure you explore all of your housing options for that destination; maybe there aren't hostels, but you can stay in a nearby monastery.
One thing to think about is location — check out addresses (or general neighborhoods) of where you want to stay and see how far it is from what you want to see. If most things you want to visit are in the Old Town or city center, it makes sense to either book a hostel there, or at least find an AirBnB by a metro stop so you can easily head into London for a day’s worth of site seeing. When you're exploring a new city, staying somewhere within walking distance of the must-see places is so so so convenient.
Past guests will also write reviews about the place and give it a rating so you can find a place that maybe has free breakfast and awesome WiFi. Reviews will also let you know if it is a legit place to stay that has good safety ratings.
Figure Out The Details
Now for the nitty gritty details. Some of this work might be done for you as ILP has several blog posts full of very specific information about favorite cities. Find these by searching on the ILP blog (there's a little explanation of how to do that above).
When I volunteered with ILP, we had vacation planning meetings with everyone where we all brought ideas, made sure things got planned, and ensured we all got to do what we wanted on our trip or decided as a group that something would be too expensive or not worth our time.
But sometimes differences cause conflict. We want you to have freedom to go to the places you're dreaming of, but what if you don’t really want to go somewhere but someone else really wants to go there ... you may need to resolve conflicts!
Remember that you'll have multiple vacations throughout your semester. If during one vacation you get to go to the place you really want to go to, make sure someone else gets to choose the place you go on the next vacation.
How Much Do Vacations Cost?
You ALWAYS spend more than you planned on. It's just a part of travel. Plan on that in the first place, and you'll be okay. There's always going to be a more expensive flight, a bus that you miss so you have to buy another ticket, a mix-up with the order which has you paying for a double scoop of ice cream, and that one time you forgot your boots so you had to buy a new pair on vacation. If you're in the mindset that you have a couple of hundred dollars for these kinds of unforeseen emergencies, you'll be able to take it in stride when it happens.
In general volunteers typically say that they spent anywhere from $1,500-$3,500+ on their vacations. There are a lot of factors that create that big range.
Destinations: Europe is more expensive than places like Mexico or Thailand. Remote places like Nicaragua are more affordable than popular hotspots like Costa Rica. So first and foremost, know that the country you're traveling in will really impact your budget. If you're looking for something more affordable, when you apply as a volunteer you'll have a chance to chat with us and we can give you tips on which countries might be better budget options!
Choices: The small choices that you make really add up over a 3-4 month semester trip! Getting pizza at an Americanized restaurant is going to cost double or triple than what your meal would cost at the little local shop. Taking a taxi is more expensive than taking the bus. Joining a ziplining tour is going to be more expensive than taking a hike through a national park. Vacationing in your own country is going to be cheaper than taking a flight to explore another country.
We're not saying you should never splurge or that you shouldn't live out your bucketlist dreams. I mean you're having a once-in-a-lifetime experience of living in another country so we think you should do all the things you want to do! But if you're on a budget and want to spend less overall, just recognize that the small purchases and choices do add up over time. You have control over how much you spend. We've even seen volunteer groups where people in the same group say they ended up spending a wildly different amount than another volunteer because one tended to shop and buy snacks much more often than someone else.
Where Can I Go On Vacation?
Every country is SO different in regards to where you can go on vacation! It's a huge aspect on helping you decide where you want to volunteer. With 25+ years of experience, the ILP Blog has so many ideas and travel guides for places our volunteers love to go. When you're accepted as an ILP volunteer, you also get a little more access to popular vacation spots for your city.
Here's how one ILP volunteer spent 9+ days in Europe to give you an idea.
If you’re in Mexico, a 5 day trip is the perfect time to fly to Cancun to check out beaches and ancient ruins.
Headed to Africa? We're not going to lie, the idea of spending a few days going on safari in some world class safari parks to hang out with lions, spot giraffes, and be on the lookout of for a cheetah is probably the coolest way to spend a vacation.
Volunteers living in Thailand can take a short flight and be at one of the country’s most beautiful islands like Phi Phi or hanging out on Phuket. Or, consider hopping over to Cambodia for 3-4 days.
Anyone volunteering in Central America (looking at you, Costa Rica and Nicaragua) are also spoilt for choice. Head up to Mexico and hold sea turtles, island hop in the Caribbean or maybe take a trip down to Panama.
Don't waste your free time — make sure you're out exploring your city, hitting up the local beaches, visiting nearby castles or temples, hanging out in your city, or trekking out to the outskirts to discover a new museum, park, soccer field, or lake to relax by.
Caught the travel bug yet?
Start stamping your passport and make a difference by volunteering with International Language Programs. Through our program, you not only get to travel the world, but you also get to live like a "local" while teaching English to kids in your community.
