Volunteer holidays

If you want to volunteer abroad, but can't take a full-blown career break at the moment, why not take a volunteer holiday?

Also known as a gap month, a mini career break or a short career break, a volunteer holiday can give you a similar volunteer opportunity in a much shorter period of time.

Volunteer holidays can be as short as 1 week or up to a month. Most volunteer opportunities that you can do on a career break can be done on a volunteer holiday (with the exception of placements which require highly-skilled professionals).

Why take a volunteer holiday? There are two main reasons: one is simply to do something different on your annual holiday instead of lolling about on a beach. The second is to try out a volunteer project before committing to a longer period of time. You get to experience the country, the sort of work you'll be doing and the local culture so you can see if it's right for you - and if you're right for volunteering.

• See a list of organisations offering volunteer holidays
• Order information from volunteer companies

• In this section
• Volunteer abroad homepage
• Choosing a volunteer opportunity
• Countries that need volunteers
• Paying to volunteer overseas
• Ethical voluntary work abroad
• Volunteer in the UK