Group Tours for Adults and Alumni

Our Adult and Alumni tours focus on two aspects: a high level of volunteering and a high level of cultural interaction. These tours are intended for adults who wish to perform a reasonably intense level of service in a region or community. Our ContribuTours packages, and particularly our VolunTours packages are specifically oriented towards our adult and alumni groups.

Recreational activities and cultural experiences play a part in these tours, but volunteering and service are very much at their heart.

Specifically, Planet Earth tours for adults and alumni will:

• Be you own private group. Casterbridge will never combine your group with another, for flights, hotel accommodations, travel, or at any other time. Your flight dates will be confirmed at time of booking, and will never be changed by us at the last minutes.

• Your volunteer travel tour will be custom designed to fit your own themes, curriculum, budget, and needs.

• Be accompanied for 24 hours every day by your own tour manager/guide, who will stay with you in your hotels, eat dinners with you and help you plan recreational activities and your schedule for the next day; you will also have your own exclusive driver and bus for all coach days.

• Be in 3-star or quality 2-star hotels throughout, unless you request budget hotels; we offer accommodations that are eco-friendly and aware of sustainability issues; you can request these, if you wish.

• All admissions will be included in your tour price.

• Be centered around one of these three themes: Science, Nature and Wildlife, or Community

• Meals will emphasis local cuisine, and many local cultural experiences involve cooking and sharing local food.

Whatever you choose as the theme of your travel, it will be linked with the level of service and volunteering you desire. We will involve your group in visits to community projects or environmental projects:

Examples of Community Projects

• Build a new classroom for a school in Mexico
• Work in an outreach medical clinic in Honduras
• Visit a refugee camp in Palestine
• Spend 7 days with Habit for Humanity rebuilding New Orleans
• Build accommodations for a humanitarian aid program in Kenya
• Help with disaster relief in the Caribbean
• Teach AIDS and health awareness in Uganda
• Participate in a cultural restoration project in Italy
• Install a computer network for a community development project in Eastern Europe

Examples of Environmental Projects

• Lay a new path and erect signs for nature trails in Utah or Arizona
• Teach as part of a sustainability project in New England
• Build cages and help in a veterinarian center for endangered species in China
• Record native species as part of a conservation program in Thailand
• Plant trees for a reforestation project in India
• Lay a new nature trail in Guatemala
• Create a new pond habitat in France

Cultural Experiences

Your students will be encouraged to participate in a variety of culture experiences while they are on tour. These are an extremely important part of every Casterbridge travel program. They allow your group to explore your chosen local culture in exciting, interesting ways.

Your guide will also accompany you to artists’ workshops to see how local products are made, or perhaps give you a tour of the local market. He or she may even take part in a cooking or dance class with you, or in any number of other cross-cultural connections.

Casterbridge will custom design a group tour for you with just 10 participants. Register to plan a group service tour with Casterbridge, either online or by calling 1-800-522-2398. Start planning your service travel program today!