Volunteer Vacations: When Giving Back Is the Most Rewarding Part of the Journey

Older adults find life-changing adventures using their skills and experience to help others

different people that have taken volunteer vacations

(From left) Susan Cummings Winkely went to Guatemala, Venida Hudley traveled to Africa, and Jeff Powell (with a monkey) visited Nicaragua. Volunteer vacations offer older travelers a chance to return home with more than trinkets.

Photo Collage: AARP; (Source: Courtesy of Susan Winkley; Courtesy of Venida Hudley; Courtesy of Jeff Powell; Getty Images)

Bari Faye Dean,

AARP

Published March 20, 2025

For many, travel is about relaxing on sun-soaked beaches or exploring historic landmarks. But for a growing number of older adventurers, the ultimate journey blends exploration with purpose.

Volunteer tourism, also known as “voluntourism,” has grown in recent years and is expected to become more popular among people 55 to 64 (there’s an expected compound annual growth rate of 7.6 percent from 2024 to 2023) as they approach retirement, according to a 2024 report from Grand View Research, a market research and consulting firm. Global spending on voluntourism reached $849 million in 2023 (across all generations) and is expected to approach $1.3 billion by 2030, Grand View finds.

Older adult volunteers can travel solo or on planned group trips. Myriad organizations offer the ability to select adventures where older travelers can use their life skills and experiences, from teaching to sharing business acumen to helping with construction or providing medical aid.

While sometimes physically and emotionally demanding, volunteer vacations offer older travelers a way to see the world where giving back is the most rewarding part of the journey. They return home not with trinkets but with souvenirs of the heart, mind and soul.

Here, we share the stories of three older adults who traveled to Guatemala, Africa and Haiti. They tell us the reasons behind their journeys and what they learned during their volunteer vacations.

Serving with a ‘mission heart’ in Guatemala

Susan Cummings Winkley’s volunteer vacation to Guatemala reshaped her perspective on life. “I have a mission heart. I’ve always wanted to help people and make their lives better,” says Winkley, 74, of Sherwood, Arkansas. So when her daughter’s church, St. James United Methodist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, announced a trip to Guatemala in 2016, Winkley and her daughter quickly signed up. There, they helped families in a medical and dental clinic for nine days.

Having previously taken volunteer vacations to Costa Rica and Mexico, Winkley knew something about sacrificing for the greater good. “We make concessions that might inconvenience us or make us uncomfortable,” she says. “It’s worth it. … We do what we can to help others.”

While volunteers don’t get paid monetarily — in fact, travelers pay their own way — Winkley says being in Guatemala allowed her to travel to many different villages and have a wide range of experiences. “It was life-changing to see how these sweet people of Guatemala live. … They don’t have opportunities to earn much money, but they do the best they can. … Many Americans don’t appreciate the wonderful country we live in. … It’s life-changing to see how hard it is to live in a [developing nation].”

Embracing the unknown in Africa

Atlanta’s Venida Hudley, 68, set out in March 2023 on a 335-day, self-planned solo trip to Africa. It took two years to research her journey. She stopped in 12 countries, from Kenya to South Africa, spending an average of one month in each country, and volunteered in 10. Hudley says her goal was to create, discover and inspire others.

She couldn’t wait to “discover all the incredible and wonderful things about Africa we never hear about,” she says. She even wrote a book about her experience to inspire other boomers to volunteer in Africa.

Retired from a successful career in technology sales, Hudley could have chosen relaxation. Instead, she immersed herself in Africa’s communities, sharing her business skills with local businesses, nonprofits and universities. She taught personal branding to animation students in Uganda and enhanced an orphanage’s marketing materials in Ethiopia.

“Volunteering takes a new travel experience to the next level,” she says, adding that she will never go anywhere again without volunteering.

More than anything else, Hudley says, she learned to embrace simplicity. Discovering how adaptable she was turned out to be a life-changing notion.

“Power outages? No hot water? No problem! Turns out that I can adjust just fine,” Hudley says. “Two meals a day is plenty. Who knew? Africa taught me that simple living can be pretty darn good.”

Considering a volunteer vacation?

Do your research on costs, necessary vaccinations, visas and cultural expectations. When it comes to choosing a trip, many organizations offer volunteer vacation options for older adults. Additionally, ask around your hometown to learn more about groups that organize volunteer vacations. Or go it alone!

To get started:

Global Volunteers, based in St. Paul, Minnesota, reports that half of its volunteers are 55 and older; 30 percent are 65-plus.
Discover Corps, based in San Diego, offers volunteer trips for active older adults; the group calls its trips “vacations with a purpose.”
Volunteer World offers many trips designed especially for older adults focusing on international destinations.
Road Scholar is a Massachusetts-based organization that provides educational and volunteer travel options for older adults. Kelsey Knoedler Perri, director of public relations for the nonprofit group, reports that participants are travelers in their 50s and older — with an average age of 72.

“Road Scholars are no ordinary travelers,” says Perri. “They seek deeper connections, whether exploring the world or giving back through volunteer programs that change lives — their own included.”

The average age of US Servas’ participants is 63. This group connects travelers with hosts in countries around the world, and offers volunteer-based experiences that “foster deep, meaningful connections with locals — giving you the opportunity to not just visit a place, but to truly experience it,” says Tys Sniffen, who serves on US Servas’ board of directors.

Haiti reshaped his view on privilege

When Haiti was devastated by an earthquake in 2010, Jeff Powell, then 53, was a minister in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He didn’t think twice about signing up for his church’s volunteer mission to Jubilee Blanc, one of Haiti’s poorest areas.

During the weeklong trip, Powell and his team worked tirelessly; they supported a school and an orphanage, supplied children with rubber boots for the rainy season and built soccer goals.

Previously, Powell had taken what he calls “workcations” to volunteer in Jamaica, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), in Africa, and Nicaragua (where he found some time to get touristy with a monkey).

Witnessing the depth of poverty in Haiti left an indelible mark on Powell. He says seeing families struggle without food, clean water or shelter reshaped his perspective on privilege and gratitude: “It made me more aware of how blessed I am. I have more than I need.”

Now retired, 67, and living in Cherry Log, Georgia, Powell takes every opportunity to talk about the benefits of taking a volunteer vacation for older adults. “Don’t just dismiss the idea,” he says. “Seriously consider it. Do your homework. Is the trip you are considering a good match for your gifts, skills, experiences and personality?

“Whatever you do, don’t let age hold you back,” Powell advises. “Just go, knowing your experience will change you more than those you are helping.”

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Bari Faye Dean is a contributing writer with more than 40 years of experience writing about travel, business, health care and technology for Bloomberg, Becker’s Hospital Review and her own content marketing company, Get It Write.