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Travel with Purpose: A Field Guide to Voluntourism
Imagine yourself in a schoolroom in one of the most remote regions of one of the most hard-to-reach countries on earth. Nepal. The Lower Mustang region to be exact. To reach it takes a 14-hour flight from New York to Doha, Qatar. Then four hours by air to Kathmandu. Transfer at one of the world’s most dangerous airports to a 90-minute flight to Pokhara, followed by a jarring, eight-hour Jeep ride over a vertiginous dirt road – one side is a mountain wall, the other side a two-hundred foot cliff. Finally you arrive, but it’s not just any schoolroom. It has been converted into an operating room so that doctors from New York Eye & Ear Infirmary can provide the gift of sight to 24 Nepalis who were blind due to advanced cataracts. Jeff Blumenfeld witnessed this first hand. He was there as a traveler, but also as a volunteer. A voluntourist. People often wonder how they can explore the world and help the less fortunate even if they don’t possess specialized skills. These are people who make lousy vacationers. They’re bored sitting on a beach or touring umpteen churches on a cruise ship excursion. They want a meaningful role when they travel. That’s where voluntourism comes in – a mix of both travel and volunteering. Is it hard work building wells and schoolhouses or excavating dinosaur bones? Yes, it is. But voluntourism doesn’t take a particular outdoor skill, just plenty of sweat and the desire to see the world and leave it a better place. Travel With Purpose deals not with celebrities, nor the rich and famous. Instead, it relays examples from Blumenfeld’s travels and many others from Las Vegas to Nepal. From health care facilities to impoverished schools. These are stories of inspiration from everyday people, all of whom have definite opinions about the best way to approach that first volunteer vacation. You don’t need to be wealthy to travel to foreign lands to volunteer; you may not even have to go to foreign lands, as opportunities may exist within your own state. Blumenfeld shows readers how to identify the right location and volunteer situation, how to go about planning trips and preparing for activities, how to reach out, how to help. Through vivid examples and first hand stories from both recipients of volunteer work and the volunteers themselves, Travel with Purpose may make you rethink your next vacation.
- GenresTravelNonfiction
208 pages, Paperback
Published April 5, 2019
About the author
Jeff Blumenfeld
5 books6 followersBIOGRAPHY
Jeff Blumenfeld, author, You Want to Go Where?
Jeff Blumenfeld is founder of Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc., a public relations and special-events firm based in Darien, Connecticut, that has served some of the largest outdoor recreation companies in the U.S. Clients have included Coleman, Duofold, Du Pont, Eddie Bauer, Lands’ End, LEKI USA, Lewmar, Mares, Orvis, Timberland, Timex, W.L. Gore & Associates, and Wacoal Sports Science Corp.
Blumenfeld is also editor and publisher of Expedition News, a newsletter, blog and website (www.expeditionnews.com) he founded in 1994 to cover news about the adventure-marketing field. Excerpts from Expedition News also appear in The Explorers Club Explorers Journal.
A member of The Explorers Club in New York, he also belongs to the American Alpine Club, based in Golden, Colorado, and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London, where he has presented talks on adventure marketing.
Blumenfeld has traveled on business to some of the remotest regions on earth. He journeyed to Anadyr, an isolated outpost in the Soviet Far East, and escorted media personnel to an Eskimo village on Canada’s Baffin Island and to Iceland, a long-time client. A media trip to Yellowknife, NWT, for Lands’ End included a dogsled trip for reporters, cross-country skiing on a frozen lake, and a spectacular display of the northern lights.
Blumenfeld journeyed to Santiago, Chile, to organize the first ski race in Antarctica, spent two weeks in Nome and Anchorage during promotion of an expedition across the Bering Strait, enlisted a team of ski instructors to test ski apparel at 12,000 feet in the High Andes of Argentina, and promoted skiing and a midnight golf tournament near the Arctic Circle in Iceland. He’s co-organized media hiking trips to Salzburg, Austria, and to the summit of Snowbird, Utah, on behalf of W.L. Gore & Associates.
In 1996, after tragedy struck Mount Everest and eight people died, LIFE magazine hired Blumenfeld to help research their coverage of the disaster.
Blumenfeld is a former adjunct faculty member of the New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies/Marketing and Management Institute. A graduate of Syracuse University, he holds a Bachelor of Science in television and radio from the S.I. Newhouse School of Journalism. He is a board member of Voices of September 11, the leading advocacy group for the friends and families of victims of 9/11 (voicesofsept11.org), and a member of the New Canaan, Connecticut Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). An avid sea kayaker, fly-fishing angler, downhill skier and sailor, he’s also fluent in Morse code, although he’ll be first to admit it doesn’t come up too often in conversation.
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Jeff Blumenfeld, author, You Want to Go Where?
Jeff Blumenfeld is founder of Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc., a public relations and special-events firm based in Darien, Connecticut, that has served some of the largest outdoor recreation companies in the U.S. Clients have included Coleman, Duofold, Du Pont, Eddie Bauer, Lands’ End, LEKI USA, Lewmar, Mares, Orvis, Timberland, Timex, W.L. Gore & Associates, and Wacoal Sports Science Corp.
Blumenfeld is also editor and publisher of Expedition News, a newsletter, blog and website (www.expeditionnews.com) he founded in 1994 to cover news about the adventure-marketing field. Excerpts from Expedition News also appear in The Explorers Club Explorers Journal.
A member of The Explorers Club in New York, he also belongs to the American Alpine Club, based in Golden, Colorado, and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London, where he has presented talks on adventure marketing.
Blumenfeld has traveled on business to some of the remotest regions on earth. He journeyed to Anadyr, an isolated outpost in the Soviet Far East, and escorted media personnel to an Eskimo village on Canada’s Baffin Island and to Iceland, a long-time client. A media trip to Yellowknife, NWT, for Lands’ End included a dogsled trip for reporters, cross-country skiing on a frozen lake, and a spectacular display of the northern lights.
Blumenfeld journeyed to Santiago, Chile, to organize the first ski race in Antarctica, spent two weeks in Nome and Anchorage during promotion of an expedition across the Bering Strait, enlisted a team of ski instructors to test ski apparel at 12,000 feet in the High Andes of Argentina, and promoted skiing and a midnight golf tournament near the Arctic Circle in Iceland. He’s co-organized media hiking trips to Salzburg, Austria, and to the summit of Snowbird, Utah, on behalf of W.L. Gore & Associates.
In 1996, after tragedy struck Mount Everest and eight people died, LIFE magazine hired Blumenfeld to help research their coverage of the disaster.
Blumenfeld is a former adjunct faculty member of the New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies/Marketing and Management Institute. A graduate of Syracuse University, he holds a Bachelor of Science in television and radio from the S.I. Newhouse School of Journalism. He is a board member of Voices of September 11, the leading advocacy group for the friends and families of victims of 9/11 (voicesofsept11.org), and a member of the New Canaan, Connecticut Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). An avid sea kayaker, fly-fishing angler, downhill skier and sailor, he’s also fluent in Morse code, although he’ll be first to admit it doesn’t come up too often in conversation.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
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July 1, 2019When I picked up Travel with Purpose (Rowman & Littlefield) I was skeptical. I’ve never had much of a real opinion on “voluntourism” myself, but I’ve read countless op-eds skewed towards each side, some encouraging anybody who has the means to incorporate volunteering into their next vacation and others, including a particularly critical New York Times Magazine piece, criticizing the movement.
The negative op-eds were always more attention-grabbing, and so “voluntourism” sat in my head as a dirty word evoking images of self-promotion and naïve college admissions essays. In Travel with Purpose, author Jeff Blumenfeld throws all those preconceived notions about voluntourism out the window and instead focuses on the good it can do.
Right from the start, Blumenfeld dispels one of the most prevalent misconceptions about voluntourism: the cost. He shrugs off the suggestion that it might cost thousands for would-be do-gooders to make the trek to an impoverished country, citing $850 as the cost for a weeklong stay in Honduras (including round trip travel).
Another misconception he addresses is that voluntourists do more harm than good due to their lack of skill; Blumenfeld asserts that there is a leadership hierarchy that naturally forms. Although critics of voluntourism can be a tad cynical, claiming that there’s something selfish about briefly passing through a third world country and making a small, sometimes negligible impact, the way that each individual person helps demonstrates that this might not be the case.
If each volunteer understands that they are part of something larger, and instead of overstepping their role works as a team player, there’s nothing inherently selfish about wanting to be there, on the ground working as opposed to simply writing a check.
The rest of the review: https://booktrib.com/2019/06/the-brig...
The negative op-eds were always more attention-grabbing, and so “voluntourism” sat in my head as a dirty word evoking images of self-promotion and naïve college admissions essays. In Travel with Purpose, author Jeff Blumenfeld throws all those preconceived notions about voluntourism out the window and instead focuses on the good it can do.
Right from the start, Blumenfeld dispels one of the most prevalent misconceptions about voluntourism: the cost. He shrugs off the suggestion that it might cost thousands for would-be do-gooders to make the trek to an impoverished country, citing $850 as the cost for a weeklong stay in Honduras (including round trip travel).
Another misconception he addresses is that voluntourists do more harm than good due to their lack of skill; Blumenfeld asserts that there is a leadership hierarchy that naturally forms. Although critics of voluntourism can be a tad cynical, claiming that there’s something selfish about briefly passing through a third world country and making a small, sometimes negligible impact, the way that each individual person helps demonstrates that this might not be the case.
If each volunteer understands that they are part of something larger, and instead of overstepping their role works as a team player, there’s nothing inherently selfish about wanting to be there, on the ground working as opposed to simply writing a check.
The rest of the review: https://booktrib.com/2019/06/the-brig...
March 29, 2026
This field guide was not what I thought it was going to be, probably out of my own ignorance. However, it did help me realize what differs me from the intended reader.
I think of volunteering as a regular hobby or past time. I volunteer about 15 hours a month, every month. The volunteers in this book think of it as a specific excursion with a purpose, such as volunteering once a year to solve a huge problem in a developing nation. So, while I thought this book would be about taking time to volunteer while you travel, it was instead primarily about non-religious mission trips.
There was a quote in this book that I think highlights my differing outlook. Darryl Salerno says, “I believe it’s better to make a big change in a small place than a small change in a big place.” I personally make small changes in small places 🙂
Crazy Facts:
- Travel and tourism account for 1 out of every 10 jobs on earth.
- More humans rely on water buffalo than any other domesticated animal.
- Refugees may lack job skills such as knowing how to clock in and out for work.
- I already knew this but still think it’s mind blowing that people lived in the Steung Meanchey garbage dump in Cambodia.
I think of volunteering as a regular hobby or past time. I volunteer about 15 hours a month, every month. The volunteers in this book think of it as a specific excursion with a purpose, such as volunteering once a year to solve a huge problem in a developing nation. So, while I thought this book would be about taking time to volunteer while you travel, it was instead primarily about non-religious mission trips.
There was a quote in this book that I think highlights my differing outlook. Darryl Salerno says, “I believe it’s better to make a big change in a small place than a small change in a big place.” I personally make small changes in small places 🙂
Crazy Facts:
- Travel and tourism account for 1 out of every 10 jobs on earth.
- More humans rely on water buffalo than any other domesticated animal.
- Refugees may lack job skills such as knowing how to clock in and out for work.
- I already knew this but still think it’s mind blowing that people lived in the Steung Meanchey garbage dump in Cambodia.
October 1, 2023
I read this book after hearing acquaintances discuss their “bagging the National Parks” trip. I needed a succinct way to explain how there was much more to “travel.”
Bragging rights will never get us through. What was it I wanted to convey?
Leaving a piece behind and taking a piece with you (assuming you return home) requires traveling with values written on your forehead. Satisfaction, in my book, requires connection to the people “in place.”
I looked for the big picture here and found it.
Albeit mostly values tourism seems to be an international phenom. Still, the resources I could pass along.
Stay tuned.
Bragging rights will never get us through. What was it I wanted to convey?
Leaving a piece behind and taking a piece with you (assuming you return home) requires traveling with values written on your forehead. Satisfaction, in my book, requires connection to the people “in place.”
I looked for the big picture here and found it.
Albeit mostly values tourism seems to be an international phenom. Still, the resources I could pass along.
Stay tuned.
November 30, 2019
Great guide to "voluntourism"
June 7, 2022
Very inspiring read. I’m a convert. Now researching & planning my next vacation to assist with any art therapy programs anywhere or any programs that promote the healing and growth that art provides.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews