volunteering and sightseeing

Seychelles Island and sea holiday
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7 beautiful things to do and see in Seychelles Island + Volunteering

Along the Indian Ocean lies the breathtaking Islands of Seychelles. Many have heard about this beautiful natural wonder and would love to make a meaningful trip there. I paid a visit and was blown away by the powdery white sandy beaches, the enormous tortoises that live around the beaches, gigantic coconut trees, and the way of life of the inhabitants, and many more.

I enjoyed my visit to the Seychelles because the trip was very educative, but I left thinking about ways I could help to maintain or even make this island better for the next generation. This is when I thought of combining sightseeing with volunteering. This write-up is for the culture and history lovers, the ones that need to connect with mother nature and enjoy some good vitamin D and at the end highlight the whole experience with some form of volunteer/charity work.

115 beautiful islands (an archipelago) in one country. The island is home to a variety of endemic species, flora, and fauna. The Republic of Seychelles is in East Africa and the Indian ocean with local temperatures mostly warm varying between 24-30 degrees Celsius. In the capital city, Victoria is where the largest Island of Mahe is found. It is a relatively small country with a population of less than a hundred thousand.

Mahe, La Digue, and Praslin are the three main Islands with the most inhabitants and where most tourists visit. The official languages of Seychelles are Creole, English, and French. Seychelles was promoted by the World Bank in 2017 as an upper-middle-income country which I find very impressive for such a small country.

Experience the Wonders

This write-up is for the people that want to enjoy nature-based activities including fishing, snorkeling and swimming in turquoise blue water, hiking, eco-friendly marathons, green yoga for physical, emotional and mental well-being, carnivals, local dance clubs, good food, Island hopping and in the end highlight the whole experience with some form of volunteer or charity work.

Seychelles equals Sanity   

Soak yourself in the Island Nation of Seychelles for your sanity. Seychelles gives you a ton of reasons why you should and can check this magnificent Island from your bucket list. Here are 7 awesome things to do when you get there. These activities include both paid and free activities.

  1. Powdery white sand beaches and turquoise water.

Make sure you have your swimwear and beach towel readily available when you step outside during your visit. Beaches in Seychelles are rated among the top 10 most beautiful and photographed beaches in the world.

Just as the locals address the beaches, “The beaches in this country are for everyone, there are no private beaches in Seychelles”. You cannot visit this beautiful country without taking a swim and snorkeling to catch a glimpse of the different fish species and corals that are found in the water.

Along the beaches are freshly harvested coconut and fresh grilled fish obtained from the sea. The aroma from the grilled fish and local foods sold at the beach makes food readily available for tourists. You can also add to the beach experience by enjoying a picnic at the beach after a swim with the family. Although the sea water is turquoise, you can spot fishes swimming around your toes and to give you a foot massage. This experience is truly magical because you are enjoying a full day of fun and relaxation without breaking the bank. You’ll only spend money on food and drinks.

 

Family holiday on Seychelles
Family beach experience at Beau Vallon Seychelles
  1. Cycling, bird watching and locating giant tortoises.

This is for the adventurous, sportive and active tourist. On the Island of La Dique, you have the possibility of hiring a bicycle to cycle around this almost car-free island and find uncommon bird species such as the Paradise flycatcher. The friendly locals are your savior when you want to find your bearings. La Dique Island is accessible by ferry from Mahe and Praslin. You can secure a ticket at the ferry station.

Picture next to giant turtoise in Seychelles
And I located a giant tortoise
  1. The Marine parks and uninhabited islands

Tourists can enjoy a storehouse off marine biodiversity at these locations. St. Anne is located 21 minutes away from the main island of Mahe. It is where tourists can find one of the best diving and snorkeling spots in the world. Here you can spot rare fish species in a variety of colors and green turtles.

The Cousin Island Nature reserve and Curieuse Island is where you can spot uncommon flora and fauna such as the romantic Fairy Tern birds, Black Parrot, the Giant Aldabra tortoises, and the Giant Humphead Parrotfish. The unmissable Coco de Mer palms are also found here.

  1. Mountain Peaks

This is for the tourists who want to challenge themselves and indulge in different hiking experiences.

Hiking and walking trails in Dans Gallas, Cassedent and Copolia will help you get a few kilos off. The Vallee de Mai trail in Praslin is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Seychelles. It is also believed to be the original Garden of Eden. It is phenomenal to walk through this trail while observing about 6000 Coco de Mer palm trees, birds and other species. The Coco de Mer palm trees are popular for its way of reproduction which is like that of human beings.

Landmark building in Seychelles
UNESCO World Heritage Site Valle de Mai
Exotic fruit in Seychelles
The famous Coco de Mer.
  1. Great views and shopping experiences

Eden Island is a modern city with beautiful architecture and recreation. You can spend time with friends and family over a drink and soak in the gorgeous views. The different restaurants at this location serve amazingly fresh seafood and local delicacies.

My favorite activity during my trip was renting a private boat with a glass bottom that also comes with a skipper to sail you around Eden Island. The boat trip shows you beautiful corals and do some fish feeding. During the fish feeding, you are given bread to throw in the water to attract different, colorful fish species.

For the shopping lover, Eden mall has a variety of shops that aids a great shopping experience.

Birds-eye view of Seychelles Island
The gorgeous Eden Island
  1. Botanical Garden

The exceptional garden is one of the country’s oldest national monuments. The botanical garden boasts of a wide range of exotic, endemic and mature plants planted on five acres of landscape. It is an attractively maintained tropical garden. I will advise you to take a guided tour of this magnificent garden and hear wonderful stories about exotic plants you have never heard of.

The giant tortoises are certainly present during this tour since they live in this garden and you will get the chance to get close to them and take photographs as well. Here some of the tortoises are 150 years old.

  1. Tea Factory

The factory grows and manufactures tea in Seychelles. Located in a cool mountain terrain of Morne Blac in the western Mahe district of Port Glaud, a tour in the factory offers a discovery of locally planted tea and how they are manufactured into tea bags. This tour also includes bird watching, hiking, tea tasting and visiting the tea museum. The location of the factory gives tourists a magnificent view of the island of Mahe.

  1. Volunteer Opportunities

The Island of Seychelles offers different volunteering experiences that will bring an extra dose of purpose to your trip. Below are some volunteer and charity experiences to consider.

  • Conservation boot camp on Cousin Island Special Reserve (CBC) – this innovative program gives you an on-the-field conservation experience. Participants help to monitor eco-tourism and biodiversity. You will get a unique opportunity to be on the field to learn about conservation and add your contribution to the island’s conservation activities. You get the opportunity to cohabitate with the wildlife that live on the island. This volunteer work is done for a maximum of 4 weeks and a registering fee of 1000 euros.
  • Seychelles Island Foundation (SIF) – This organization provides direct opportunities to get involved in Seychelles to facilitate a better world. Activities include donations and fieldwork for a few months.
  • Volunteering in a Children’s home ­– Existing children’s homes in Seychelles includes the President’s Village, a state home managed by the National Council for Children, Foyer de Nazareth, Foyer la Solitude and Foyer de La Providence. These homes are open for donations in cash or kind when you visit them during your trip.

The meaningful marriage of sightseeing and volunteering

Here are the reasons why you should combine sightseeing and volunteering.

  • You get the opportunity to unwind and soak yourself in the serenity and beauty of Seychelles.
  • See and experience new cultures
  • Develop a new skill while volunteering which can improve your life
  • Discovering more about yourself and your capabilities
  • Make new and lifelong friendships
  • Lose weight and get fitter
  • Learn a new language
  • Have a sense of fulfillment of facilitating a better world
  • Acquire an overseas work experience
  • Volunteering can help develop self-confidence
  • Focus on career objectives and later aid a career

Take a deep breath, let us buy a ticket without breaking the bank from sky scanner, and take a PURE VACATEER (VACATION+VOLUNTEERING) to Seychelles Island.

Do you need expert advice on a ‘Vacateer’ (Vacation+Volunteering) to Africa?

Are you seeking a travel experience in Africa tailored to your preference?

Do you need us to plan your itinerary by laying out the activities for your trip to an African destination + hours, days or months of volunteering to make your trip more meaningful?

Please send us an e-mail via: panford@africanculturetrip.com

We are glad to help you.

Did you miss our write-up about Africa’s Best Volunteering Experience? Have a read here.

Volunteering in Ghana
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Africa’s Best volunteering experience

Combining volunteering with sightseeing

I have always thought deeply about fulfilling a need for someone other than myself. Making time for someone else to make them smile. I believe many share this same idea, but they might be stuck on pinpointing what to do, where to go and which organization to start with. This article will break it down and make it much easier for you to consider volunteering to support a need in and outside Africa.

Smiling child for colunteer work
Let us make a conscious decision to bless lives in Africa

Yearly, travelers and holiday lovers take journeys to a different part of the world to enjoy culture and recreation. In some cases, travelers return home with a piece of their heart broken because the destination they visited needs some sort of help. This is where holiday travelers can combine their journeys of enjoying a lovely scenery with volunteering when they travel or when they return home with that feeling of helping out in some form to make the world a better place to live in.

Volunteering is giving your resources (time, money, aid, or support) to help others in need. Many people think about the reason why they should give their resources to help a need without getting paid.

Allow me to give insight into the many questions people ask when they think about volunteering. One will ask: “why do I need to volunteer?”, let me spike up the energy in you to consider volunteering. The most popular reason: ‘to give back to our community’. With this, many interpret it as having enough to facilitate what you can give out. That should not be the case since there are a variety of ways to give back.

There are so many different ways of getting involved in volunteering. This, of course, may also depend on your interests and the needs of the location. Aside from the advantages the local community receives, the volunteer also enjoys some benefits. Below are a few,

  1. See and experience new cultures
  2. Develop a new skill while volunteering which can improve your life
  3. Discovering more about yourself and your capabilities
  4. Make new and lifelong friendships
  5. Lose weight and get fitter
  6. Learn a new language
  7. Have a sense of fulfillment of facilitating a better world
  8. Combing sight-seeing with volunteering
  9. Acquire an overseas work experience
  10. Volunteering can help develop self-confidence
  11. Focus on career objectives and later aid a career

Volunteering approaches you can consider.

  • Volunteering from a distance (Online)
    1. Facilitate clean and safe drinking water through donations with abled organizations.
    2. Facilitate decent education facilities through research or donation.
  • Being on the field. (Working with people)
    1. Education – this can involve teaching pupils of a school or children in a community a foreign language such as French or English.
    2. Community and development – helping to design and build sustainable infrastructure.
    3. Emergency and relief – Help communities that are affected by natural disasters.
    4. Health and nutrition – With this position, a health professional can work in hospitals, clinics and communities to educate young mothers on health and nutrition for themselves and their families.
  • Working on the environment and with animals
    1. Helping in forest conservation programs, for example, planting trees in Ghana.
    2. Working in National and conservation parks to help vaccinate and care for animals in South Africa.
    3. Recovery of wildlife – volunteers can help a local organization make sure that, for example, abandoned eggs found in the wild are nurtured for till they are matured and allowed back into the wild to enjoy a healthy life.
    4. Monitoring climate change in Cape Verde.
    5. Marine conservation – This may involve tasks such as underwater monitoring of coral reefs in Seychelles Island in East Africa along with enjoying unimaginably beautiful sea life in the ocean.
Volunteering Searching for star fish on the sea
Enjoy beautiful scenery while making a conscious effort of creating a better environment for Star fishes to thrive.

Finding the right volunteer experience.

Many Non-Government organizations and local charities are looking forward to finding a good match for volunteering. Most of the time these organizations do not have time to recruit volunteers directly and therefore work with partners around the world.

Volunteers should consider making informed choices. For example, volunteers should consider meeting the needs of the host program instead of their requirements as a volunteer.  Working with partners may involve registered charities, companies, or non-profit organizations.

Upon choosing one of the above-recognized organizations, three types of experiences can be considered; do-it-yourself placements, self-financing programs, and organized programs.

Organized programs

Organized programs cover all expenses to cater for the skilled and experienced volunteers while on their volunteering expedition. Organized volunteering has options for under the 30’s and volunteering plus: where the volunteer can for instance volunteer for a month, undertake an adventurous trip for a week and learn a skill or language.

Self-financing programs

Self-financing programs do not involve an all-inclusive volunteer experience for the candidate. The volunteer must bear most of the cost for the journey, which means that not everything is organized for you. Here an agency can connect you with a need overseas, but you are basically on your own to take it further.

Do-it-yourself placements  

The do-it-yourself placement, as the name tells, one can start a local program or NGO.  The age group who can volunteer is 18-75 (in some cases one can still volunteer if they are above 75 and meet some requirements). People can choose to volunteer when they have an extended break from work, on pension, break from school, dissatisfied with their job and want to do something else or redundancy at their workplace. A volunteer can decide to spend from a few hours to a few days to months volunteering. You have the freedom to decide.

Reflect on the picture above. You can even volunteer a few hours of your trip to Africa teaching a group of women how to better their sewing techniques. The little things that makes a big impact in the lives of other,

Volunteer programs to Africa

  1. African impact
  2. Global Vision International (GVI)
  3. Performing Arts Abroad
  4. Kaya Responsible Travel
  5. Go Eco
  6. International Volunteer HQ
  7. Connect-123
  8. Volunteering Solutions
  9. Love Volunteers
  10. Frontier

A better place

Volunteering can be an insightful experience for all parties involved. Connecting with each other whilst volunteering makes the world a better place. You will be marveled at the beauty of other parts of the continent than you have ever imagined even existed. Exotic cultures that will take your breath away and, in the end, make you feel that you have made an impactful contribution to making the world a better place for all.

Go for it!

I humbly suggest that one can have it at the back of his mind that volunteering involves being aware that whilst you are volunteering you are making your host know they are people you are learning with and from and not that they should appreciate the much-needed help you are offering. It allows you the opportunity to educate yourself in a way that will make life a bit more meaningful. This makes volunteering so beautiful and worthwhile for the host and the volunteer. My honest advice to people reading this write-up is ‘you have every reason to go for it’.

Did you miss my previous post about African Museums to visit in Europe? Read more.

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