Liz Beatty // Host
Native Traveler Blog
Native Traveler Blog

Volunteer to See the World

Follow your Wanderlust and change the world

Here's some great overview info on how to make a difference while exploring far-off corners of the globe.  From Volunteerforever.com:

We’re taking the guesswork out of choosing a great volunteer abroad program. Using our database of 800 international volunteer organizations; 2,500 program reviews; and 10,000 volunteer abroad fundraisers who have collectively raised $2,000,000 for their trips, Volunteer Forever has crunched the numbers to identify our top volunteer abroad opportunities.
We also took into consideration the history of each organization to include the number of volunteer alumni and our 5 years of intensive interactions with programs over email, phone, and in-person meetings. Read on for our list of top recommended programs!

Check out Native Traveler's full-length IRELAND show!

 
 

Amid the remnants of our family homestead in Ulster Ireland, I found myself asking these questions—what about this place made my ancestors who they were, who we are. The quest for such answers has more and more travelers hitting the road to explore family roots the world over. This show celebrates their journeys.

Road Trip Images from Ulster

Ulster Roots

Ulster Roots

My 85-year-old mother’s slumbering inhalations sound like a slow, breathy metronome. In the next seat, my son Mack looks on in genuine, 11-year-old wonder about ten inches from her open mouth. Despite the crush and chatter of passengers settling in for this flight to Dublin, Mom has fallen deeply, blissfully asleep just minutes since our boarding.

My husband Tim exhales with exasperation, standing with bag in hand and peering into the already packed overhead bin. I know the feeling, but not about carry-on.

There is no sugar coating this. Transporting five people with birthdates spanning seven decades across the Atlantic, then squeezing them into a mid-sized Renault hatchback to drive 650 kilometres of remote northern Irish coastline on some ancestry scavenger hunt—well, it’s one big, messy ordeal. Still, if there’s such a thing as shared genetic memory, the idea of our three generations summoning it together just seemed important. And with every sip of my un-chilled airline chardonnay, I’m feeling more hopeful it is.

Going Home // National Geographic Traveler

A version of my Native Traveler Ulster story was part of a collaborative cover feature for National Geographic Traveler Magazine.  The collection won a 2014 SATW Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award and North American Travel Journalists Association Award.  See the essays of my fellow "Going Home" writers below, starting with this stunning piece by National Geographic Magazine staff writer Nina Strochlic.

Check out Native Traveler's full-length MEXICO show!

 
 

For us snowbirds north of 49th parallel, our notion of Mexico can be involuntarily shaped by widespread promotions of sun and sand, all-inclusive packages—easy enticing respites from harsh Canadian winters. What an injustice. In this show, the ladies at The Divine Destination Collection and others help us dive deep, beyond the stereotypes, to experience the rich resonant culture of Mexico's Yucatan.

The Full Maya

The Full Maya

So the truth is, it was never a conscious thing not to go to Mexico. But now I admit, there might have been the odd stereotype in the way—I likely envisioned just all-inclusives. I no doubt pictured bachelorette soirees where most of the group missed the bus to Chichén Itzá and spent days over-communicating between tequila shots. Of course, there would be stunning beaches, but I’m not so much a sun and sand girl. I don’t think I’m a group travel girl and—definitely—I’m not really a resort girl. I mean, I’m an exploring kind of traveler. Who needs all that pampering?

So of course, when a friend invited me on a girls’ luxe spiritual bonding getaway to Mexico’s Riviera Maya, well, I had to say yes. I mean, what is travel if not an opportunity to challenge our hardened beliefs and to invite personal transformation. So, with such higher purpose in mind, Yo fui—which is to say in local parlance, I went.

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