Online travel site and travel insurance extraordinaire World Nomads has travel promotions out there now offering free travel opportunities to qualified, interested, and adventurous applicants. The first is a potentially prestigious opportunity to work on a travel documentary with National Geographic in Vietnam, and the other is a ‘Vantastic’ filmed road trip down under in Australia.

National Geographic (free) Travel Documentary Scholarship

First, World Nomads along with National Geographic are offering a very valuable and extraordinary for blossoming world travelers, film makers, and lovers. This unique and valuable opportunity for free travel is a travel scholarship that gives the lucky applicant the ability to travel on assignment to Vietnam (my future neck of the woods) to aid in the making of documentary which will be under consideration for a TV broadcast on National Geographic itself.

The lucky winner will get flown on behalf of World Nomads to Vietnam to meet up with Buffalo Tours . before continuing onward to the scenic Mai Chau Valley where doctors will spend their time setting up temporary health clinics to treat the hill tribes. (more…)

The US State Department funds a lot of travel programs to foster harmony amongst foreigners with Americans and what not, and most scholarships at first glance seem to be targeting foreigners. There, is, however, one really valuable scholarship that I just found. It includes full travel, board, education, etc. for those willing to study ‘critical languages’ intensively during the summer months.  Again, I said free travel, not to mention the free career development and skills. 

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As I’m planning a little jaunt to somewhere in Latin America to be covered extensively here later, I ran across a very interesting and possibly free travel opportunity to Central America, and it is actually legitimate.  The travel opportunity is the Trek Research Study Program.  The program offers research participants up to $1500, depending on trip duration and completion, to travel to almost anywhere in Mexico or Guatemala.

So Free travel to Mexico or Guatemala. Got your attention yet? (more…)

As a business student, I’ve quickly learned that nearly everything is about the resume. Volunteering, student / community groups, steady jobs, etc. While surely they have other benefits, if you didn’t expect to get anything in return, I’d guess a majority of poor students and very young professionals would be less likely to participate in such activities when they could be working or partying.

So where does traveling fit in my resume boosting attempts? Well, nowhere yet, but here are some travel options for students or young professionals that can help out your resume.

State Department Internship

Arguably the most legitimate (more…)

Maybe you have a large inheritance or you invented YouTube or are a really skilled poker player. Probably not, though. If you were, you wouldn’t be reading this. You’d be busy buying stuff. For the non-trust fund babies among us, travel is a major investment. There have been times in my life when I’ve worked for four months so that I could save to take a seven day trip.

It took time for me to realize that I didn’t have to be a slave to the routine of working a lot and traveling a little.

Working to pay for your travels while you are on a trip is easy (sometimes). Here’s my two cents:

1. Teach English. If you are reading this, then chances are you have a decent command of the English language. Teaching English has to be the number one job for travelers out there. In many countries, there are few (if any) qualifications for native-speaking teachers. A month long TEFL course might help land you something with a bit more pay.

2. Write. Easier said than done, right? Not these days. Travel communities are springing across the web. Some (like Cosmotourist) pay for guidebook style articles from travelers. Granted it’s not great pay, but enough to keep you on the road for a few months longer than you budget might previously have allowed. (more…)

Traveling abroad, while padding your bank account (a little), is possible by teaching English as a Second Language abroad. It is not a new phenomena in the budget travel world, however, it is a rewarding, interesting, and affordable way to live abroad.

Today, there is a large demand for ESL teachers is in Asia (China!!). ESL teachers can also find oppurtunities throughout Latin America and Europe, but the European oppurtunities are usually taken by those from the UK.

First, a brief vocab lesson.

• ESL: English as a Second Language
• TEFL: Teaching English as a foreign language. - Training
• TESOL: Teaching English for speakers of other languages. - Higher Certiciation

So what do ESL teachers do?

ESL teachers teach English (more…)