Country Information and Guides
It is clearly important to find out about your chosen destination(s) before you travel. Ideally you need to get to know at least the basics, such as language, currency, how to get around, climate (to help you choose appropriate clothing), health provision, diet, water quality, crime, etc...stuff that will help you decide what you will need to take with you and help you to prepare for your trip in advance. Finding out about the countries you are going to visit is a vital part of your general preparation. It can take a little bit of time to read up on this, but if you spread it out over a few weeks, you can give yourself plenty of time in advance and make it an enjoyable process of discovery.
Why find out about your destination?
I can't really stress enough how crucial it is that you know what's going on in the countries where you are travelling to. It can be daunting enough sometimes just going on holiday to unusual places, but when you will be volunteering and living there for some time too, it will help you so much to know at least a little bit about things beforehand. It can also help to reduce any home-sickness and avoid any unexpected surprises. You'll find out loads more when you arrive of course, as there is nothing to replace actually living somewhere to find out about it, but to go there with some basic knowledge will give you a good starting base from which to enjoy your trip and make the most of your travel and volunteering experience.
Where can I find out more?
We have some country guides which can help you with the basic information. The countries listed in our guides are only those that normally have volunteering opportunities and contain some basic information to give you a flavour of the country and perhaps can give you an idea of where you would like to travel and volunteer. These guides either link to or are based on the wikitravel entries and should give you a taster of each place before you buy a proper travel guide top take with you. Travel guides are invaluable when you are abroad and you should definitely consider investing in one of the various travel guides out there. They are comprehensive sources of important country information which you can refer to during your travels and will probably rescue you from a difficult situation more than once! We may all have our favourites, but undoubtedly both Lonely Planet and Rough Guide publications are two of the most authoritative.
Other important websites
There are also some websites listed below which contain more extensive general country gudies for countries of the world and we recommend that you always visit the Foreign and Commonwealth office (FCO) site for advice given to British nationals travelling abroad and perhaps one of the other sites for more general information.
British FCO website - a resource primarily aimed at British Nationals, but which is useful for any traveller.
If you have any comments regarding this volunteer guide, or if you know of some useful resources we could include here, then please let us know here. Thanks very much!