A growing number of travelers are choosing to learn more about regional cultures and help people in a deeper way than just buying their souvenirs. Vacation volunteers report that they work hard, laugh a lot and live an adventure than can’t be duplicated. The lengthy menu of vacation options is as diverse as reading to the elderly in inner-city Philadelphia to building a schoolhouse in Zambia to planting trees to stop erosion along Big Darby Creek in Ohio. Expeditions at home and abroad cover environmental, scientific, educational and social-service opportunities.

For information, check out Volunteer Vacations: Short-Term Adventures That Will Benefit You and Others, by Bill McMillon and Volunteer Vacations Across America: Immersion Travel, by Sheryl Kayne.