Frommer S 500 Places Where You Can Make A Difference

Inspired by the eye-opening events of 9/11, the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, more and more people are waking up to the value of service – and realizing that their vacation may be the best place to incorporate it into their hectic lives. Even more profoundly, many travelers are deciding that the best way to recharge may not be lying on a beach, but stepping outside of their normal routine to make a difference in the lives of others. The result is an experience that allows travelers to explore a culture in great depth, make new friends, and come home feeling that they have learned and benefited even more than those they have helped. The book will provide a diverse range of volunteer vacations, with most trips easily accomplished within a one or two-week vacation. Following the highly successful format of Frommer’s 500 Places To Take Your Kids Before They Grow Up, chapters will be organized by subject, providing dozens of unique vacation ideas for any traveler: Introduction: How you know if a volunteer vacation is right for you, and what to ask Sharing your knowledge: teaching vacations Animal welfare: surveying wildlife, animal rescue Working with children: orphanages, at-risk youth, street kids Scientific research: archaeology, marine life Healing the environment: conservation work, trail building, tree planting Building better communities: construction projects and manual labor Share the health: AIDS education, working with the disabled, feeding the hungry Teaching through sport: coaching and training Bridging cultures: working with indigenous peoples, historical preservation, music Special events: becoming a festival volunteer Crossing generations: helping seniors Getting political: elections, human rights, refugee relief, community organizing Peace-building: conflict resolution and security Religious service: retreats and faith-based assistance Bringing expertise: opportunities for those with specialized skills Serving your kids: children-friendly trips that will open their eyes to the world

500 Places to See Before They Disappear enables passionate travelers and the eco-conscious to learn about and plan a visit to see rare cultural, historic, and natural places before they are irrevocably altered or even gone forever. Here are one-of-a-kind landscapes, fragile ecosystems, rare bird habitats, places to see the last remaining species of big game in the wild, cityscapes in peril, vanishing cultural kitsch, petroglyphs, and more—500 thoughtfully-chosen treasures that will inspire and enlighten travelers of all ages. Each entry explains why it's been included, gives its history, the nature of the threat against it, brief practical information on how to visit, and what visitors can to do protect it. A Geographical Index allows travelers to locate attractions across the world. Photos throughout the book help bring destinations to life.

Frommer's 500 Best Islands features our selections for the best islands around the world - from tiny isles to island nations, and from well-trod to totally uninhabited. Chapters are divided into: Treasure Islands -- Islands that have a strong, distinctive local culture and personality Leisure Islands -- Islands with a relaxed vibe and lots of land sports like hiking or biking Pleasure Islands -- Islands famous for their partying and nightlife scenes Beachcomber Islands -- Islands known for their beaches, diving, and watersports Garden Isles -- Islands with lush or verdant landscapes, orchards, and local produce Islands of Mystery -- Places that are somewhat remote and have a mystical and/or exotic vibe Island Escapes -- Quiet, uncrowded spots for those who love nature and want a relaxed pace Ends of the Earth -- Islands that are rugged, remote, hard to get to, and great for adventure lovers Islands of History -- Islands known for specific historic events, and with landmarks to visit Wildlife Islands -- Islands that are great for birdwatching, whale watching, and viewing rare species, as well as nature preserves Island Nations -- Large islands with their own history and independent government Island Cities -- Vibrant metropolises that have thrived as their own islands City Islands -- Island enclaves within larger cities

Coverage will be global, including food festivals, farmer's markets, cooking schools, street food, wineries, wine trails, and restaurant wine lists-as well as the world's best restaurants in several price ranges and categories throughout the world, including: Open-air markets, farms, culinary festivals, and street food Cookbook and kitchenware shops Gourmet and specialty food stores Food vacations, including inns/resorts, cruises, and cooking schools Vineyards, breweries, and distilleries Must-visit restaurants, coffee bars, and dessert places The book includes contact and Web site information, plus details on accommodations and services to help with trip-planning. Black-and-white photographs bring the places and experiences to life, while geographical and topical indexes make it easy to find information quickly.

Conflicted Commitments analyzes a form of non-violent, direct transnational solidarity in which activists from the global North travel to support and protect people in the global South. Gada Mahrouse contends that this brand of activism is a compelling site of racialized power relations and is highly instructive for a nuanced understanding of systems of race. Mahrouse argues that the individuals who partake in this form of activism consciously deploy their white, western privilege to offer support and protection to those facing threats of violence. Moreover, given that this type of activism asserts itself as an exemplary form of anti-racist commitment, it illustrates that well-meaning practices can inadvertently reproduce racialized power structures that are embedded in imperial and colonial legacies. Mahrouse focuses on Palestine and Iraq in the post-9/11 era to contemplate the contemporary challenges that these regions pose for solidarity activism. By exploring how individual activists manage and negotiate their dominant positioning in these encounters, Mahrouse reflects more broadly on the ethics of social justice strategies in an increasingly transnational world. A detailed study of the racialized complexities and contradictions inherent in transnational solidarity activism, Conflicted Commitments makes a significant contribution to critical race and feminist studies.

500 Places to See Before They Disappear enables passionate travelers and the eco-conscious to learn about and plan a visit to see rare cultural, historic, and natural places before they are irrevocably altered or even gone forever. Here are one-of-a-kind landscapes, fragile ecosystems, rare bird habitats, places to see the last remaining species of big game in the wild, cityscapes in peril, vanishing cultural kitsch, petroglyphs, and more—500 thoughtfully-chosen treasures that will inspire and enlighten travelers of all ages. Each entry explains why it's been included, gives its history, the nature of the threat against it, brief practical information on how to visit, and what visitors can to do protect it. A Geographical Index allows travelers to locate attractions across the world. Photos throughout the book help bring destinations to life.

Crossing disciplinary and chronological boundaries, Volunteer Tourism: Popular Humanitarianism in Neoliberal Times is the first full-length treatment of volunteer tourism from a longitudinal ethnographic perspective. Volunteer tourism, one of the fastest growing niche tourism markets in the world, is a type of tourism in which tourists pay to participate in conservation, humanitarian or development oriented projects. Volunteer Tourism is a comprehensive and comparative study of the perspectives of Thai host community members, NGO practitioners and international volunteer tourists. The book thus shines an ethnographic lens onto the complexities and contradictions of the volunteer tourism experience in northern Thailand. Drawing on cross-disciplinary perspectives in geography and anthropology as well as development, tourism and cultural studies, Volunteer Tourism illustrates how a focus on sentimentality in the volunteer tourism encounter obscures the structural inequalities on which the experience is based. Such a focus situates volunteer tourism within the commodification and sentimentalization of development and global justice agendas, which hail the new moral consumer and reframe questions of structural inequality as questions of individual morality. As a result, albeit inadvertently, the practice of volunteer tourism serves the continued expansion of the cultural logics and economic practices of neoliberalism.

Kids who learn to travel will travel to learn. National Geographic Traveler Editor Keith Bellows sends you and your children globetrotting for life-changing vacations that will expand their horizons and shape their perspectives. What you won’t find inside: predictable itineraries and lists of landmarks and events. Instead, you’ll get evocative, slice-of-life experiences and age-appropriate ideas that illuminate place and culture. Each chapter of 100 Places That Can Change Your Child’s Life plumbs the heart of a special place—from the Acropolis to Machu Picchu to the Grand Canyon—all from the perspective of insiders who see destinations through a child’s eyes. You’ll meet actor and travel writer Andrew McCarthy, who tours the suqs of Marrakech with his seven-year-old son; photographer Annie Griffiths, who shares the miraculous migration to Mexico of the monarch butterflies; Tom Ritchie, who has guided countless children and parents to Antarctica for more than 30 years; the waterman who knows where to see the ponies of Assateague in the true wild; and countless others who are cultural treasures, great storytellers, and keepers of a sense of place. Packed with ideas to supplement the travel experience—foods, music, films, and carefully curated lists of kid-friendly activities and places to eat and stay—this inspiring book is the perfect trip planner to excite children about culture and the unique magic the world has to offer.