Voluntourism

At Always outbound, volunteering is the core of what we do, not just something we add to a few of our trips. Active sightseeing, combined with giving back through community volunteering, is the reason we were founded.

Our sole focus is Voluntouring. This means is that we:

• Choose destinations that provide authentic and immersive travel experiences
• Travel in a manner where we can control our collective footprint
• Volunteer on existing community projects with locally respected and nationally recognized NGOs (aka Non-Profits). By doing so we supplement the work they are already doing in the local community
• Know how NOT to be a burden on an NGO’s resources, through our close relationships of them and their goals
• Ensure that your work does not go to waste and creates a positive impact long after you’ve left

Voluntourism doesn't mean all work and no play. At Always Outbound, we believe that incredible vacations and meaningful volunteering go hand in hand, which brings us to our next differentiator.

One of a Kind Trips

Our trips are one of kind vacations that take you to spectacular destinations, provide you with amazing experiences and bring you home with a lifetime of memories.

• Traveling slowly – by camels, kayaks, canoes and camels
• Working up a sweat through optional hikes and hill walks
• Organic camping in beautiful, remote valleys of India
• Scuba diving and snorkeling on the spectacular coral reefs
• Meditating in Buddhist monasteries
• Planting trees in indigenous mangrove forests
• Teaching young kids english, photography and basic computer use
• Watching enchanting island, mountain and desert sunrises
• Camel safaris in remote Himalayan valleys or Rajasthan deserts
• Staying in a Himalayan shepherd's home
• Feeling like a child again
• Being annoyingly happy

"What I saw in a single tour would have taken me twice as long, multiple guidebooks and local contacts, lots of luck and planning…and I'm still not sure I'd have been able to do it"

Flexible Itineraries

We hate rigidity at Always Outbound. We embrace serendipity and flexibility at every opportunity.

Our guests don't come from cookie-cutters and neither do our trips. Our schedules allow for multiple activities in a day, yet allow you to opt out of any or all the activities in a given day. You'll have lots of time set aside to do your own exploring and pursue your own activities. You can take part in group experiences and still have the freedom to steal away for some much-needed time alone. You can get an early start to catch a spectacular sunrise, take part in some amazing activities and then ponder all that you've experienced as you watch the sun set once again.

26-Step Trip Vetting

At Always Outbound, every one of our trips goes through a unique and rigorous 26-step vetting process. Here are five of them:

1. Our destination must be naturally beautiful with a welcoming community
2. Be lightly traveled (ie. not overly commercialized)
3. Offer plenty of opportunities for sustainable travel
4. Have volunteering opportunities (community and/or environment)
5. Have a respected NGO or community activist working in the community

We hike, kayak, drive, walk, ride and snorkel every part of the route and then do it again in reverse, making sure that we unearth hidden issues as well as hidden treasures. Truly great trips are made up of moments, not days, and the best moments are the serendipitous, the surprising and the unexpectedly joyful. And through our unique process are prepared to take advantage of them when they happen.

Small Footprint, Huge Impact

We keep our groups much smaller than most other travel companies.

We do this because we are very serious about keeping our footprint small and positive impact on the communities high. We truly love the places we take you and we want you to love them, too. We want you to experience them in an intimate and very personal way. Keeping our group size small also allows us to enjoy destinations, attractions and routes that are often off limits to larger groups.

We Support Communities Directly

We support the amazing communities we visit, not just by volunteering, but also by utilizing local businesses.

Our guides are locals who come from the communities we visit. This enriches your experience and allows the community to benefit from your tourism dollars. We stay in locally-owned hotels and homestays, rather than corporate chain hotels and dine in local restaurants and eat mostly locally sourced food. We also educate our suppliers on sustainability so that we can limit their footprint as well as ours. In these and many other ways, you help these local communities simply by traveling with us.

Combining East and West

Our founder and team members all come from Asia. Our roots and connections give us insider knowledge that are hard to come by if you go with other adventure companies or on your own.

We speak the local language, have established local relationships and are able to improvise when things don't go as planned. Always Outbound founder Subir Kumedan started hiking in the Himalayas at sixteen and, having led several trips, understands the treasures of beauty, culture and history that are waiting to be found in India and South Asia. Having now lived in the US for 15 years, he has a Western education and a unique East-West perspective that helps us as a company to understand the preferences, behavior and subtle cues of international travelers.

This understanding is critical to making your travel experience extraordinary.

A Completely Individual Experience

Refreshed…. revitalized…. a renewed purpose….a new perspective.

Just some phrases our guests use to describe their experiences with us. We take you to extraordinary destinations, immerse you in rich cultures and unspoiled places and give you the opportunity to make a difference in someone else's life.

So come on; let's go see the world…for real.