Gap Year Travel Blog | Gap Year Jobs, Programs and Voluteering

On August 4 Laura Dekker, a fourteen year old ducth girl, left Den Osse harbour on her route to Portugal where she will began her solo two years route sailing around the world.
Laura is hoping to become the youngest person to complete a solo trip sail around the world and to break the record she must complete the trip before her 17th birthday in September 2012.
Finally Laura has got permission from court in Middelburg just a few months after an order places her under child protection services because her father support to plan this trip.
Beyond we can think if Dekker is too young to sail alone for so long time, everyone can imagine how beautiful and enriching experience has to be to sail in a gap year travel.
When sailing alone ocean tests you ability and strength not only physically but mentally too. Spend so long time yourself can help you to order you mind about troubles or can go crazy.
Of course, anyone who plans this kind of travel has to hire a really good gap year travel insurance jus in case anything happens when you are far from home. Storms or even animals can damage and sink your boat, a good insurance will assure your rescue anywhere in the world.
Anyway I should’t recommed this kind of travel as an adult gap year to anyone who has not long time experience sailing and has received sea survival training.

When you think about a gap year program usually don’t count on how this experience can change your way of thinking and how this will turn in your working life. However there are different cases in which after the gap year a new and completely different job opportunity comes to the traveler and he or she decided to leave his /her old job.

Sandra Canudas founded a travel consulting company for women after she did a lonely around-world trip. Her firm advices women about independent travel: how, when and where o travel avoiding troubles and bureaucratic problems. All as a result of her own experiences traveling and how she managed to solve daily life.

Erik Rustelo was in a gap year travel in France when he met Rosemary and felt in love. At the time to come back home, Erik realized he was not only in love with Rosemary but with the country too and become an English teacher in France when he has been living for the last 10 years.

Ahren Fenstermacher is a 35 years old man from Bamberg that is living and working in Auckland, New Zealand. Six years ago he was going to take control in family business but before he travel so far for a gap year volunteer work in sea recovering project and a local company offered him to join their staff, he was working to that company for 2 years and eventually he founded his own biotech company.

These are only three examples of what a gap year can produce in your life and working future. Whatever you think your life will be, it could be completely different after a gap year experience.

Setting your gap year program you would have to consider Australia as a destination travel.

Australia is an island but it is also an continent- This country will offer you the chance to visit vibrant cities, wild desserts, beautiful beaches and evrything else you can imagine.
Canberra as the nation’s capital hosts the Old Parliament House and the Parliament House and a good number of monuments and museums. It is famous but his lake and parklands.
Sydney is the most know australian city in the world. Its Opera House it is a well recognized australian symbol everywhere. However Sydney is much more: spectacular harbour, outdoor lifestyle, fusion food, lively nigthlife. Probably you can plan as much gap year activities as you can imagine.
The desert, called the Outback, is a place where you tend to feel like Indiana Jones. Its enormous size and mystical enviroment prints in your hearth as a lifetime experience. In the Outback you can find dinosaur footprints or the famous Uluru rock.
Australia also has 50.000 km of coastline where you can practise any water sport you like, diving to watch colorful marine life or enjoy sailing around Great Barrier Reef or Coral Sea.
And of course Aussies can say in their country there are animals that don’t even exists anywhere else in the world. Kangaroos are widespread all over the mainland and can leap up to five metres long in a jump. Koalas are an icon when promoting Australia.

Finally if you are thinking about a gap year job migrants are always welcome and needed to work in Australia in many areas but rembember to get your visa before you take the plane!

Frequently many students that finish high school take a gap year travel after senior year and before starting college but you don’t need to be a teenager to enjoy a gap year program and make profit of it for your personal of professional life.

Tradition dates back centuries when ancient Hebrews takes a whole year rest every seven years. Truly they did it as an agricultural practice allowed to leave the land without working for replenishment (fallow) after 6 consecutive years of harvest. Nowadays people don’t take this rest for agricultural reasons but to disconnect from routine and take a breath. As well as you are a teacher looking to acquire new knowledge so you can teach better or you are a doctor wanting to cooperate in a far place, sure you will enjoy your gap year projects and learn a lot.

Actually if you are a grown-up your expectations are quite different from high school students. Adults look for professional improvement, travel around the world or give a twist to their lives.

Thinking about travel during that time many people choose to make their dreams trip but in this case you shouldn’t forget to hire a good gap year travel insurance that cover any unexpected event as illnesses, lost or stolen documents or early returns for any reason.

Make sure that if you go trough the Internet you could find many information to plan your year and you are not the only adult thinking about taking a rest so if you are really convinced, make it real!

Now you have decided to spend a whole year abroad you should consider to take advantage of your gap year travel and learn a language.

Although you can think English let you to communicate to almost everyone in the world that is not true but a misconception, about a billion humans are Chinese speaking natives and most of them don’t speak a word of English and over 500 millions speak Spanish as mother language and at the US much more people is becoming Spanish speaker, more than 50 million people nowadays.
Moreover, speaking a foreign language is always a well considered task at any future jobs applications and it will offer you the chance to communicate with much more people all over the world and it will show you that the world is everything but America.

If you finally decide to do it, you could choose among hundreds of schools all over the world that offer language immersion programs even gap year jobs included so you can make money to pay for the course and you don’t need to spend all your saving during this period abroad. Still are you shortage of money? You can find multiples scholarships and grants offered by institutions, companies and even government agencies to help you get the money to learn a foreign language abroad.

So you know, now you have no excuse to learn a language during your gap year abroad

Did you ever consider a gap year in Europe? With all the small countries, easy passage between the countries and cultural differences for each country, Europe is the ideal place to see as much as possible in a short time.

You can discover the capital of love in France, take a look at the rich history of Italy and enjoy the sol y playa in Spain for starter. But there is much more. Have you ever considered of discovering the nice country of Portugal or going to the small villages in the Alps.

Europe not a popular gap year destination but I do think it is worth considering. In the north, you can find the most beautiful nature you will see in your life. Scandinavia is filled with pretty things. The only problem here is that it is the most expensive part of Europe. In central Europe, you will find these nice little villages with very kind people. A big advantage is that almost everyone in the north and central parts of Europe speaks English. Finally in the south, you will get to enjoy the nightlife, sun, beaches and relaxing way they live.

This part of the world gives you a taste of everything within a relatively small area. So please reconsider going on a gap year to Europe.

Many students want to have a break alter they finish High School. I know there is a lot of criticism regarding the subject and many parents don’t think that their children should “waste their time” while going on a Gap Year. But there are a couple of important things that students can learn while going on gap year projects.

First of all students mature while being away from their family and having to cope with everything on their own. They get trusted with new stuff and learn to make decisions. Furthermore you meet a lot of new people, learn to communicate with strangers and the self-confidence of a student grows while taking a gap year travel.

Moreover studies have shown that students who went on a gap year are more likely to graduate and they are more excited about learning. When your life only exists of studying, you will get bored. Taking a gap year can be good for students to clear their minds, make up what they want to study and are ready to throw themselves into their studies.

So if I were you, I would think about doing this adventure. A gap year program can really change your life in a positive way…

When choosing your gap year program the usual suspects of Australia, New Zealand and the US always pop up. However these can prove costly from two points of view. Firstly they may lie a long and expensive flight away. Secondly you will find that your living expenses are far from cheap. For instance when I was backpacking on a budget and I arrived in Los Angeles, I found that the only thing I could afford to eat unless I wanted to cut my trip short was McDonalds…far from ideal in my opinion though you may beg to differ.

If you are planning on finding a gap year job then you are less likely to have financial problems, though finding work abroad can be hard. Therefore in this article I will propose cheaper, alternative countries to travel, which may even offer you more in terms of experience. For instance in every country there will be the ´must do` gap year activities. In New Zealand it is common to take part in extreme sports such as skydiving, bungee jumping or white water rafting. I can’t deny that these are fantastic activities that many will believe should be experienced during ones life, however too many the $300 spent skydiving may be put to better use spending an extra 3 weeks somewhere in Asia.

Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and even the slightly more westernised Thailand are great destinations. The flight won’t be cheap; though once you’re out there you can easily live on a budget of $5 a day. However in Australia, New Zealand or the US it’s going to cost you at least $20 just to find a bed. Therefore if you are on a student gap year and aren’t looking at gap year jobs to do whilst you travel, this may be worth bearing in mind. In Siem Reap, Cambodia you have the chance to visit Angkor Wat. One of the most stunning and well preserved temples the world has to offer. Meanwhile in Vietnam there are all sorts of things to see in regards to the Vietnam war. A boat trip through the eerie Halong Bay is also a must see. These activities are cheap in contrast with those you will find in western countries and are highly recommended.

If you are living in Europe and planning a trip it’s easy to think of exotic locations in Asia and South America. However a Europe gap year may prove more exciting and financially viable than one may have thought originally. With Europe being so compact yet containing so many different countries it makes for interesting travelling. Eastern Europe has beautiful scenery and many things to see while at the same time being cheaper to travel than northern Europe. With a good train system around Europe and several long distance tickets available from country to country this is a great and cheap way to see travel.

Another way people are able to travel cheaply is by spending your gap year teaching. Many companies offer you the chance to teach languages in most of the world. It is likely you would have to pay for your flight but once your there many companies will offer you free accommodation as well as perhaps helping you with other expenses.. Similarly spending your gap year volunteering can prove a cheaper and very rewarding experience.

So my advice would be to travel somewhere near to where you are based or go to countries where your money will be worth more. Then save your dreams of New York or Sydney for a time when you have enough money saved to not have to be counting your pennies every time you crave a beer!

For more information on gap years check out www.gapyearprograms.net

You are planning on going on a Gap Year and you are in the search of as much information as possible around the subject. You want to hear about real stories from people who went on a gap year program and interact with them. Maybe the following Facebook pages can help you finding what you need.

The first one is called Gap Year and is Facebook page with a lot of fans. Their is a lot of interaction on the site and it provides some useful information.

Furthermore, you have the page called gapyearprograms.net. There are some nice pictures on the page and some good stories being shared.

On another page, also called Gap Year, you can find many pictures from Gap Years in Uganda or Costa Rica for instance; it’s a nice way of tasting of the life changing experience.

One of the great joys of life is to see oneself developing as a mature person. Coping with challenges, taking responsibilities, gaining the confidence from others and creating self esteem are part of the development to become complete. It’s a life-long and rewarding process of evolution.

Being a young person and seeing oneself becoming an army officer probably requires a real vocation. The energy and the potential lay in every young person to become what he or she wants to be. Relatives should make plans towards developing this vocation, support and encouragement.

A gap year is a thrilling experience if it’s spent out of the everyday life environment. It is often the first occasion to face the real world and face oneself. It’s a spark that can trigger passion and dedication towards a career. A year in a military camp sounds different than an average gap year travel across the world or taking leisure time. But it can be much more rewarding to the one feeling this vocation towards the army. It could be a once in a life-time experience for them. So there should be no question.

Despite passion and vocation, one should not forget the realities of life and society. For example, it takes some level of education before leaving school, and no insufficient culture puts a young person at risk for the future. A gap year should not last more than 12 months and should be an encouragement to endeavor successfully towards the end of school.