In this article, we feature some of the best Ted Talks about volunteering abroad and alternative travel. These following videos might inspire you to become a travel volunteer, live great adventures and slow travel.

Ted talk 1: Traveling with no money, by Simon Dabbicco

Simone was born in 1987 in Rivoli near Turin. In 2008, he sold the company and started travelling to Ireland, England and Scotland, a trip that changed his life completely – up to the point that he now defines himself as a nomadic traveller. He is the founder of the Italian slow-travel magazine www.viaggiareconlentezza.it

Ted talk 2: Volunteer your way around the world

Rob Ormerod is a designer with a passion for natural building. After receiving a master’s degree in Product Design he left the UK in search of a new path. Since then he has been volunteering his time building houses and practising Permaculture. He dreams of a life in the country in a house made of earth. He’s currently looking for projects to work on, people to collaborate with and countries to travel to.

Ted talk 3: Traveling quickly is a waste of time

Nick Hunt is the author of Walking the Woods and the Water, an account of a 2,500-mile walk across Europe in the footsteps of Patrick Leigh Fermor. His writing and journalism have appeared in The Guardian, The Economist, New Internationalist, Resurgence, Geographical and other publications. He also works as a storyteller and co-editor of the Dark Mountain books.

Ted talk 4: What’s wrong with volunteer travel?

Daniela spent six years living in Cambodia where she founded PEPY, a youth leadership and education organization, and PEPY Tours, a development education travel company. PEPY Tours, which started as a “voluntourism” organization, is now a leading advocate in the shift from service to learning travel and Daniela blogs frequently about this and other topics through her blog, “Lessons I Learned”. Daniela Papi is the founder of PEPY, a Cambodian youth leadership organization, and PEPY Tours, a development education travel company, and is currently a Skoll Scholar at Oxford’s Said Business School.

Ted talk 5: International volunteering: valuable or vandalism?

Jingting “Lily” Kang, a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame, talks about lessons she learned on a high school service trip to a rural part of China. Though she found meaning in the experience, she was disheartened to learn her work did not make a significant difference in the lives of the people she wanted to help. She urges the millions of Americans who volunteer internationally to remember three principles:

1. Service is not a transaction,
2. service does not mean saving the world,
3. and service requires respect.

More Voluntouring videos:

• Ted talk 6: Travel volunteer: when you take more than you leave
• Ted talk 7: Be selfish: volunteer! 
• Ted talk 8 Volunteer for professional development

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