EDUCATIONAL, VOLUNTEER VACATIONS

When planning vacations, an increasing number of travelers are looking for an experience more meaningful than a week at a beach or ski resort. They're seeking experiences that teach them new skills, satisfy old curiosities and enrich their lives. Here are quick insights into two types of vacation alternatives.
Scientific expeditions
Travel has always provided an opportunity for education, but these days, anyone with an appetite for travel and a thirst for knowledge can easily satisfy both cravings. From tracking koala bears in Australia to excavating dinosaur bones in Montana, numerous bona-fide scientific inquiries and research projects encourage the participation of enthusiastic amateurs, both young and old.
Travelers get hands-on experience working with scientists collecting the evidence to decipher nature's secrets and unearth the mysteries of the past.
For example, travelers who have joined Nature Watch programs of the Oceanic Society (800-326-7491; www.oceanic-society.org) have studied dolphins in the Amazon. The Mingan Island Cetacean Study (450-465-9176), which operates field trips to learn the habits of blue whales, has programs in Quebec; Baja, California; Iceland; and the Azores. Participants in an organization called Earthwatch (800-776-0188; www.earthwatch.org) can get involved in hundreds of research projects around the globe each year.
For those who dig digs, each year from May to September, Dinamation International Society (800-547-0503; www.dinamation.org) sponsors five-day expeditions near Grand Junction, Colo. Amateurs join professional paleontologists to find, excavate, and catalog dinosaur fossils. The Archaeological Institute of America publishes a bulletin listing volunteer excavation opportunities (Kendall/Hunt publishing 800-228-0810; $12). Fodor's Guides also publishes a compendi um of Great American Learning Adventures.
Dozens of commercial tour operators have also developed trips to satisfy this urge for scientific travel. While not actually participating in projects, travelers get first hand exposure to scientific or historical insights not generally available to the traveling public. For example, one company, International Expeditions (800-633-4734; www.ietravel.com), organizes trips to exotic and ecologically sensitive areas accompanied by naturalists, biologists and researchers.
A local travel company, Economic Adventures (412-921-3121), operates a variety of tours that are heavy with learning.
Although some of these tours are designed for specialists, for most, love and enthusiasm for discovery are the primary prerequisites.
Volunteer vacations
Almost 40 years ago, the Peace Corps popularized the notion of going somewhere and spending time doing something to help others. While the Peace Corps still accepts several hundred volunteers each year, not everyone is in a position to sacrifice several years to their volunteerism.
Today, numerous organizations provide one, two, and three week opportunities to lend a hand. Many of these are church-related, but hundreds of nonsectarian programs are offered each year. Many take place in July and August when high-school and college-aged students are available, but a few are offered around the year.
Although some of these projects provide volunteers with room and board, most charge participants a fee of $50 to $150 a day, which covers their accommodations, meals, ground transportation within the country of the project, and sometimes include a contribution toward materials used on the project. Transportation to and from the country is usually extra. One point is that both program fees and transportation costs associated with many volunteer vacations may be deductible from federal income tax.
Here are some places to find them.
Habitat for Humanity (912-924-6935) was an early organization to provide short-term opportunities for volunteerism.
The Council on International Education Exchange (888-268-6245; or www.ciee.org) has a listing of more than 600 service projects in 30 countries across four continents. Programs last two to four weeks. Most participants in these programs are 21 to 25, but only a handful of projects in a few countries mandate an upper-age limit. Cross Cultural Solutions (800-380-4777; www.crossculturalsolutions.org) and Volunteers for Peace (802-259-2759; www.vfp.org) are two other project clearinghouses.
Many projects involve construction work, but there are also environmental and social action programs. Social projects include volunteering at a children's camp in Japan, working at an orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico, and volunteering at the Peruvian Institute for Family Planning.
Global Volunteers (800-487-1074), a private, nonsectarian organization founded in 1984, provides average Americans with the opportunity to become involved in short-term community service projects in 20 countries around the world. For example, its recently announced Millennium Project will conduct weeklong programs from Dec. 26, 1999, to Jan. 1, 2000, in 25 locations around the United States, including rebuilding homes in Fayette County, W.Va.
Interested travelers may also want to browse "The International Directory of Volunteer Work" by Victoria Pybus; "Volunteer Vacations: Short-Term Adventures That Will Benefit You and Others" by Bill McMillon; and "The Back Door Guide to Short Term Job Adventures: Internships, Extraordinary Experiences, Seasonal Jobs, Volunteering, Work Abroad" by Michael Landes.



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