Look around Calilo, a resort on the Greek Island Ios, and you’ll see hundreds of ancient olive trees, rescued from the mainland where they were destined to become firewood. Eighty-five percent of those rescued olive trees now bear fruit, according to Angelos Michalopoulos and Vassiliki Petridou, the resort’s husband and wife owners.
The couple owns one-third of the island and are activist proprietors, devoted to preserving its history and culture. When local farmers and fishermen deemed their donkeys and fishing boats obsolete, the couple intervened, adopting the animals and preserving the boats. A sign near Calilo’s lobby advertises all of resort’s service projects—a way to show guests the good work their reservations support.
But recently, something new has started happening at Calilio: Guests have began asking to pitch in.
“We haven’t really advertised something like that,” Petridou says. Nevertheless, she’s happy to have the help. “I think it’s a wonderful idea.”
Donkey’s who had out lived their usefulness are now cared for by the owners of Calilo
Noah Lederman
It’s a phenomenon resorts are seeing around the world, ill-content to lie poolside, guests want to make giving back a part of their luxury vacation. But volunteering for a short period, in a foreign country, isn’t alway easy or straightforward. That’s way some hotels are working with local nonprofits.
Silvestre, one of the newest hotels to arrive on Playa Guiones, a rapidly growing beach town in Costa Rica’s Nosara district, is largely focused on its surfer clientele. But the resort’s management also understands that the change that they’re a part of comes with consequences.
Deforestation and erosion are constant threats to this oasis—last century the government turned over more than 70 percent of Costa Rica’s land to cow farmers. So whenever a guest books a room, the concierge team arranges a call to learn what a visitor wants from their vacation.
The perfect itinerary might include a three-hour surf session, a two-hour breakfast, and a half-day swing in the hammock before sampling Costa Rican elixirs like goldenberry and cas on the rooftop bar. But during the call, the concierge will also suggest volunteering with a local organization that matters to the town.
“Sometimes we suggest helping out at the wildlife sanctuary,” a Silvestre employee says. Alternatively, they may recommend spending time with Costas Verdes, which works to restore forests around the country.
Tree planting in Costa Rica combats the damage caused by cattle farming.
Noah Lederman
At Costas Verdes’s nursery in Playa Guiones, 92 tree species are cultivated. Executive director Gerardo Bolaños shows volunteers photographs from 2011, when invasive grasses meet the beach—rather than native forest. Just 13 years later, Playa Guiones looks like another planet. The organization has regrown the forest there and at 26 other beaches in Costa Rica.
Volunteers well be asked to grab a shovel and get potting. Plants like the buttonwood mangrove, a frontline tree in these shorefront forests, are priorities. At the beach, while other tourists gather for sunset and surfers catch glassy lefts, do-gooders dig holes, adding plant defender to the frontline, one by one.
Kirit Singh, a television producer from New York, was one of those “voluntourists.” When he visited Silvestre with his wife and child, he told the concierge that they were looking for family-friendly activities that would connect them to nature. The team arranged Singh’s visit to Costas Verdes.
“It was amazing to learn about the history of the beach and the area. What it was and what it is now,” Singh says. Just as important was “being able to plant a tree” with his young daughter, who was able to participate in the experience. “We left our mark on that place and it was a token of our appreciation,” he continues. “Out of all the things we’ve done in Nosara, that’s something we really think fondly of.”
A kayak through Copenhagen can do the planet good.
Noah Lederman
Cities offer even more ways to give back. In Copenhagen, Kayak Republic, a kayak rental and tour company, works with a the non-profit initiative GreenKayak to clean the city’s canals. Each day, it offers 16 slots on its website that allow volunteers to get on the water while giving back by hoping aboard a noticeably green kayak. For two hours, volunteers paddle through a seven-mile water course with a big green bucket and a hand-operated claw to rescue wine corks and sporks, bottles and cans, and, most importantly, plastics from the waterway.
During my visit to Copenhagen, I managed to reserve one of the limited green kayaks. As I paddled for a floating soda bottle, a motorboat with a paying tourist passed by. The passenger snapped pictures of me in the green kayak, my claw gripping a bottle.
“You’re just relaxing,” the captain told his passenger. “He’s helping the planet.”
I wanted to reassure her it was just for two hours; that I was bad at relaxing on vacation; and that it was free. Still, it was nice to hear, even if I felt like I was getting more out of it than the planet was.
