Active Lifestyle

As summer approaches, fantasies of tropical beaches and coconut breezes might come to mind. This year though, why not go off the beaten path and find out what is going on off the beach in your country of choice. Instead of wasting the summer away on reality T.V., why not explore Global Exchange’s Reality Tours.

Global Exchange is an education and action resource center that has been working for 20 years for the advancement of international human rights, as well as social, environmental and economic justice. Their mission is to shift the world’s economy from profit centered to people centered, from quantity to quality.

Reality Tours are designed to educate travelers about how we both individually and collectively contribute to global problems “over there”, and how we have the ability to create solutions and lasting social change to connect us all.

Trips are currently available for destinations to Afghanistan, Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Costa Rice, *Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Iran, Ireland, Jamaica, Laos, Libya, Mexico, Nicaragua, Palestine/Israel, Russia, South Africa, Tanzania, Turkey and Vietnam. Custom tours to additional countries are available as well.

These socially responsible trips range in focus from solidarity to activism to education to business. You receive an in depth look at your host country and find out what goes on there in terms of politics, the environment, health care, and more. By visiting with community organizations, activists, journalists, professors, doctors, writers, representatives from human rights groups, and locals of all kinds; reality travelers are exposed to new ways of seeing the world and challenging stereotypes in search of the truth.

So why not try out a new style of travel this summer? You might come back with the best souvenir of all: knowledge.

For more information on how to put reality back into your travel plans, check out!
www.globalexchange.org

*Click here for information about travel to and within Cuba.

**Photos shared from the Global Exchange Flickr Site. Images are from a flooded Indonesian village after the 2006 Tsunami, and from a protest at the 2008 Chevron Annual Shareholder Meeting.

Tags: Fair Trade, Global Exchange, Green Travel, International Travel, Reality Tours, Social Activisim, Summer Vacation, Sustainable Travel