Taking the road less travelled

If you're bored of package holidays and want a more meaningful stay in another country, look beyond the brochures, writes Iva Pocock.

Technology has changed tourism as much as it has changed all aspects of our lives. Now you can get to places faster than ever before, safe in the knowledge that on arrival there will be English-speakers to greet and guide you, restaurants to feed you familiar food and hotels that look just like those at home.

The downside is that after two weeks in a foreign country you may have no sense of its people, culture or food. So how can you be less of a tourist on your holidays?

Start with language, says Prof Michael Cronin, director of the Centre for Translation Studies in DCU and author of Across the Lines, which explores language, travel and translation.

Everything from a cúpla focal, which is "a manifestation of goodwill", makes it easier for the visitor and the local, he says. This is particularly important for anglophones who are caught in the "big trap of facility. It's very easy to lull yourself into complacency, as so many in the tourism industry speak English".

Mark O'Sullivan, an Internet consultant in Dublin who recently returned from four months in India, agrees that learning the local language is the best way to be "a more considerate" tourist. "Even with the simplest phrases, doors open and things are cheaper," he says.

As part of his travels, he volunteered for a few weeks as "IT support guy" at the Barefoot College headquarters in Tilonia, Rajasthan. Established in the 1970s, the organisation helps marginalised local people with solar technology, rain-water harvesting and micro-credit schemes.

Compared with regular travel, he says his stay there was a very different kind of experience. "It's far more rewarding, particularly in India where tourism is very well developed. At times you feel like you are travelling through a corridor designed to get as much money out of you as possible. It's a good opportunity to connect with real Indians and work in a team with them."

Volunteering with Service Civil International is another option for the more intrepid traveller. The organisation co-operates with groups throughout the world, which organise work-camps lasting from one to three weeks. Regardless of whether you want to join a work-camp in Azerbaijan, Italy or Bangladesh, you must first become a member of your local organisation. Here, the relevant organisation is Voluntary Service International (VSI). Established in 1965, VSI sends some 200 people overseas every year. Work-camps take place all year around.

Deirdre Connolly, from Co Offaly, spent three weeks each in Kenya and Tanzania as a VSI volunteer last year, travelling in between to Zanzibar, Malawi and South Africa. It's an experience that has changed her attitude to travel.

"I couldn't look at a sun holiday brochure now," she says. In Kenya, she worked with a local community in Tsavo National Park, helping to build a classroom.

"It was out in the bush and very basic, like camping, but it was wonderful," she says. "It's like Ireland was 30 or 40 years ago. People are very welcoming and very sincere. They have nothing, but anything they have they share with you."

After spending a few weeks in the Kenyan bush, she felt far more at home in Zanzibar than other tourists. "I fell into the habit of haggling in the markets and was hassled less. You get streetwise. Of course, knowing a few polite greetings was great."

Tom Atkins, who lives in west Cork, also gained a good understanding of local life through another worldwide organisation, Willing Workers On Organic Farms (WWOOF). Jaded with the endless "dipping in and out of places" that is part of normal travel, he found "WWOOFing" allowed him to get to know the local culture and feel more at ease.

"The joke is that it's all about weeding people's gardens," says Atkins. "But it's a very good way to travel. It got me around New Zealand for four months without spending anything." In exchange for a half-day's work, a WWOOF host gives you board and keep, and "a good time", says Atkins. "You definitely find people who've had bad experiences, but if you don't like it you can leave."

Another means of enjoying foreign hospitality (without getting your hands dirty) is through the international organisation, Servas. With some 15,000 members, Servas links hosts and travellers and aims to encourage understanding, tolerance and world peace. You register for a small sum in your home country and then, ID in hand, ring up those listed as Servas hosts in the country you are visiting.

"Their philosophy and ethos works very simply," says Roseann Seale, a Dublin-based solicitor who has stayed with Servas hosts in Tasmania, Fiji and New Zealand. "You generally stay two nights, so you never feel you've overstayed your welcome. Because they are in the organisation, you know they are interested in meeting you - and if it doesn't suit, they'll tell you."

Although some people stay exclusively with Servas hosts, Seale did so on and off during her travels.

"If you are on your own it's nice to have someone to go and talk to, especially if you are a bit older than the average back- packer," she says. "I think it's just a really nice way of travelling. It's more insightful and different from the backpacker scene, which tends to be a younger."

While there are "a few very eccentric people on the Servas route, most people are very nice and there's great variety", Seale adds. She stayed with a retired nurse (who was keen on botany) in Tasmania, an English lecturer in Fiji's University of Suva, and a Maori activist in Christchurch, New Zealand, and relished getting "a better insight into the locality".

While not specifically aimed at facilitating international hospitality, fan clubs are another great way to make friends in faraway places and increase the chances of being invited overseas. Through being a member of the official fan club of the band Queen for years, Colm Banville, from Howth, Co Dublin, has now been to places as far apart as the US and France.

"It all started when I first went over to the convention in Wales. I got to know loads of people there and we stayed in contact on e-mail. Through that, I was introduced to fans in other countries," he says. "I once stayed with a family in St Etienne in France after meeting them at a Freddie Mercury memorial meeting in Montreux in Switzerland." The US fan club's convention in Cleveland, Ohio, enabled him to meet people on the other side of the Atlantic with whom he keeps in regular contact.

Banville used to go on package holidays, but since discovering how "much more satisfying it is to stay with people you have something in common with", he hasn't been on one. "I particularly enjoy being shown around by a local rather than some boring guide who comes with the package," he adds.

[ www.servas.org ]

[ www.vsi.ie ]

[ www.barefootcollege.org ]