A stay with purpose makes your trip even better!
As January is in full swing, I am dreaming of my to-plan trips for 2019. And I wouldn’t be happier to combine my trip with a purposeful stay: sleeping and relaxing in a place where I can make an impact. As for now, these are my favorite dream-destination hotels:
Medallo Social Hostal – Colombia
I recently read an article about this hostel, started by a Belgian Entrepreneur. This beautiful hostel is located in Medellin, Colombia and invites all guests to support Medellin by joining social opportunities. Their slogan ‘Give back to the country you travel in’ provides programs for all hostel guests to help local farmers with their fields or play boardgames at a girls-shelter home.
2. Omni Hotels & Resorts – USA
Travelling to the US, I will definitely consider staying in one of the 60 Omni Hotels & Resorts, as they offer the ‘Say Goodnight to Hunger’ program. For every booking they receive, Omni Hotels offers Feed America a donation for a family-meal. This way, the hotel chain has been providing almost 9 million meals to food banks and homeless people since 2016. I really like to donate as many meals as I can while staying with them in the future!
This yoga retreat hotel in Juluchuca offers options to volunteer in the turtle sanctuary, give back to the local community or engage in a workshop. The hotel is located in Juluchuca right on the Pacific Ocean. A dream come true to stay here, surrounded by a rich ecosystem, lots of animals and have time to volunteer and participate in yoga classes.
Tongole Wilderness Lodge, Malawi
This lodge in Malawi provides the perfect safari experience (DREAAM) but also works very environmental friendly. The building materials of the lodge are locally sourced and sustainable. Their safari’s have low environmental impact activities to ensure the protection of the area. Most of the safari activities at the lodge are foot-based or river-based so that guests can enjoy the unexploited wilderness in a peaceful manner. But the greatest thing about this lodge is it’s foundation: The Tongole Foundation provides childrens education by providing support to their local school.
Cloud Mountain Gorilla Lodge & Wildplaces Apoka Safari Lodge, Uganda
These beautiful lodges in Uganda offer stunning rooms and opportunities to join safari. But what makes them different from the others, is their involvement into their local community. They support public health in the local communities, focussing on maternal nutritional health. They help their locals developing tourism activities. As a guest, you can visit the village Lokorul and see how the Karamojong dance is performed live. You can spend time learning about preparing the local food and building a kraal. Next to that, these lodges actively support the the conservation of the gorilla habitat. By visiting one of these lodges, you can participate actively and you do support their conservation activities financially. I would love to do that:)
Hotel Orangutan, Sumatra Indonesia
The Sumatran Orangutan is one of two species of Orangutans – only found on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia – they are much rarer than the Bornean Orangutan. Hotel Orangutan raises awareness among their guests about the threats and uses local businesses to provide all services required for its operations to continuously pump finances into the local community. The hotel organizes a safe and respectful encounter of people and nature with the hope that it will help to change behaviors and to open the eyes of our visitors on the reality of the jungle. I would love to be part of the awareness and make a change!
Happy dreaming & happy vacation:)
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