INTRO TRAVEL EXPERIENCES

Most Affordable – PMGY’s programs are accessible to everyone who wants to make a difference, through low fees and high-impact projects.

Best Support – Our international and local teams provide extensive around the clock services to assist you every step of your PMGY adventure.

Safety Prioritised – With safety a PMGY number-1 priority, we have taken all necessary precautions to ensure our programs are as safe and structured as possible.

Extraordinary Experiences – With PMGY, you have the opportunity to truly immerse yourself in amazing cultural and travel experiences, ensuring you leave with unforgettable memories.

Friendships for Life – Your PMGY experience not only opens up a doorway for new experiences and exciting memories, but also life-long friendships when meeting new people from around the world.

PMGY’s intro travel experiences offer ambitious individuals the opportunity to join together and embark on a thrilling adventure across a country in Asia. Our local team provides a structured, face-paced and thrilling group itinerary across a number of amazing sites around your chosen destination. Depending on the specific intro travel experience, your group may also dedicate time to volunteering projects to give back to local communities, developing and showcasing your skills. On one of PMGY’s intro travel experiences, you will arrive into your chosen destination on a set date, joining your group before travelling and volunteering across a 2 or 4 week period. This makes the trip ideal for anyone who wishes to explore and engage in new experiences in the company of others.

Individuals on one of PMGY’s intro travel experiences have a unique chance to engage in a variety of exciting activities. This may include volunteering in schools to visiting breathtaking sites – there is something for everyone! During time on one of PMGY’s intro travel experiences, be prepared for incredible views, friends for life and complete cultural immersion. The adventure is perfect for anyone looking to travel within a safe, structured and social environment.

From one destination to the next, you won’t need to worry about a thing. All your in-country transport and accommodation will be arranged by our local teams. This helps to ensure that your experience abroad is as smooth as possible. Our team will arrange numerous activities for you to enjoy and engage in during your trip. For any spare time, our local experts will be able to help you discover the impressive range of activities you can get involved in during your intro travel experiences. A portion of your time may also be dedicated to making a difference within a community in your chosen country. This will allow you to put your skills and enthusiasm into practice to make a meaningful difference to local communities overseas.

The trip’s group set-up makes intro travel experiences with PMGY an exceptional social occasion. You will have the chance to meet individuals from across the globe, forming friendships that will last a lifetime. You will stay together for your entire adventure, sharing moments and memories that will stay with you forever. You will also have the chance to immerse yourself with members of the local community, making intro travel experiences with PMGY even more special.

BALI INTRO EXPERIENCE

Our Bali Intro Experience provides individuals with a summer of a lifetime. Participants of this intro travel experience spend two remarkable exploring paradise! Out of Indonesia’s staggering 17,508 islands, Bali is by far the most popular for its ancient culture, extravagant temples, spectacular rice paddies and striking beaches. This Bali Intro Experience trip offers you the undeniably exciting chance to discover the wonders of the exotic island, making friends with your new travel buddies and the local people along the way!

INDIA INTRO EXPERIENCE

Our India Intro Experience is a 15 day adventure and volunteer program, based in Kerala in India. On this 2 week adventure, you will spend your first 5 days making a positive impact as a volunteer in India, teaching English within the local community. The remainder of your time on this India Intro Experience will be spent exploring the tropical greenery of the region. You will take in breathtaking views of backwaters, rolling hills and tea plantations, making it the ultimate volunteer travel opportunity.

NEPAL INTRO EXPERIENCE

Our Nepal Intro Experience provides participants with an epic adventure, combining travel with cultural exchange. Tick off all the “must-do’s” that this intriguing country has to offer. From exploring the colourful temples and markets of Kathmandu, trekking through the mighty Himalayas, to discovering the charm and wildlife in Chitwan. The whole experience will be fun, diverse and culturally enriching. Meanwhile, you’ll learn about a whole new world and have an adventure of a lifetime.

SRI LANKA INTRO EXPERIENCE

Our Sri Lanka Intro Experience allows participants to spend two amazing weeks travelling and exploring the length and breadth of hugely inspiring country, visiting all the wonders that Sri Lanka holds. From ancient ruins to paradise beaches, safari wildlife to rolling green hills, you can discover all the best spots around the island. Sri Lanka is spectacular, affordable and still uncrowded so now is the time to go!

THAILAND INTRO EXPERIENCE

Our Thailand Intro Experience is a 15 day affordable travel trip across Southern Thailand. This Thailand Intro Experience trip will introduce you to some of Thailand’s most spectacular scenery. From stunning beaches to mountains, lush green jungles, bustlingly cities and peaceful Buddhist temples, this incredible 2 week adventure allows you to experience it all! Throw in some like-minded people to share it all with and a guide to help to get the very best out of your experience, this is a trip of a lifetime.

Flights

After confirming your place on one of PMGY’s intro travel experiences, we strongly advise that you book your flights as early as possible. This will help ensure that you get the lowest airfare. You can choose to book your flights independently or we can help you with arranging them. PMGY has a wealth of experience in travelling to and from our host countries. This means that we know the most affordable ways to travel and the best airlines to use. PMGY have an ATOL Licence to ensure any flights booked through us are financially secured by the Civil Aviation Authority. If you would therefore like any assistance booking your flight, you can request an optional flight quote during your online application. Alternatively, feel free to contact us on the phone or by email.

Travel Insurance

Having an appropriate travel insurance policy during your time abroad is essential. It is therefore mandatory for all of our international volunteers to be appropriately covered across all of their trip dates. Although most of our volunteers experience a smooth ride during their time overseas, occasionally things may go wrong. Having a travel insurance policy in place helps you effectively deal with any problems you may encounter during your time away.

Plan My Gap Year Ltd is an appointed representative of Endsleigh Insurance Services Ltd, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). We have partnered up with the insurance company Endsleigh to create an affordable and comprehensive optional policy. This has been designed with our international volunteers in mind, to cover our participants for all of their travel essentials. The policy is available to anyone across the globe, up to the age of 65 years. The document will cover you for your time on any PMGY destination and any onward travel (excluding the US and Canada).

If you’d like to purchase PMGY travel insurance, you can add this option on during your online application. You can also add this to any upcoming trips with us by getting in contact via telephone or email.

Our International Team will work hard to provide extensive levels of support in the build-up to your trip. From our online chat service to email support and telephone conversations, our team are always ready to help. All international volunteers with PMGY will receive a Volunteer Handbook. This detailed hand guide will provide you with all you need to know in the build-up to your trip. From visa guidance to suggested packing lists, this will be the ultimate guide, helping you plan for your volunteer trip abroad.

We have Facebook groups for each of our volunteer destinations. Here you can find members of our international and local teams, as well as past, present and future volunteers. These pages, therefore, provide a great forum for volunteers to network, share experiences and community updates year-on-year.

Sometimes it can be difficult to picture yourself abroad without yet being there. We, therefore, do our best to further manage expectations before you arrive through a variety of informative and action-packed videos on our PMGY Vimeo channel. These clips help provide you with a visual perspective of what you can expect during your time volunteering with us. Our webinars are not to be missed either. Running on selected Tuesdays, at 4pm UK time, our International Team provides invaluable advice for your upcoming trip. Each webinar covers something different. Our pre-departure webinar covers all of the essentials you need to know and do before joining us abroad. Our program preparation webinar is more project-specific, with advice and information for time you will spend on placement. Finally, our safety webinar offers you some top tips on how to manage your safety and wellbeing across the pond. For those who are simply interested in learning more about PMGY, our team also run an introductory webinar. This provides an introduction to the volunteer organisation, our background, goals and volunteer opportunities overseas.

Teaching and childcare volunteers may wish to take their program preparation even further, through a 60 hour online TEFL course. This is the perfect introductory course for working with children and teaching English abroad. Participation in this course enables international volunteers to acquire key skills whilst working towards an internationally accredited certificate.

Our PMGY intro travel experiences are run by our dedicated and experienced in-country local teams.

All staff have been fully vetted by our International Team. The committed local community networks provide the structure for your stay with us as a volunteer on your intro travel experience program. Our local team will arrange your accommodation, meals, airport pick-up, in-country orientation and 24/7 emergency support. Our team provides a great framework for you to enjoy a unique volunteering experience with us on one of our intro travel experiences.

When you arrive each country for your intro travel experience programs, you will receive an orientation from your in-country team. This day will usually be broken down into two components. The first portion will usually be dedicated to all the theoretical aspects, from ‘dos and don’ts’, to safety aspects, project information and team introductions. The remainder of the day is usually used to introduce you to the local area. The local team will teach you how to locate every essential you may need during your time. They will also be able to help you arrange your money and a local SIM-card. Please note that the exact itinerary of the orientation will vary from country-to-country.

If you have not travelled much before, it is really hard to know what to expect. When anticipating their time overseas, many international volunteers (and their loved ones) are often concerned about safety and security. Although we can never guarantee volunteer experiences to be 100% trouble-free, we have taken all necessary precautions to ensure our programs are as safe as possible. Every program that PMGY offers has been personally inspected and selected by a director of PMGY. We have lived in the accommodation, experienced the orientation and worked on the projects. Through our frequent visits and daily communications, we have built strong, trusting relationships with our local staff.

In the unlikely event that something was to happen, volunteers have various layers of support available to them:

• Local Team
• Project Staff
• PMGY International Team

Projects are monitored on an on-going basis to gauge volunteers’ experiences. With the help of volunteer feedback, we are able to continually improve our placements and volunteer opportunities. Security and safety are frequently assessed as part of this. We ask our participants to raise any concerns with our local or International Team. This ensures that these can be addressed and/or resolved as readily and appropriately as possible.

Through pre-departure and in-country guidance, we do our best to prepare our international volunteers for their time abroad. All participants are provided with a comprehensive safety briefing during their orientation period. Our local teams will go through everything from project introductions, to emergency procedures, how to use local transport and cultural differences. During this period, our team also provide participants with a full list of the important contact numbers.

Listed below are some general safety tips:

• Be modest with the amount of jewellery worn in public
• Do not drink tap water
• Be cautious of beggars or crowds. Incidents can occur when is confusion to distract you.
• Be cautious about removing money in public
• Always try to know where you are going before you attempt long journeys. Be especially careful at night
• Use reputable transport only. Our local staff will be able to recommend some during orientation
• Try to keep in groups at night and never walk alone along dark, empty streets
• The recognised tourist areas can be considered potentially high-risk areas for pickpockets and thieves
• Leave your valuables behind before a night out in the town
• For traffic safety, always keep looking to the left and right and walk slowly when crossing the road
• Do not accept drinks or food from strangers

PMGY welcome volunteers of all nationalities and backgrounds onto our intro travel experiences. The minimum age to join the program is 17 years and there is no upper age limit. All volunteers need to have a good level of English, although it does not need to be your first language. You do not need to speak the local language. However, you will find that learning a few words in your days with us in each country will go a long way!

All participants must be able to provide a clean criminal background check in advance of volunteering with us abroad. In general, no formal experience or qualifications are required for the projects, just lots of energy, enthusiasm and preparation! Volunteers on one of our medical or healthcare projects may be required to provide additional documentation before participation begins in-country.

Your 1 USD deposit must be paid within 7 days of the application being successful to confirm your place on one of PMGY’s Intro Travel experiences. Your remaining will be due in full at least 60 days before the program start date.

Please check out our Application Process for more info on how to join our volunteer projects overseas.