One´s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.

– Henry Miller

You´re planning a vacation abroad sometime in the next several months. What are the options?

Option A: Find a nice beach filled with other tourists and lie around sipping umbrella drinks.

Option B: Settle for a packaged tour to an exciting country and let your guides do all the talking.

Option Z: Explore a culture firsthand and, with charitable donations you’ve helped raise, complete a meaningful volunteer project that benefits people in need.

Roadmonkey is all about leading you to Option Z.

Our expeditions are carefully planned to provide you with not only a first-rate geographic adventure but also the chance to put your creativity and expertise to work on a volunteer project designed in cooperation with our non-profit partners. This is where Roadmonkey’s “adventure philanthropy” mission proves itself: in the months and weeks prior to departure, we ask expedition members to raise $500 to $1,000 each in tax-deductible contributions through their own social networks. Those donations fund the volunteer project we start and finish as a team, together, to help local people and communities in need.

Roadmonkey believes in the beauty of “planned serendipity” - the notion of allowing small doses of the unexpected. We are geographic and cultural explorers, not tour operators. Other travel companies may offer set itineraries scheduled to the minute. Our expeditions seek to venture off the tourist path as often as possible. That, after all, is what makes this an adventure. At Roadmonkey, we believe in the art of the experience, and in the value of learning how other lives are lived far from ours, as personally as possible.

ABC News asks Roadmonkey, “What is Adventure Philanthropy?”