'Tis the Season for Giving

Always on the lookout for value-oriented travel, Senior Editor Patricia Magaña has trekked throughout the States, Latin America, and Europe. Follow her on Instagram @PatiTravels.

Since joining the editorial crew in 2005, Magaña has pounced on incredible deals to Amsterdam, Madrid, and San Pedro Sula—each for less than $300. Her favorite travel experiences involve discovering street art while meandering a city, chatting up locals, and day drinking.

Her stories have appeared on USA Today, Huffington Post, Yahoo!, TripAdvisor, AirfareWatchdog, and other publications.

Email Patricia at [email protected].

See recent posts by Patricia Magaña

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‘Tis the season for giving! Sunday, December 5 is International Volunteer Day. Here are some ideas of ways you can give while also traveling:

Volunteer Vacations

Instead of donating the contents of your wallet, why not donate your time! Projects Abroad provides spring breakers the opportunity to ditch the resorts for more genuine feel-good alternatives such as home building or sea turtle conservation. Week-long opportunities include trips to Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico, or Morocco from $1,495. This type of vacation isn’t for the faint-hearted, but the heart-warming rewards and memories are priceless.

Click = Cha-Ching for Your Charity

What if you could give money to your charity of choice by performing everyday tasks such as web searches? You can! There are several donation sites out there that donate about a cent, give or take, for every search engine search. One such example is GoodSearch, whose travel section donates up to 5 percent from booking transactions from the likes of JetBlue, CheapCaribbean.com, and Southwest. According to GoodSearch, your selected charity receives 50 percent of the advertisement fee the search engine (in its case, Yahoo!) charges the provider.

Frequent Flyer Miles Donations

Scenario: Your miles are about to expire but you can’t take advantage of them because you have no vacation time left. Don’t let those precious unspent miles go to waste, donate them to a good cause. Though you won’t be able to choose any charity to donate to (your airline has specific organizations), they are all worthy causes. With American Airlines, you can donate your miles to Miles for Kids in Need, for example, which provides transportation to seriously ill children and their families seeking medical attention. American also gives donated miles to Operation Hero Miles, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, among others. You can also earn bonus miles for yourself by donating money.

Your Turn

How do you plan on giving back?

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