Everyone deserves the chance to travel. Yet, all too often, seeing the world is a privilege reserved for the global elite. At Elevate Destinations, we bridge the divide. Our goal is to connect local youths to their own environments, as travelers and as stewards.
Through our innovative Buy a Trip, Give a Trip model, your trip purchase creates fun new travel opportunities for local kids. For the first time, they experience nearby natural and cultural wonders. They see the sites, have fun, and make the kind of travel memories that we take for granted. Here’s just one example of Buy a Trip, Give a Trip in action:
The Travelers:
12 children from Lifting Hands, a nonprofit organization in San Jose, Costa Rica that works to revitalize impoverished communities by promoting youth education and adult employability through fun and motivation classroom and workshop opportunities.
The Excursion:
The youths from Lifting Hands spent the day at the Rainforest Adventures Park, an ecotourism operation located near Jaco that helps visitors build environmental consciousness and conservation awareness through exhilarating excursions in the rainforest.
In the morning, they set off from their home town of San Jose, accompanied by an expert naturalist and guide from our partners at Unique Adventures Costa Rica! Upon arrival, they soared through the jungle canopy on the Adventure Park’s aerial tram, they visited the butterfly garden and serpentarium, learning about nature and sustainability as they went.
On the way home, they stopped in at a beach to get involved in a recycling project, collecting trash from the coastline and learning how to sort and categorize recycled matter.
Partner Organization: Lifting Hands
Lifting Hands is a Global Giving Vetted Organization (2015) and member of Youth Action Net. Based in the Costa Rican capital of San Jose, Lifting Hands works with international volunteers to create a positive space and a second home your children and adults alike who want to excel both personally, academically, and professionally.
The foundation’s guiding values are love and hope, respect, commitment, empathy, solidarity, and motivation and the organizational mission is to address key points on impoverished communities: low academic performance in youths, adults who lack employability, and few recreational opportunities.
This trip was made possible by the organization and facilitation of our friends and partners at Unique Adventures Costa Rica.
