Good Reasons to Travel

TravelWorks UK » Why TravelWorks? » Good Reasons

...because we are there for you!

Asking yourself whether to travel with TravelWorks or on your own? Just weigh up the advantages and disadvantages and you might find some pretty good reasons to become a TravelWorker:

Advantages

1. No journey into the unknown – more safety
   Before you depart, you will already know where you will be staying for the first few nights. With the exception of the Australian and the New Zealand programmes, you will already have detailed information on your work or project placements before you depart. When you arrive in your host country, in almost all the programmes you will be collected from the airport / railway station and brought to your host family or accommodation. In short – we offer safety.
   
   
2. Even if you travel alone, you won’t remain alone
   For all programmes in which several TravelWorkers are participating at the same time, you will receive a traveller’s list several weeks before departure. This way, you can contact and get to know each other before departure. For all destinations outside of Europe, there is also a TravelWorkerOnTour Forum. You can remain in contact with other TravelWorkers during your stay abroad via our website – this is a highly popular service, especially for all those travelling to Australia and New Zealand.
   
   
3. We help if you have difficulties in foreign countries
   Things always seem to happen when you least expect them to - whether a lost passport, sickness or problems with traders, authorities and employers. In such situations you need a responsible and reliable person who knows how to deal with problems in these conditions and in each cultural region. Together with our local partners, we provide you with support in such situations as quickly as we can.
   
   Two examples from over the last years:
   
   Karina R. from Rödermark was sent to hospital in Guatemala in an isolated jungle hospital. The illness was hard to diagnose and Karina was unconscious. Her parents couldn’t speak Spanish and needed help. A Spanish-speaking TravelWorks employee rang the hospital, found out the initial facts and informed the parents, advising them on subsequent procedures. An employee from our partner organisation visited Karina in hospital and helped to organise the insurance and the return transport to Germany with her parents, who had travelled to Guatemala.
   
   Together with two friends, Kathrin H. from Bad Waldsee bought a car in Australia. When the car turned out to have problems and required repair, the car dealer refused to bear the costs to the sum of several thousand dollars, even though this should have been covered under the guarantee. Due to the repair costs which she had to pay, Kathrin had no more money to pay in advance for an urgent visit to the doctor. A money transfer via her parents would have taken too long. TravelWorks provided the money within a few hours via the local partner organisation so that Kathrin could go to the doctor. Our partner also helped the girls in negotiating with the car dealer, so that they agreed to buy the car back at a good price, replacing most of the repair costs.
   
   
4. We support and inform you during crises which may affect your trip
   Volcano eruptions, Bali bombings or SARS – if the region in which you are travelling is affected by a crisis, we quickly forward necessary and helpful information, which we look into immediately and receive from our local partners. We inform travellers on location on what to do and of re-booking possibilities; and help with general and individual questions by e-mail or telephone.
   
   
5. We help you to save time and worry
   By organising many formalities, enquiries, negotiations, information, documents and money transfers for you, we save you from wasting time and having to deal with very nerve-racking steps during your adventure.
   
   Just consider what it would cost you in terms of time and nerves if you had to put together a programme similar to our Latin America programme: you would have to, among other things:
   
   
   • Find a project which requires help and is trustworthy – most projects do not have a website (our partners on location choose the projects carefully, meaning that we can offer you around 20 facilities for selection).
   • Find a recognised language school which has qualified personnel and also definitely offers language courses at different capability standards.
   • Make an appointment and hope that this is kept once you arrive (we make beginning the programme possible for you almost every Monday in the year, and organise the airport transfer).
   • Enquire about Visa formalities (information on this and on many other necessary preparations and formalities is contained in our manual).
   • Look for accommodation – do you know in which part of Quito it is advisable to live? (We place you in selected families regularly inspected by our language schools, in safe residential areas).
   • Calculate the exchange rates and carry out money transfers abroad.
   • Sort out research and communication, mainly in Spanish.
   
   Once you’ve arrived abroad, the story continues:
   If you have to apply for a Visa for Australia, New Zealand or Ghana, or extend a passport in Guatemala or Peru, we will help you. An employer in Australia refuses to pay wages – our partner on location acts on your behalf. You want to buy a car in New Zealand, but you don’t know what you have to observe in this particular country – our partner informs you. You have to apply for a tax number in Australia – our partner gives you all the necessary forms and helps you to fill them in.
   
   
6. Recognised partner organisations; selected projects and host families
   You don’t just sleep anywhere or at someone’s house. Host families and aid projects to which our participants are allocated are carefully selected by our partners. And should something not work out, the partner organisation reacts immediately or organises a new placement if you report problems.
   
   
7. Your journey is subject to German law
   If something goes wrong, we as organisers have to guarantee your damage costs according to German law. You don’t have to apply for damages e.g. in Ecuador.
   
   
8. Family and friends have a fixed contact address for you in foreign countries
   Your grandparents want to send you a package for Christmas, your mother wants to send you the vaccination passport you forgot, you friend has burned an Easter CD for you – you can have all these treasures sent to you, even if you are abroad, for example on your grand tour of Australia or Central America, have no fixed abode and therefore no postal address.
   
   
9. You are not subject to travel price alterations due to exchange rate fluctuations
   We fix our travel prices once a year when we print our catalogues. This means that any exchange rate fluctuations do not concern you; but we as organisers bear them instead.

Disadvantages

It is true that travelling via TravelWorks is possibly slightly more expensive than if you travel alone.

But why is it more expensive?
Because we, for example:

• Employ 20 experienced TravelWorks employees who themselves have had a lot of experience in foreign countries, are good at foreign languages and can look after you in the best possible manner.
• Write, design and print a comprehensive catalogue plus information books.
• Maintain a website which is as informative and inviting as possible – the one you’re looking at right now!
• Run an office with computers, telephones etc., on the outskirts of Münster.
• Try to inform our customers locally via info days and trade fair presentations; even those living further away from us.
• Buy from our partners in less developed countries at fair prices.
• Almost always give an apprentice the opportunity of gathering career experience in the field of tourism here in our Münster office, for which they receive payment.
• Pay for the postage of the letters for your travel documentation.
• Have to pay VAT.