Turtle conservation vacations

Sea turtles can be found across the world in all oceans outside of polar regions, swimming everywhere from the Mediterranean to the Pacific Ocean. Our sea turtle conservation vacations focus on areas with well established projects and countries with good environmental records. In Greece, consider Kefalonia, whose beaches receive thousands of loggerhead turtles every year who come to feed and breed. Across the Atlantic, head to Belize and an island on the Belize Barrier Reef – the 300km reef that’s part of the second largest coral system in the world after Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Unsurprisingly, it’s a haven for green, hawksbill and loggerhead turtles. Or consider Costa Rica, where you can volunteer with the Reserva Playa Tortuga – based on a 4km-long beach found in the southern part of the Pacific coast. Finally, why not consider wildlife central: the Galapagos Islands? Sea turtles gather around these islands, which are rich in marine life thanks to the unique set of ocean currents bringing cool, nutrient-rich waters to the archipelago.

Turtle conservation projects work brilliantly for families because the tasks involved can be done even by quite young children – those aged eight and above (five and up on our Costa Rica vacations). Projects can last one or two weeks– and the turtle hatching calendar fits well into your summer vacation or autumn half term. For example, you can spend a busy summer vacation in Greece protecting baby turtles during peak tourist season: they start hatching from late July. Expect to be put to work patrolling the beach, measuring turtles, marking nests and gathering eggs – and enjoying some of the nicest beachside settings in the world whilst you’re at it.

As with all our trips involving wildlife, we have looked into animal welfare when it comes to our turtle trips and screened each vacation to make sure that it minimises harm to nature and communities. There are certain activities that we don’t support when it comes to turtles. Firstly, we think turtle hatcheries – using artificial nests, or the practice of keeping turtle hatchlings in tanks – are problematic and should only be used by conservation projects as a last resort. Similarly, we don’t support captive breeding and advise that you steer clear of turtle farms. We don’t encourage travelers to stay in hotels close to turtle nesting sights, where their activity will disrupt the animals, and we use partners who exert minimum distances, and have other codes of conduct surrounding aquatic animal interactions. And we always encourage prospective travelers to interrogate the projects they are thinking of supporting, so go ahead, ask those difficult questions before you go, we want to hear them!