Greece

I have been working on the Greece turtle project for 3 weeks now and I am not looking forward to going home. When I arrived in Greece I was greeted at the airport and made to feel welcome in camp straight away. Started work straight away and have loved every minute of it. The early mornings are certainly worth it. Taking part in morning surveys protecting nests, and night surveys tagging nesting turtles, has been a rewarding and enjoyable experience and I would definitely recommend the Greece turtle conservation project. I would also advise a visit to the rescue centre as for me this was a very worthwhile experience.

Arriving in Greece I was met by a smiley face and easy taxi journey to camp, the first few days where exciting, as I expected meeting lots of new and interesting people, getting a good night sleep on the first night would help anyone as the first few early mornings take a toll on energy levels, bringing a hammock for afternoon naps is also an essential. As a whole, iv seen and been involved in lots of exciting turtle work and am glad I signed up to join in, it’s been a decent few weeks!!

Choosing to volunteer abroad was one of the best choices that I have made this year, especially when having chosen to come to the turtle conservation in Greece through Frontier.
My initial thoughts about camping and the project itself was not the most confident ones, but after the first day at the camp site, learning exactly what we have to do and what the project is all about I was impressed and instantly loved it. To make things better was that the monitors and volunteers who were there at the time were just great, friendly, respectful and most of all, welcoming.
Having to wake up early at first was an issue and one part of the job I did not enjoy the most, but you eventually get used to it, especially when knowing there is a chance of seeing hatchlings and learn more about the turtles and what the aim of this project is.

The fact that the camp site is from from a town is both a positive and negative but is quickly forgotten due to the fact that being out here working or enjoying a day off is paradise and I enjoyed ever moment of it.

Through a funny term of events, I booked a trip to Greece to volunteer with turtles in Mavrovouni, 4 hours south of Athens. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I've made!
Every day something new and unexpected happened, the location was absolutely picturesque, and the people were unforgettable. It was unquestionably one of the hardest and best trips I have been on. Each morning we would go for morning expeditions, where we walked up and down local beaches looking for evidence of nests, hatchlings and any other turtle tracks. The two weeks were spent walking along beaches, building nests, excavating nests, watching hatchlings scurry to the ocean, helping educate locals about how to treat and look after turtles, and relaxing on the beach, enjoying the amazing people's company.
It was personally one of the most self-satisfying experiences of my life - words cannot express the feeling you get from knowing the work you did made an impact on what could be hundreds of animal's lives. It changed my perspective on life, and led me to the decision to start studying towards one day working in the eco-tourism industry. My 2 weeks in Greece literally changed my life! I would recommend it to anyone who wants to experience happiness and personal satisfaction.

My experience with GVI was unforgettable. It was worth every penny. The project leaders were amazing, as well as the other volunteers. The site we stayed at was beautiful and the staff there was so friendly. It was a wonderful learning experience and I would definitely recommend it to ANYONE! I absolutely loved it!

wow....what a great experience! what's not to love about it?
I have just returned from 2 weeks on the Turtles programme in Gythio, Greece and happily say it is one of the best experiences I have ever had in terms of holiday, work, fun, rest and understanding more about myself and what I want from life.
Given that I am 46 and was wondering what else there is out there in life, it was a great learning for me. The success is also contributable to the wonderful leaders on the project who were committed to the work, the long term importance of marine conservation and the simple enjoyment of the project.
Strangely, I was never expecting to even see a turtle while I was there as I thought their activities were mostly nocturnal. So the delight I and the other volunteers had when we, for the first time, saw hatchlings make their long arduous journey to the sea was incredible. Not a dry eye in the house. It seems weird to write that now, but there were many tears and lots of cheers!!
GVI have shown themselves to be a very professional, well organised company. We were lucky to meet two employees on our project (Paul and Stephanie) who were there from Exeter and Boston respectively. Glad we met you!!
In my opinion it is also a huge benefit to people (like myself) who work full time with limited holiday, but want to get involved in overseas volunteering, that they can participate in projects like these for 2 weeks. I think it also benefits the programme enabling a more diverse group.
It was such a rewarding experience, one that touched me quite profoundly.

Time of my life.... i would highly reccomend stayin at the VP Hostel... even tho they are not as nice.. I met some of the coolest people there and made some great memories.. Definately reccomend to do a study abroad with GLS>

I thought that everyone who worked for GLS was extremely helpful! I always had questions answered very promptly, which was wonderful. The challenge for me was not the program itself, but more so the students in the program and the housing situation. In the end the enforcement of rules that was done was better, but in general I felt as if most people were there to party and not to learn academically or culturally. I know that we are supposed to be old enough to take care of ourselves and practice responsibility, but many on my trip were not and I think should possibly even have been sent home. I think it would be very helpful to do some kind of roommate questionnaire so that say the people who would rather go to be at a reasonable time and sleep through the night can live somewhere and the people who want to get drunk every night can live somewhere else. I also think it would have been helpful to know the financial situation that we were coming into such as the outrageously high exchange rate! I know I could have checked this out on my own, but it would have been helpful if it were prompted.

I recommend this program, but with some reservations. I chose it because it was the only program I could find that visited both Greece and Italy (two places I really wanted to go), and because the prospect of spending most of my time in Cyprus, which I knew very little about, was exciting. For the relatively small amount of money you pay for this program, it really is a great value. We traveled as a group to Rome, Athens, Ephesus, Mykonos, Crete, Santorini, and Patmos. Our apartments in Cyprus and our hotels abroad were very nice, and group travel was pretty well organized. My main caveats concern the classes and communication. I was hoping for a bit more of an academic challenge than I received, and I felt like most of the time my professors didn't really want to be teaching these classes. My program was Early Christianity, and the website made it look like the whole summer would be organized around that theme. However, apart from my Religious Thought class, the program was not at all centered around Early Christianity. Instead, you are grouped together with all of the other Summer in the Mediterranean programs, and this makes it quite difficult to focus on your area of study. The advisors for the program are great, but whenever they took us on excursions throughout Cyprus, they pretty much dropped us off, told us to do whatever we wanted and to call if there was an emergency. If you are fine with planning your own time, this is all well and good. I was expecting a detailed itinerary for each city based on my Early Christianity program. All this being said, I am happy that I did the program. It needs improvement, but I loved my roommates and advisors, and I gained so much experience about how to be on my own when abroad.

The classes, especially the "studio" art classes, are a freaking joke. I chose the summer in the med. art and photography program, and regret ever paying them tuition. photo supplies are insanely expensive.. i would not recommend this program to people who actually want to learn stuff from their classes. there are many experiences to enjoy and other things to learn, but the acidemics in this program suuuck.
the weekend trips are deffinately the best part (if you're a beach person.. or just like to drink), but be prepared to be horded around like sheep. shoving 90+ people around 3+ different countries takes up a lot of time.
if you just want to travel... hop on a group tour. its basically the same thing, but maybe cheaper.