Globe Aware wishes our volunteers a safe and happy Halloween, whether you choose to stay home or travel. Make sure to follow these safety tips in order to enjoy the holiday weekend.

Is It Safe to Trick-or-Treat During the COVID-19 Pandemic? Experts Share Halloween Health Safety Tips

CDC health officials have ranked different holiday traditions by risk — and we asked a virologist and a researcher weigh in.

BY ZEE KRSTIC
Good Housekeeping
Oct 28, 2020

While the novel coronavirus pandemic has interrupted many of our favorite holiday traditions, it seems many families are dead-set on celebrating Halloween during quarantine. A recent Harris Poll survey suggests that more than 70% of millennial moms are planning to make “the most” of Halloween with their families, with 80% of all surveyed saying that heading out to trick-or-treat is at the top of their list of things to do on Halloween.

Traveling is fine if you’re willing to be cautious, follow the rules and adapt easily to changes of plan. If you do choose to travel, Globe Aware is taking these precautions, such as wearing a mask and practicing social distancing and good hand hygiene.

Is it safe to travel for the holidays this year?

Marnie Hunter
CNN
October 20 2020

(CNN) — The end of the year is sneaking up, and people are weighing travel plans to join friends and family for the holidays — all against the backdrop of a surge of the deadly pandemic.

Gathering with others — probably the most universal holiday tradition — has never required so much meticulous forethought.

Should you travel for the holidays in 2020? What precautions will make it safer? Who will be there and how careful have they been?

Meet Kimberly Haley-Coleman | Founder & CEO Globe Aware

October 21, 2020
Shoutout DFW

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kimberly Haley-Coleman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kimberly, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
When stuck abroad on business over weekends, I sought meaningful, organized short-term volunteer experiences, and just couldn’t’ find any. When I started pulling together my own, I found so many others wanted to do these alongside me, that there was clearly a demand for these programs. Doing good is quite naturally one of the best ways to feel good.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Before Globe Aware, there were no organizations that offered short-term organized experiences abroad that were a good fit for most working North Americans. Most were geared toward high school and college students with weeks or a whole summer to burn, and were fairly unstructured, with the thought that you would eventually find out how to use your own time. Our culture is focused on productivity and making the most with the small amount of free time most of us have. This is at odds with the perspective in many cultures, especially those cultures that have less material resources. Therefore the big challenge was to find a way to tailor such experiences that would be provide a meaningful, productive opportunity to give back but would also NOT infringe on the local/receiving culture/way of life. Our staff coordinators in each country are the key to finding this balance. Additionally, the lions’ share of our peers in this industry will not used donated funds toward materials in the thought that it creates local dependency. We do not agree. Funds can be spent in a way that enable capacity rather than create dependency. As an example when we assemble and donate wheelchairs to landmine victims in Cambodia, they are given mobility in a way that allows them to support themselves. That is the magic win-win we week.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Hands down, the Dallas Arboretum is my favorite place to take locals. It is such a glorious spot, every day of the year. I love that you can bring a picnic and your own wine and on certain “cool Tuesdays and Thursdays” listen to music and watch the sunset over downtown in the distance. For a meal, I also love taking out of towners to Pecan Lodge for the best bacon infused, sinful macaroni and cheese ever, and that ridiculously amazing brisket!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I am so grateful my tribe supported me, from my family to my friends, neighbors, and past colleagues. So many people stepped forward to help publicize my organization, I certainly would not have succeeded without them. I was shocked that we got so much media coverage. I remember early on when the NBC Today show did a story on us, without our knowledge. It really made me think that when you do something the world needs or wants, they then the world will enable you.

Finally. Travelers are preparing to pack their bags and take to the air, road and sea again, according to travel advisors who said bookings are gaining momentum for 2021 and beyond.

Interest in 2021 Travel Is on the Rise

CLAUDETTE COVEY
TRAVEL AGENT
OCTOBER 18, 2020

Finally. Travelers are preparing to pack their bags and take to the air, road and sea again, according to anecdotal reports from travel advisors, who said bookings are gaining momentum for 2021 and beyond.

“Interest for 2021 travel began to rise in the past few weeks for myself and for my colleagues,” said Becky Lukovic of Bella Travel Planning, a Travel Experts affiliate. “The requests are still pretty all over the place: Hawaii, Caribbean, Colorado, Italy and Greece. A number [of clients] have started actually booking their plans with refundable arrangements or cancel for any reason insurance.”

Starting on November 1, all U.S. travelers will be welcome to Costa Rica. Globe Aware volunteers from all 50 states will be able to participate in any of three programs in Costa Rica, with proper safety guidelines and precautions taken.

Costa Rica Opens to All U.S. Travelers

Starting November 1, any American who presents a negative COVID-19 test can travel to Costa Rica.

By Michelle Baran
Oct 7, 2020

On September 1, Costa Rica began allowing international travelers from the United States to fly into the country as long as they were residents of one of the following eight states: Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Vermont, or Virginia, plus the District of Columbia. Starting September 15, travelers from Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wyoming were able to join them. As of October 1, Californians could head to Costa Rica, too. And on October 15, residents of Florida, Georgia, and Texas get the green light.

But starting on November 1, all U.S. travelers will be welcome.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand has a giveaway that will send five deserving essential workers and one guest on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Thailand. We encourage Globe Aware volunteers and alumni who are amazing essential workers to participate in this giveaway!

Thailand to Award Vacations to Essential Workers Amid COVID-19

DESTINATION & TOURISM
LAURIE BARATTI
OCTOBER 11, 2020

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has partnered with U.S. digital media company Matador Network on a giveaway contest that will send five deserving essential workers and one guest on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Thailand.

It’s part of TAT’s ongoing ‘Thailand Gives Back to Heroes’ project, an initiative aimed at returning the kindness of those who have risked their own well-being to work on the COVID-19 pandemic’s frontlines.

Flying has given travelers around the world great personal and professional travel opportunities, therefore the emphasis has got to be on solving the emissions and the carbon problems. The introduction of hydrogen airplanes and the extent of its environmental benefit could be a game changer. Globe Aware believes in green travel and looks forward to their arrival.

Why this space age airplane could change flying forever

(CNN) — It looks like a spaceship, runs on fuel that up until a few years ago experts were calling “crazy,” and has barely left the drawing board, but in the eyes of one of the world’s leading aircraft manufacturers, it’s undoubtedly the future.

Not even the distant future. Airbus hopes we’ll be soaring into the skies on one of its radical new designs in just 15 years, leaving the days of jet engine pollution and flight-shaming far behind us.

A global pandemic might not seem like the most ideal time to go on vacation, but solo female travel is on the rise for 2021. The increase is in large part due to the hearty appetite of Americans aged 50-plus for traveling solo and Globe Aware provides the ideal volunteer vacations for solo women travelers. 

50 Best Trips For Solo Female Travel (And Why Now Is The Time To Go)

Laura Begley Bloom
Senior Contributor
ForbesWomen

A global pandemic might not seem like the most ideal time to go on vacation, but solo female travel is on the rise. Witness the explosion in interest that Overseas Adventure Travel has seen: More than 24,000 single travelers have booked trips for 2021, with women-only departures growing in popularity. According to the company, the increase is in large part due to the hearty appetite of Americans aged 50-plus for traveling solo, especially women. “We see solo women, in particular, with a passion to meet and bond with the local people. It’s life-changing,” says CEO and president Brian Fitzgerald.