Video Review: Career Break Secrets’ Travel Guides

Photography & Video — By Lost Girls on April 26, 2011 at 12:00 pm

By Melissa Bressler
Special to Lost Girls World

Last Christmas, I boarded a plane to India. As I heaved my embarrassingly large new backpack on my shoulder and messaged my entire social network goodbye, I had a few nagging reservations about sacrificing myself to possible malaria when I could be at home with my family and my Christmas tree. Kidding…kind of. I loved India. The four months I spent traveling there were unforgettable. But in the face of language barriers, mosquito terrorism and financial stress, leaving the certainty of home for an unknown adventure demanded its own mental toughness. At times, taking off for a big trip or a brand new world seems unthinkable. But a new video series aims to calm travel qualms. Career Break Secrets’ new Video Travel Guide Series opens up travel possibilities and quiets any inevitable (sorry, it’s true) pre-trip nervousness. With a little hand-holding and a lot of tempting scenery, this new video series will give you confidence and enthusiasm to book your ticket and board your plane.

There’s abundant informational travel guides about volunteering and living abroad all over the internet, so helpful hints are not what sets this series apart. Career Break Secrets’ videos are defined by their interviews with current travelers and the organizations that support them. The true value of this series lies in seeing and hearing from people who’ve already taken that leap and survived it. Jeff Jung, host of the video series and founder of Career Break Secrets, ditched his corporate job for his own career break in 2007. He started in South America to become fluent in Spanish, and traveled for two years through Europe, Turkey and Egypt. He used the knowledge he gained from his experiences to inspire other travelers and workaholics yearning to get away from their desks and out into the world.

Each short video offers examples of possible destinations, interviews with travelers and their chosen institutions, and some nifty “Top Secrets” to ease your stress and convince your stability reflex to take a break for once. Some of the best stories from travelers themselves include a set of business men, construction workers and teachers helping children at an orphanage in South Africa, and a group of mothers constructing the 100 km trek across Spain’s Camino Santiago. The videos make planning a long-term trip seem not only feasible, but necessary. When Noemi, a traveler on the Camino interviewed in the second Spain episode, looks straight at the camera and says, “If I can do it, so can you,” you will believe her.

The series provides information about accommodation, pricing, travel and potential setbacks, but plan to conduct your own research as well to maximize your experience. The series might not be the ideal investment for those looking to work for an extended period of time abroad; it does not, in the current episodes, cover teaching programs and many episodes cater towards those who expect to spend money abroad without the prospect of making much.

Though only six are available now, Career Break Secrets plans to include 18 total episodes in the first season of the Video Guide Series, each one featuring adults from around the world using their distinct, individualized skills to make a difference abroad in South Africa, Spain, New Zealand, Patagonia and Colombia . Check out careerbreaksecrets.com for more information or click here to subscribe to the series, which is sent straight to your computer and can be uploaded onto a mobile device for easy viewing on the road.

Here’s a quick sneak peak teaser for the series to get you started: