GVI Avis 

This was my third volunteering project with GVI - Seychelles, Costa Rica and this time Madagascar! Another incredible experience, with wildlife right on your doorstep (literally) and the beautiful island of Nosy Be. The locals on base were fantastic and it was amazing to feel like even a small part of the community and culture. Would love to go back!

I had the most amazing experience with GVI on base in Limpopo - South Africa. I was there as a volunteer for 6 weeks and I learnt so much from the most amazing, welcoming and knowledgeable GVI staff. The base was absolutely stunning and I managed to see everything I’d ever imagined in my wildest dreams. I couldn’t recommend this program with GVI enough. Next on my list is Madagascar.

Teaching English to the Khmer people with GVI Cambodia was an incredible experience. I absolutely fell in love with the people and culture.

I travelled to Tenerife with GVI to carry out marine conservation work for a month. I had an amazing time, and loved working with and being so close to the dolphins, whales and other marine life. Thank you!

I had an incredible experience with GVI Mexico. The team here is outstanding — from day one, they train you with so much care, patience, and precision. I arrived with zero diving experience, and in just two months I left feeling like a truly confident diver, even exploring narrow cenote passages by the end of my program.

The reef is spectacular and full of life, and being able to see firsthand how much our oceans need protection deeply impacted me. The program focuses not just on diving, but on understanding marine life and being part of conservation in a meaningful way. We learned about different species, ethical diving practices, how to conduct surveys, and how to collect valuable data that contributes to real research.

What makes this program truly special is the staff — they make you feel like part of a family. They take care of you, support you, and ensure you grow personally as well as technically. I would recommend GVI Mexico to anyone considering marine conservation. It’s an unforgettable, transformative journey.

DO NOT SEND YOUR CHILDREN ON ANY GVI COURSES.
Total lack of communication.
People are left to their own devices with the bare minimum of activities. Pointless waste of money as you could do so much more and better just doing it yourself.
Dreadful dreadful organistion.

If I could give no stars I would. Avoid this company at all costs. After mis-selling a trip to my daughter (18) and taking an extra £205 deposit over the amount stated, I have had to fight for over a year to get this amount back. Numerous phone calls and emails were ignored. It seems once they have your money they disappear. The advisor we first spoke to (after trying to call numerous times) had little knowledge of the trip my daughter was interested in and just wanted her to sign up and pay the money. Please look for another company who will deliver what they offer and offer more support.

GVI Ghana was amazing!

Base was like home from home after the initial settling in, staff was friendly, professional and always ready to help. Based in Kokrobite, they told everything we needed to know safety, food, culture, how to be respectful and where we could and couldnt go.

Clean and safe base with running water (cold) and full kitchen for use. Plenty of storage for personal items, we where took to the mall once a week to buy anything we needed.

The dianamics between staff and intern/volunteers where relaxed and friendly which meant there was no staff/boss nerves when it came to projects. This also meant staff where always open to editing and switching projects around to see if trying something different would work better.

Trips on our weekends where fun and well planned by Faye who was amazing. She did everything from booking the stay and organising travel we just had to pay her our share.

Everything from start to finish was excellent, they helped me with anything I needed. Including accommodated my disabilities and let me work at my own pace. I loved Ghana and would go back.

The GVI project in Tenerife is much more than a marine and terrestrial conservation initiative. After months of participation, my daughter Angelica (Angie to her friends) returned home enthusiastic and enriched with strong new values. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to GVI, and especially to Ale, the Project Manager who leads the project. She oversees all activities with passion, great expertise, and professionalism, teaching volunteers respect for nature and the environment. She is wonderfully supported by Pierre and Matti, who work tirelessly alongside her every day. On behalf of Angie, and myself as well, a heartfelt thank you for what you do and how you do it.
Happy Christmas to all of you.

Just to write a quick review

My program, Journeys in Cambodia, was a good place to start as I had no prior volunteering experience. I felt assured when I arrived of what I would be doing. It was easy to get on with the staff and other volunteers. I feel I have made an impact in the local community and have played a part in improving their education.

I truly feel like all expectations were met. The exact idea and aspirations I had for the experience were aligned and I enjoyed my time so much. Diving, making long-lasting friendships, and learning so much.

I had an amazing time in Mexico with GVI! I was nervous to meet everyone, but was overwhelmed with how welcoming the staff and participants were. Even though we had to move base/accommodations unexpectedly half way through, Miguel and the team at Scuba Kraken (Ursula & Alan) were incredibly helpful and handled it really well- making it a memorable experience :) I'm definitely going to miss it and would love to return again!

I was an intern in Dawasamu, Fiji for marine conservation for 6 weeks. Overall, I'm grateful I had this experience, I met amazing people and the staff were great (particularly Mark, Jim, and the Fijians, Ilaisa, Tai, Cama, Balu, Waise, Mary, etc). The diving is good, the surveys are fun.. But there is a LOT of false advertising. One of the programs in Dawasamu is Shark, Turtle, Dolphin conservation, and they do a lot of advertising on the marine megafauna and beautiful sharks they have there, but in reality, it is relatively rare to see sharks (or they're all juvenile), and I only saw one turtle the entire 6 weeks I was there. Additionally, the PADI Marine Megafauna Certification that they say you will receive on their website, you will not get. The guy who gives the certification has not worked there for 5 years, but I didn't know this until I actually got to base and was told by one of the staff. If you're expecting to go there and see crazy megafauna, unfortunately you probably will not, or very rarely.

The accommodation is also very basic, which I expected, but they seemed to not care much about certain issues, especially the fact that we had a bed bug infestation. They bought the natural bed bug spray but it did not work, I had to sleep with bed bugs basically for my entire 6 weeks and just "accept" the fact that they were there. The program seems quite unorganized as well, when one of the main marine team staff went away for 10 days, the program kind of fell apart. A lot of the time I felt bored, especially because I couldn't dive after getting an ear infection, and I felt unsafe because there were bed bugs both in my bed as well as the common area.

The wifi is bad but still works most of the time, when nobody is on base it works better. Down at the beach you get pretty much full bars of service though (~5-7 min walk).

Overall, I was disappointed in the program, I felt like I didn't get what I wanted to get, never really felt safe in my own space because of the living conditions, no privacy at all, but I met amazing people and made great memories.

I was greatly disappointed with the misleading and inaccurate advertisement of this program given to me by GVI.
‘Volunteer with Turtles in Greece’ is not an appropriate title and whilst I greatly appreciate the conservation work being done here the programme does not match with what I was lead to think I was paying for.
This same project is also sold to volunteers by a organisation called ‘The Mighty Roar’ who accurately described the program and charged hundreds of pounds less.
The fee was supposed to cover suitable accommodation and ‘fresh Mediterranean produce’. We were given processed ready meals in plastic tubs and all the air con machines were “broken” meaning no respite from the heat or mosquitoes.

My experience of GVI is that they purposely mislead participants into paying for program that is in no way delivered as advertised.

I recommend seeking out a more honest volunteer program provider.

GVI’s customer service team will dismiss you as soon as you have paid in full so any issues upon arrival will be dismissed.

I would think very carefully about using GVI. They are a worldwide money grabbing company. Don’t send your young people away with them. Poor Support, they don’t pay the NGOs on time and they do have real Safeguarding Issues. Nobody to get in touch with out of hours and a faceless organisation when you need to speak to someone urgently. You have been warned!!

Run by scammers avoid at all cost. I spoke to one of the course reps for the Seychelles internship who sold to me the perfect experience in order for me to put down a deposit. After I had, I arranged a call with another rep the following week who told me multiple things I had been told were not true and hadn't even heard of some of them. Things including the price of the course, a career guarantee and equipment provided were all mis-sold to me. Naturally, I tried to cancel the course straight away through the 'Escalation Form' (the only means for a refund) which details you will receive a reply within two working days. I submitted this form around 3 weeks ago, no reply, no help from seemingly the only person who works for them when you call the help number. The company is completely disorganised and more concerned with securing deposits from people trying to make a positive change in the world than actually making a difference for young professionals. I would hate to see anyone else go through what I have, please consider other options for your own sake.
UPDATE 31/12/25 - Please don't take the response from GVI to this review as them actually wanting to resolve the issue. I filled out the form they referenced the day they replied (3 weeks ago) and still have had no response.

Als stagiair wordt je in Tenerife redelijk uitgedaagd. Ik had een 'advanced' stage van 12 weken, wat betekent dat je 3 toetsen en 3 presentaties hebt. Voordat je in het land komt, ben je vereist om minstens de pre-departure cursus af te ronden, die je voorbereid op het veldwerk. Verder zijn er nog 3 andere cursussen die inbegrepen zijn met de prijs. Van tevoren ben ik erg geholpen door de support coördinator Nurah. In het land zelf doe je veel veldwerk op de boot, in het park en langs de kant van de haven omtrent de impact van toerisme. Als stagiaire heb je vaak de taak om deze data in te voeren in zowel de citizen-science databasis als GVI's eigen dataverzameling. Al met al krijg je wat ervaring over dataverzameling en het invoeren ervan, echter zal je zelf vrij weinig met de data te maken hebben. Gelukkig kan je ervoor kiezen om je persoonlijke stageopdracht omtrent deze data te laten gaan, zodat je ook echt met de verzamelde data kan werken. Je kan dit in overleg met de stagebegeleider doen.

Ik zou dit bedrijf zeker aanraden als je een tussenjaar hebt en/of een vrijwilliger bent. Als stagiair is dit ook wel passend, maar misschien korter: voor een maand. De werkzaamheden zijn vrijwel elke week hetzelfde en op een gegeven moment werd ik daarin niet meer uitgedaagd. Mocht je een grote stageopdracht willen voltooien met veel onderzoek en analyse, dan zou ik er wat langer blijven. Het enige nadeel is dat geen werkplek aanwezig is op de basis: je werkt voornamelijk in de accommodatie waar je verblijft en soms is het erg rumoerig.

Het enige wat ik heb op te merken aan het bedrijf, zijn alle geldzaken. Ik raad het niet aan als je alles op eigen houtje moet betalen, want dat is erg prijzig. Ik had zelf gehoopt door de Erasmusbeurs gedekt te worden, maar deze weigerde dat te doen aangezien GVI geen kantoor heeft in het land waar je stage loopt. Een beurs of vergoeding is aan te raden. Daarnaast is het overmaken van geld via IBAN vrij lastig: het account wat ze hiervoor open hebben staan, blijkt elke keer ongeldig. Daarnaast duren sommige terugbetalingen erg lang, soms wel een aantal maanden. Ook zou ik goed kijken als je een online stage boekt: op de website staat niet heel duidelijk beschreven wat je nou daadwerkelijk boekt, waardoor ik per ongeluk twee opdrachten heb gekregen.

In June of this year, I spent 6 weeks out in Kekoldi, Costa Rica. Like all, I was hesitant to fly so far away from home and spend a month and a half in the jungle. When I arrived on base at Kekoldi, this quickly changed. My time in Costa Rica was truly life-changing; not only did it provide me with a great deal of confidence, but it also reignited my passion for conservation science. The staff out there are so kind and knowledgeable, and you learn so much from them. Like many, I had a fear of snakes before visiting, but because of how the staff talked about them, you couldn't help but love them too. The rest of the volunteers and interns out there were also so passionate and kind; it truly was like a second family. I learnt so much and helped out in multiple of their projects. If I could, I'd return in a heartbeat. There is truly no other place like this in the world. I can't recommend it enough.

This was my second time with GVI Chiang Mai and it never disappoints. It's lovely to see the development of the village and fully immerse yourself into the Karen culture/community. By staying at a homestay you get to try and practice the pakkinya you learn in the afternoons at base which they really appreciate. There are crafts such as bamboo basket and weaving as well as learning a skill with the mahoots. No matter what you sign up for you have the opportunity to do other things such as gibbon hikes or teaching English in the school or nursery. If you want to go on hikes to see elephants ethically, get to live life a different way of life and meet others who share the same views, then you may love Gvi Chiang Mai as much as me.