Most of the time, Jim Carpenter lives a quiet life as a technical writer for a Des Moines insurance company. But while on vacation, he has traveled to exotic locations to participate in archeological digs through Earthwatch Institute, a Boson-based environmental research and education group.

Kathy Mace Skinner, an attorney in Nevada, enjoys leading groups of volunteers on humanitarian trips to locations as varied as Vietnam, Ecuador, China and Romania to teach and conduct service projects through Global Volunteers. The Minneapolis-based non-profit group coordinates volunteer service-learning expeditions to locations worldwide.

For those with an adventuresome spirit, rewarding volunteer opportunities are available that can provide access to cultural experiences, native peoples and off-the-beaten-path places the average tourist will never experience.

“If you travel without a service component,” Mace Skinner said, “you may have met the people who were serving you in the hotel and the guides, but you won’t have met the real people. It’s the most meaningful cultural experience that you can have. Travel without it seems extremely empty.”

After experiencing her first Global Volunteers expedition to Vietnam 10 years ago, Mace Skinner was invited to become a team leader for the organization. As often as four times a year, she leads groups of volunteers on expeditions, which have included multiple trips to Vietnam and China, as well as trips to Ecuador, India, Tanzania, the Cook Islands, Jamaica, Romania and Poland.

“When I go as a team leader, my room and board and flight are paid for,” she said. However, “it’s very much a working vacation for me. Being a team leader is not an easy task. [The volunteers] come from all over the country, but the one thing they want is travel with a service component to it.”

Seeing people from diverse backgrounds and areas of the country learn to work together as a team is often “magical,” Mace Skinner said.

On one trip to Ireland, for instance, “I had a 19-year old belly dancer from New York and an 80-year old retired social worker from San Francisco. They became very good friends. The intergenerational relationships of these groups are very special.”

Participants in the Global Volunteers trips work under the direction of local project leaders for jobs that may include tutoring children, teaching conversational English or business skills, renovating and painting community buildings, assisting in health care or with natural resources projects and nurturing at-risk children.

Last year, the organization sent more than 150 volunteer teams to 19 countries for short-term human-service and economic development projects.

Joan and Don Mathews, a recently retired Ames couple, have traveled to Jamaica, China and Hawaii through Global Volunteers. On their most recent trip last year to Hawaii, they worked to eradicate non-native guava trees and wild ginger at a youth camp. On an earlier expedition to China, Don, who taught high school in Perry, instructed middle school students in English while Joan, a former county administrator for the Iowa Department of Human Services, helped college students with conversational English skills.

The couple, who have visited Europe, Japan and New Zealand on their own over the years, say they’re interested in traveling next with Global Volunteers to assist at an orphanage in Romania.

Global Volunteers’ one- to three-week programs range in price from $750 to $2,650, excluding transportation to the site. The fee includes all meals as well as lodging and ground transportation in the host community. All costs, including airfare, are tax-deductible for U.S. taxpayers, and a portion of each fee provides ongoing support for Global Volunteer’s programs.

For those who are more attuned to environmental or scientific volunteer work, Earthwatch Institute sponsors more than 130 projects in 49 countries and 18 U.S. states. The research and field work involved cover a broad array of disciplines, from archeology to zoology, though volunteers aren’t required to have any experience, just an interest in doing the work.

“It’s like having a whole other life,” said Carpenter, whose archeological expeditions have included work at the ruins of Roman fortresses in Britain, and Romania.

“You see parts of the country you wouldn’t see as a tourist,” he said. For instance, in Romania, he saw parts of the Danube River delta that no other outside groups get to view, as well as some shut-down collective farms and factories left over from the country’s Communist era.

At each site he has worked at, Carpenter has rubbed shoulders with archeologists from several countries, as well as gotten to meet volunteers from throughout the United States.

“They always seem to be interesting people, because not everybody decides to go on an archeological dig for a vacation,” he said.

Carpenter said he chose Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky for his first Earthwatch trip in part because it was one of the least expensive expeditions, as well as easier to reach than the overseas destinations. He’s looking next toward an archeology trip to the Galapagos Islands. The trips range in price from about $700 to $1,800, not including transportation costs. As with Global Volunteers, a portion of the fees go toward supporting the projects

Regardless of the mission, volunteer travel requires a high degree of flexibility, Mace Skinner said. In other words, “you may not get to do what you thought you were going to do.”

Prospective volunteers should also consider their tolerance for less-than-luxurious accommodations.

“They should evaluate whether they’re the type of person who requires a four- or five-star hotel,” she said. “If so, it’s not for them. But the places we stay are always comfortable. And they should think about what part of the world that they have an interest in. Some of the programs, such as in Romania and Peru, are extremely hands-on with children, and that may not be for everyone. Others are very work-intensive with construction.”

Whatever the type of travel, going as a volunteer will provide an entirely different perspective, Mace Skinner said.

“You know that song ‘Let There Be Peace on Earth’; I often think of that. You really can’t hate the person you just had dinner with. If you really want to build peace, this is an excellent way to do that.”