By Will Harper, Program Advisor

With a large number of volunteers scheduled to travel abroad this summer to the far reaches of the globe, the Consumerist blog has an important cautionary tale I would recommend to anyone who has not yet purchased their plane tickets for their summer adventures to read.

As the blog post details, several students from University of California San Diego were scheduled to go to Ghana with another volunteer organization and they bought their tickets to Ghana for a “bargain” through lastminutefares.net which turned out to be a front for a scammer.

With airfares reaching historic highs to places like Ghana, Nepal and India, everyone is in search of a bargain but the moral of the story is, like so much in life, if it seems to be to good to be true it probably is. My advice is to make sure you go through a trusted internet site/broker or travel agent, buy directly from the airline or book your flights with the Projects Abroad Travel Team (North American or UK). All of you headed to the developing world will have amazing experiences and memories from your time there but getting there and sorting out your plane tickets will be your first hurdle!