Volunteer Programs in Cozumel, Mexico

I cannot say enough nice things about my semester with Pacific Discovery. I overcame challenges of all varieties this semester -- physical, mental, emotional. I am a better version of myself now. I have also learned so much about myself and who I am. I would recommend this program to anyone needing a break from school, a change in perspective, or an eye-opening experience. Pacific Discovery is an exceptional program that will provide you with the skills, experiences, and opportunities to challenge yourself, grow as a person, and open up your world. I can say with confidence that I feel ready and excited to travel independently. Taking a gap year has been the best decision of my life thus far. I only wish I could do it over and over again.

This may sound cheesy, but it truly was a life-changing experience. I changed so much on this program, and all for the better. I’ve become more active, more confident, more social, and more grateful. I am going back home knowing I am a better person than when I came. I have so many stories of experiences on the outside as well as experiences on the inside. It’s worth it, trust me.

I grew a lot as a person on this program; I learned how to become a better global citizen & I learned that I want my future career to revolve around traveling. I would recommend this program to others if they want to see & experience very culturally enriching things all the while getting to do it with your new best friends. I would tell myself to live & love every single moment because it really does fly by. My experience was life-changing & I discovered a lot about myself. I have made the greatest friends in the world while also getting to do things that are once in a lifetime experiences. I’m so thankful for this program & for all of the amazing things that came with it.

This experience of traveling with strangers around my age from all around the globe has provided me with so many new tools. Be where your feet are. Life is full of ups and downs but you are here and that's what's important. You have so much to learn and gain from this journey you are about to go on and it will only provide you with more things you want to explore and entertain yourself with.

I have grown as a person by getting to know myself better and knowing what I want to keep doing in life and want to change. I have gained life experience by going out of my comfort zone and learning new things. I have learned more about talking about myself and my feelings. I would recommend this trip because the program those things you wouldn’t find or do by yourself. It’s a great way to travel at a young age and meeting new people across the world. Amazing, grateful, and inspiring!

This program was life changing, & i’m so happy that i got to experience the things that i did with thirteen new best friends. the activities we did were absolutely amazing, & i will never look back on this chapter of my life with anything but a smile. i enjoyed everything about this program, & i wish it didn’t have to end. i learned so much about myself & about the world around me, & i feel equipped to travel on my own because of the freedoms that our instructors gave us in each place we stayed. overall a 10/10 experience!

This program was life-changing, & I’m so happy that I got to experience the things that I did with thirteen new best friends. the activities we did were absolutely amazing, & I will never look back on this chapter of my life with anything but a smile. I enjoyed everything about this program, & I wish it didn’t have to end. I learned so much about myself & about the world around me, & I feel equipped to travel on my own because of the freedoms that our instructors gave us in each place we stayed. overall a 10/10 experience!

*Go Abroad will not let me categorize this as a Gap Year program, so it says primarily "Volunteer Abroad." This was, however, primarily a gap year program.* My trip to Central America with Pacific Discovery was the best seventy days I could've imagined. We traversed through Mexico, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. Let me start by saying that I traveled with PD in the spring of 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic. PD could've easily said that it was too difficult to travel internationally at the time, but with the right protocol, planning, and leadership, they pulled it off. I am so grateful for this opportunity to travel safely and get an amazing experience. The program activities were something out of a dream; who wouldn't want to spend a semester scuba diving, surfing, hiking, sea kayaking, and immersing oneself in the incredible cultures of Central America? I pushed myself physically, mentally, and socially and got so much out of it. Although not every moment was perfect, the trip was the best thing I've ever done. Jack and Amelia, my co-leaders, are two of the best people in the world. They modeled leadership, flexibility, and positivity. They encouraged us when we were struggling and would always be willing and available to talk to us. I wish we'd had a slightly larger food budget when going out to eat, but I understand that Pacific Discovery has to pay its HQ team. I was able to mostly stick to my personal budget through careful planning. I can't say enough nice things about Pacific Discovery. I have grown so much as a person and learned so much about myself. I feel so ready to travel independently. I will never forget my gap year. I only hope I can inspire others to also take gap years.

I had a great time during my trip! Because of Covid, we only went to Mexico, Guatemala, and Costa Rica but I think that made it even better because we could really get to know the countries we visited. There was a huge range of things we did throughout our time including scuba diving, surfing, challenging hikes, kayaking trips, and a yoga retreat + more. It was great to get so close with the group of students and the instructors and I learned a lot.

PD was an awesome overall experience that taught me a lot about myself and the world around me. On a large scale, there really isn’t anything I would ask for differently. I got exactly what I wanted: to be with a group having awesome experiences learning more about the world around me. I can confidently say that this program made me become more conscious and aware in a lot of areas that I wasn’t before. So for that, I’m incredibly thankful. One thing to keep in mind is the price tag. I didn’t have any expectations of luxury, and if I’m being honest, there were parts of the trip that were much nicer than I thought they would be. However, the itinerary mentions that “all meals are covered”. A lot of times, meals were going out to a restaurant in groups with money that PD gives us. That amount was sometimes just not enough to cover a full meal. I spent a lot of extra money on meals (some of which was my own fault for not budgeting correctly). If you are to come on this trip, please budget very wisely, but also it would help if the money given to us would be enough to have a sufficient dinner, which a lot of times it wasn’t. I don’t want to end this negatively though. It was an awesome trip, and if you have the means and the time, I would recommend it to anyone as a gateway to life beyond their home, or an introduction to traveling more.

This spring I went on a gap year programm with pacific discovery. I joined the programm, together with a friend, 2 weeks before it started so I didn’t have a lot of expectations. Before coming here we got a packinglist with all the things we need. It said we needed a wetsuit, a divingwatch, a lot of conservative clothes, etc. The first two we didn’t need at all and we didn’t need as much conservative clothes as they told us we needed. I did need more normal clothes, summer dresses, shorts, t-shirts, etc. The next thing is that they told us that we would spend 5 tot 10 dollars a day, which is definitely not what I spent and I didn’t go crazy on the spending so I would Recommend saying that you need more money. The accommodations where fine most of the time, except for the fact that in a lot of Them you didn’t have any personal space which can be hard. Besides this I love the activities (the hiking, surfing, diving and way more), I love meeting new people and making new friends. It was an experience which wasn’t always easy but definitely worth it!! Overall I love it!

I had a great time traveling with pacific discovery. There is a lot of variety in activities and they try to give you a taste of a lot of different aspects of traveling in Central America. The budgeting seemed a little weird, especially our food budget, and sometimes seemed a bit disorganized, but everything always worked out