Costs

The program fee is $3,970 which includes:

✔️ Roundtrip airfare to Thailand from the U.S.
✔️ Visa (if required)
✔️ In-country airport pick-up and drop-off with your group
✔️ Housing
✔️ WiFi
✔️ Three at-home meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner)
✔️ Pre-departure + in-country training
✔️ Local support
✔️ 24/7 emergency assist line from ILP headquarters
✔️ International SOS membership
✔️ Hands-on education
✔️ Meaningful service opps

Additional items (like your passport and domestic travel to and from the U.S. group departure airport) and in-country costs (like vacations, shopping, and activities) are not included. See a more detailed list here. It depends on your personal spending habits, but most volunteers recommend budgeting around $1,500-3,500 for the semester to make the most of your time in Thailand.

We have custom monthly payment plans to help you make it work. That can be especially helpful if you’re saving up little by little, by working or doing fundraising.

An ILP Exchange Trip

This type of trip means that the kids you are working with pay a fee to attend our English classes. That fee is used to help subsidize your program fee, which is why we’re able to offer this experience to you at such an affordable price.

Your students typically come from middle to upper-class families who are looking to provide their children with the best education and every opportunity in life. Learning English from a native speaker can put the kids at such an advantage later in life.

Is Thailand right for me?

Each location is unique and therefore has its pros and cons. What falls into those two categories will really depend on the person you talk to, but we’ve put together common complaints we hear most about volunteering here. Knowing the typical pain points that just come along with the experience will help as you consider which country is best for you.

• Thailand is a hot and humid country, with limited (or no) A/C.
• There is a modest and conservative culture, so while it’s tempting to wear short, tight, and cropped clothing to keep cool, you’ll need to stay covered up.
• ILP volunteers are living on campus — you’re looked at as a teacher whenever you’re on campus, even when you’re not teaching.
• There are big bugs (like spiders and cockroaches) that you’ll see in your room, shower, kitchen, classroom, etc.
• This is an Exchange Program which means your students come from more affluent families (typically upper class) as compared to the Humanitarian Programs. They are looking to provide the best education for their children, which includes learning from a native English speaker.
• The school you’re teaching at is very prestigious and teaching here comes with high expectations.

About Your Group

This program has about 6-15 volunteers in a group which means you’ve got lots of new travel buddies! Due to housing limitations, our Thai program is the best fit for:

• Single females
• 18-about 25ish years old
• Volunteers from the U.S. and Canada

About Your Town

Volunteers live in the large city of Phitsanulok or the nearby smaller town of Phichit.

A semester in Thailand is a lot of what you’d expect — intricate Buddhist temples dotting the streets and thick jungles with lots of hot and humid weather. Typically, your vacations are all about the incredibly picturesque waterfalls, seeing temples and ruins, with a beach trip (or two). But during the week? You get to dive deeply into the culture that tourists don’t get to see. You’re living in Central Thailand, high up in the northern part of the country which is a flight away from the postcard beaches you’ve seen all over Instagram.

Your new home has lots to explore, with temples, ruins, markets, festivals, and even some elephants not too far away. You’ll be living on the school’s campus, which will also be a big part of your experience. The schools in our Thailand program are prestigious and filled with children who have dedicated and invested parents. Education is a big deal here: your students will likely be involved in several activities during their busy school day (including English classes) despite their young age. The teaching here is held to a high standard, with ILP volunteers expected to meet that standard. It’s a very personal way to connect with the educational element of Thailand’s culture: something most tourists miss out on.

Come experience life — not just a vacation — in Thailand. Come live in cities small enough that the locals know who you are. Come ride rusted bikes down to the central market to find your favorite smoothie place. Truly see how friendly the people are in Thailand. We can’t wait for you to discover all of this yourself.

Glimpse A Day In Thailand

Wake up on the campus of the school you teach at. You’ll be living all together with your ILP group right on the school grounds. While brushing your teeth, say “hi” to the friendly geckos hanging out in your bathroom, and laugh just a little when your roommate squeals at the creepy crawly beetles and spiders hiding in the shower (they are huge here). You can’t have that gorgeous tropical weather without a few bugs!

Time for breakfast. Sit down for tiny Thai bananas and fried scones drizzled with sweetened and condensed milk (that sweet stuff is everywhere here). Your ILP semester is all about having a local experience, and the food is a huge part of that. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are all provided for you by school cooks — on special days, get your fill of warm curries: yellow, green, panang, Massaman, red, pumpkin … you name it. On other days, tuck into a plate of tuna fish sandwiches. Sometimes, you’ll see stir-fried veggies with a little chicken, but no matter what’s on the menu, there is always lots and lots (and lots) of rice.

For teaching, you put on a pair of sandals just to walk to your classroom, then take them off before entering the school … you’ll be teaching in bare feet here. Volunteers headed to Thailand should be excited to experience the culture during their semester.  In general, Thai culture is very respectful and modest, so you’ll need to stay covered up whenever you’re on campus. You will be teaching in dresses and skirts. It’s much too hot to teach in something heavier than a skirt or dress anyway.

After teaching, it’s time for lunch with your ILP group. After that, you all hop on old rusted bikes to ride down to the central market. It’s smoothie time (for less than a dollar, in fact).  You really like this smoothie spot because it’s delicious, cheap, and above all, because it has A/C. It’s very hot and humid in Thailand and you won’t find A/C in a lot of places. Take advantage where you can! As you ride back, you do a lot of waving: the locals tend to be very friendly  — you don’t really ever run into people who speak English, but that doesn’t stop anyone from waving and saying “hello”.

After your lessons are over, the day is all yours. Volunteers say it’s more free time than they anticipated, which leaves time to check out that nearby wat (that’s Thai for temple). Think about shopping at the night market, and getting to know your Thai city in the afternoons. On the weekends, squeeze in a quick trip to Bangkok or head up north to the elephants and jungles of Chiang Mai. Vacation days give you even more options: explore destinations like Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Bali, and more. But don’t forget to plan vacations in Thailand! Besides the beaches, some of the highlights of the semester are found in northern Thailand. We really like the artsy mountain village of Pai and all of the waterfall-filled national parks.