Have you ever taken a trip where you felt as if you were on the outside looking in? That you were seeing the sights but just from a tourist’s point of view? Have you ever wished that you could connect with a place more, really get a glimpse of what life there is about?

Me, too. For me, travel isn’t just about seeing the sights, it’s about connecting with the culture and the people who live there — and that’s not always easy to do as individuals. Fortunately, there are organizations like Go Eat Give that put together small group trips that really get that insider experience in the destinations they travel to.

Street art, Mexico City

Last month I traveled to Mexico City with Go Eat Give, which combines cultural education and community service with travel — with a goal of building strong, meaningful relationships between citizens of different nationalities, races, religions and backgrounds, by learning about how people actually live. Besides Mexico City, they also have organized small group trips to places like India, Cuba, Kenya, Italy, Nepal, and Indonesia; on these trips the travelers get to do things like take a cooking class in someone’s home, volunteer at a local women’s shelter or elderly daycare or organic farm, and of course see the places in that destination that are part of its unique culture.

Bella des Artes, Mexico City

One of the things I love about Go Eat Give is that it’s a nonprofit organization, working with grassroots businesses across countries to bring travelers once-in-a-lifetime experiences that encompass cultural learning. But you still get luxury accommodations and first class authentic meals!

On my recent trip to Mexico City with Go Eat Give, the highlights for me were:

Gastronomic Tour

We spent an afternoon taking a food tour; but this wasn’t just any food tour. It was around a specific neighborhood, Colonia Roma, and in between culinary stops, our guide Salimah from Sabores Mexico educated us on the history of Roma, Mexico, and the food traditions. All of the restaurants that were part of the tour were individually or family owned and used local or traditional ingredients.

Tour Colonia Roma

Sabores Mexico Food Tour

Fulfilling Wishes of Children Battling Cancer

We spent an incredible afternoon with the local nonprofit foundation Ayúdame a Sonreir ante el Cancer (ASAC) — help me to smile at cancer. The mission of ASAC is to provide support for children with cancer and their families. Five children ranging in age from 8 to 15 were there with their parents, sharing their stories with us. While their struggles were heartbreaking, they were indeed smiling; and ASAC gave us the opportunity to give back by bringing gifts that the children had listed as “wish” items. Considering what they are going through, the list of things they had wished for was so simple it was humbling: a Spiderman glove, lip gloss, skateboard games, walkie-talkies, a Frozen doll. It was an emotional yet rewarding cultural exchange and a way to give back for us visitors to Mexico.

ASAC Children

Shelley and Paula with ASAC

Meeting Young Local Artists

Mexico City is full of museums - in fact, it has more museums (over 200, public and private) than any other city. So, you could be here for weeks and not see all the art, history, anthropological relics, and other cultural treasures. But there’s something really cool about discovering emerging artists who are the future. Through Go Eat Give, we were able to visit Galería Despacho 29 in Barrio Alameda, which is a collective of artists in their 20s who are creating incredible works of painting, sculpture, 3D, and mixed-media art (much of it with a social message). After visiting with several of the artists and hearing their stories and inspirations, we hung out with them on the very cool rooftop bar where there was live music, snacks, hammocks, and a very cool 11-room bed-and-breakfast.

Artist Aline Herrera, Galeria Despacho

Natasha Kroupensky art

We also met MEAN, a 33-year-old street artist and muralist who has not only painted his visual expressions of anti-consumerism that tell the life of the city all over his hometown of Mexico City, but has also traveled to Japan and Brazil on commission to create artwork there. We were able to visit a youth center in the process of being built, where MEAN was currently painting murals both inside and outside.

Artist MEAN

These are just a few examples of the interactions with locals, insider access into the real communities of the place, and opportunities for giving back that are offered with Go Eat Give trips. It was a very different sort of group tour, and I highly recommend them.

Diego Rivera mural

Shelley Seale is the author How to Travel For Free (or pretty damn near it!). The Weight of Silence: Invisible Children of India, and the Insiders Guide to Seattle

All photos courtesy and copyright Keith Hajovsky