Editor’s note: Looking for a travel experience a bit more exotic (and meaningful) than the traditional trip to the beach or lakeside resort? Our friends at email tip service Vital Juice Daily have some suggestions today.

If you’re jealous of Angelina Jolie’s exotic globetrotting to save the world, you might consider a volunteer vacation (Brad Pitt not included) … help yourself while helping others! What could be better than that (besides Brad Pitt)?

1. Make it count

With Global Volunteers, you can teach conversational English in Italy; paint, build, and repair buildings in Costa Rica; care for at-risk children in Romania; revitalize communities in small American towns; and much more. Global Volunteers’ goal is to “wage peace by facilitating mutual international understanding,” and that sounds pretty good to us!

2. "Swank"y travel

Last summer, Hilary Swank volunteered at an orphanage in North India with United Planet, an organization that creates international volunteer programs. They offer trips lasting from 1-52 weeks in 50 countries worldwide. Check out their new initiative to help battered women and their children at a shelter in Guatemala.

3. Volunteer as a family

Cross Cultural Solutions offers weeklong Insight Abroad trips to take as a family. This unique program exposes children to a different culture and provides an incomparable opportunity for them to learn the value of hands-on volunteerism. Trips are offered in Brazil, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Peru and Russia … perfect fodder for the inevitable “What did you do during your summer vacation?”

4. Make it green

Starting to worry about how all that international air travel will impact the environment? Through Climate Friendly™ you can buy energy credits to offset the emissions from your flight. A simple emissions calculator lets you figure out exactly how to offset the carbon trail of your travel (and make Al Gore proud!).