Life changing holidays in The Independent

“Whether you learn a new skill, volunteer abroad, or venture out into the unknown, make 2012 the year of meaningful travel”

Every holiday changes your life, but usually only temporarily. The prime motive for a holiday is to shift to a different location, whether a seaside hotel, a ski chalet or a safari camp. As the philosopher Alain de Botton observed in these pages in 2004, “The prospect of a holiday is liable to persuade even the most downcast person that life is worth living.”

On holiday, you switch from your everyday routine to far more exciting prospects: cultural or scenic wonders, exotic cuisine and interesting people. Or you might just mess about in the water.

Chance may intervene to change your life for the better if, for example, a holiday romance endures beyond the departure lounge. But more likely is that you will quickly slip back to normality with little to remind you of your adventures beyond those pictures of that Marrakech feast, the Grand Canyon, or that nice couple from Guildford.

For centuries, some travellers have set out, literally, to get more from a journey.

Latterly, tourism has become a cult in itself, with independent travellers setting off on the hippie trail to the East (sometimes acquiring life-changing medical conditions en route). The trail forged by Lonely Planet pioneers is now followed by tens of thousands of gap-year travellers, seeking to enhance their “life skills” in the broadest sense before starting university or full-time work. Their numbers have been swelled by adults who have found their life changed through anything from redundancy to divorce – and seeking a new challenge, skill or outlook.

Whether you choose to give, to learn a new and valuable skill, or simply to take what the world has to offer, 2012 could be the time to make the journey that sets a course for the rest of your life. On the eve of a new year, remember that travel, and the openness to new experiences it entails, is an essential component of the human spirit.

You’ve got talent

Coming home with new skills is far more satisfying than arriving back home with just a suitcase full of souvenirs and a suntan.

Learning holidays also allow you to immerse yourself in a culture, whether it’s in a French kitchen or the African bush.

With GoLearnTo.com (0845 625 0445; golearnto.com) you can master surfing in Portugal, photography in Morocco, or take Spanish and tango classes in Argentina.

On its new organic cookery holiday in Puglia, guests stay in a renovated 17th-century masseria (a fortified farmhouse) and learn to cook local dishes with ingredients from the school’s organic farm. Eight days, from April to November, cost £1,095 full-board including tuition, excursions and transfers, but no flights.

To view all of GoLearnTo.com’s life changing holidays, visit GoLearnTo.com now and be amazed and what you can learn on your next trip….