A world of opportunity: Gap years are an enriching option whatever your age – or your exam results

What's the attraction?

Tomorrow, a nervous batch of school leavers will open that envelope or scan that list with the trepidation and excitement that A-level results day brings. Many will use the grades they have achieved to start university this autumn, while plenty more will use the next year to explore the world and broaden their horizons.

Traditional gap-year destinations are shifting, with old favourites such as Australia slipping down the popularity tables thanks to punishing exchange rates, as more "exotic" and less expensive destinations such as Peru, Tanzania and Fiji become more sought after. The university tuition-fee rises, which come into effect in September 2012, are also having an impact, with many would-be gappers forgoing time out – or delaying travel until after university. Gap-year volunteering provider, Projects Abroad, experienced a 10 per cent drop in applications this February.

But taking a break from the normal routine isn't just for school leavers. Redundancy, divorce, becoming a parent – there are all sorts of reasons why mature travellers are taking career breaks and setting off to see the world.

Whichever category you fall into, it is important to think through what you want from a gap year, and whether you have the resources to do it. Is it an extended holiday you're after, or would you prefer to spend your time volunteering? Happily, the gap year has re-invented itself from a rite of passage where oats could be sown, thrills sought and selves found in a far-off country, to something which can enrich the mind (and CV) and broaden perspectives.

Getting going

If you are after a round-the-world flight, don't even think of booking it online. Instead, talk through your plans with an expert such as Travel Nation (01273 320 580; www.travel-nation.co.uk), STA Travel (0800 819 9339; www.statravel.co.uk) or www.roundtheworldflights.com, which you can call on 020 7704 5700. To get the most from their expertise, compile in advance two lists of places: those that you are determined to visit; and those that you would be keen to see so long as it doesn't add too much extra expense. A good agent will discuss these with you, identify the best "RTW" deal for you, and suggest other locations that you can easily add for little or no extra cost.

As a general rule, the standard UK-South-east Asia-Australia-US-UK itinerary usually turns out cheapest; including India, Africa or South America tends to push the price up. For more information see The Independent's most recent traveller's guide to round-the-world flights, which can be found at ind.pn/qptkI7.

Keep it local...

...or at least European. If you prefer a more pragmatic approach to your gap year, an InterRail allows you to see the sights in Europe at your own pace. The misleadingly named Global Pass is valid for travel across 30 European countries.

For those aged 25 or younger, prices range from £155 for a 10-day pass (with travel allowed on five of those days) to £376, allowing train travel every day for one month. For over-26s, a one-month pass costs £569 in standard class or £854 in first class (www.interrailnet.com).

Working while you travel

If you're looking for adventure, and you need to pay your way as you go, consider signing up with Bunac (020-7251 3472; www.bunac.org.uk). The company has been hooking up willing workers with summer camp and volunteering opportunities since the 1960s, in countries such as US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. It also offers support for those wishing to work and travel in Australia and New Zealand. For a registration fee of £349, you'll have access to job vacancies and the company can help arrange visas, insurance and flights. You must be at least 18, but for most of its programmes, you do not have to be a student.

Learn a new skill

It's likely to be a long time before you're able to have so much time on your hands again. Put that to good use by learning a language, and possibly more, while you travel. GoLearnTo (0844 502 0445; www.golearnto.com) sells one-week trips in Ecuador where you spend your mornings learning Spanish and your afternoons getting to grips with surfing. Prices for these short courses start at £144 per person, including instruction but not flights or accommodation.

Or you could learn the ropes while you travel by working on a yacht. To sail the seven seas, or even just one, search the posted opportunities on www.crewseekers.net, www.crewsearcher.com or www.findacrew.net. You have to be registered with the sites to post and read listings.

To get even closer to the water, consider booking a trip with Global Vision International (01727 250250; www.gvi.co.uk), whose roster of volunteering programs includes a Mexican project where travellers can learn how to dive and carry out research on Caribbean coral reefs. Prices start at £1,675 per person for a five-week placement, including food, accommodation and training but not flights.

Culture with a conscience

One unusual volunteering project worth considering is AboutASIA Schools (020-7193 8561; www.aboutasiatravel.com), a non-profit organisation that helps Cambodian children in the Siem Reap area (gateway for the great temple site of Angkor Wat). Over the summer, when many of the local schools are closed, volunteers can teach English at Pagoda schools (training grounds for Buddhist monks) or help with maintenance work at regular schools. Although there are no charges made to join the project, volunteers must cover their own travel, accommodation and living costs. Basic village accommodation with meals costs around £400 per month.

Mind the (age) gap

With their greater qualifications and skills, older gappers have much more to offer the world as volunteers. The agency 2Way Development (020-7193 6167; www.2waydevelopment.com) places volunteers with established development charities worldwide. "Many charities overseas simply wouldn't survive without the input of international volunteers, who offer badly needed skills while forgoing the wage they would earn at home," says the director, Katherine Tubb. "For the volunteers themselves, the experience can be an access point or inspiration to a new career".

Her organisation selects placement opportunities – such as educational work, environmental research or social development activities – to match your experience, goals and motivations. A fee of £850, aimed at covering costs,

entitles you to a personal adviser who remains in touch throughout the placement. Inspired Breaks (01892 701881; www.inspiredbreaks.co.uk) advertises everything from temporary teaching posts to advice for parents wanting to take a gap year with their children.

It also caters for those who just want to travel, with a range of trips that includes a seven-day tour through some of the most spectacular national parks on the west coast of America; prices start at £949 per person, including transport, accommodation and most activities but not flights or meals.

Grown-up gappers should also consider applying for a six-month – or longer – volunteer placement with organisations such as VSO (020-8780 7500; www.vso.org.uk), an international development organisation that offers a volunteering programme in developing countries.

Stay safe

For many, a gap year will be the first trip independent of parents, or to an unfamiliar country or culture. Safety should always be taken seriously, as should making sure that you've covered health, insurance, emergency funds and cultural and legal advice with the same care that you have invested in plotting a route. The "entry level" guidebooks from Lonely Planet and Rough Guides are well-targeted, while the Overlanders' Handbook (Trailblazer, £24.99) will be useful for more hard-core travellers.

The Foreign Office has set up a microsite especially for gap-year safety tips: www.fco.gov.uk/gapyear. The Foreign Office also recommends signing up to www.facebook.com/fcotravel or www.twitter.com/fcotravel to get up-to-the-minute travel advice on the go.

What Google will tell you...

"Hire a personal GPS: if you are heading off the beaten track, hire a personal GPS tracking device that regularly pings back your co-ordinates by email and SMS to a nominated friend or family member. It must have an SOS alert button too."

– The women-only online travel community, www.thelmaandlouise.com

What Google won't tell you... until now

"With 200,000 students expected not to get a university place this year and so many being forced to take a gap year, consider using the opportunity to enhance your UCAS application to beat the competition next year. Joining a game ranger in Botswana or a coral conservation project in Belize, for example, will make vet and marine biology applications stand out in 2012. A positive, worldly experience out of a negative result.

– Tom Griffiths, the founder of www.gapyear.com.

Who said that?

"I took a gap year. It was the last stage of my tentative teenage quest not to be a boring person – or at least to deceive the world into thinking I wasn't." – Comedian David Mitchell

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." – Mark Twain

"Experience, travel – these are as education in themselves." – Euripides