Intentional Service Engagement While You Travel
KOI
in Service
Join us in service to others. Willing hands, open hearts, long-term partnerships — rooted in the community of Tronadora, beside Lake Arenal.
How It All Began
The first trip changed everything.
The idea for KOI was born on Vanessa's first trip to Costa Rica. What started as a visit became something deeper — a connection to the land, to the people, to a community that welcomed her as one of their own.
That trip planted a seed. It wasn't just about visiting a beautiful place — it was about belonging to it, serving it, cultivating relationships that would outlast a week of vacation. It was about coming back, again and again, until "visiting" became "home."
With more than 17 years mobilizing volunteer teams in the United States and Costa Rica — and now living within the Costa Rican communities that receive and host those teams — Vanessa brings an unusual perspective: she has worked on both sides of international service, first sending teams and now receiving them.
Out of that experience grew a simple conviction: that meaningful service doesn't require a special passport or a particular title. It just requires showing up, listening, and being willing to work. And that when you do — when you really do — the place changes you as much as you change it.
Today, KOI in Service is the natural extension of that first seed. An open invitation to individuals, families, church groups, college & youth groups, and corporate teams alike: come, serve, build something that lasts. Not just for a week — for a partnership that grows year after year.
Travel With Purpose
Service-Minded Travel Trips
Designed to engage you in local community projects where you go. Meaningful service in the mornings, Costa Rican adventure in the afternoons, cultural immersion by night. Come to serve, stay to grow, leave as family.
New Year, New Roots
Ring in the new year with purpose. Build community gardens, share meals with local families, and hike to a hidden waterfall on your rest day. Start 2027 with dirt on your hands and joy in your heart.
Spring Break of Service
Trade the beach for something deeper. Spend your spring break painting classrooms, running a kids' sports camp, and zip-lining through the cloud forest in the afternoons. Adventure with a purpose.
Summer Serve
Mornings building a community center alongside local hands. Afternoons learning to surf at Lake Arenal or soaking in hot springs. Evenings around the fire pit sharing stories with your team and new Tico friends.
VBS Week — Costa Rica Style
Bring your church team to run a Vacation Bible School for local kids! Games, songs, crafts, Bible stories, and a whole lot of joy. Afternoons free for lake adventures and cultural experiences. A week that fills your team as much as it fills the kids.
Service Beyond Self — for Women
A week designed by women, for women. Serve alongside local women at the community school and gardens, share meals and stories with Tica families, and recharge with sunset paddles on the lake. Meaningful service, deep connection, and space to grow — together.
VBS Week — Backyard Edition
A second VBS week for teams who couldn't make July! Partner with the local church to host a backyard Bible club — skits, songs, water games, and snack time. Spend your afternoons exploring waterfalls and your evenings sharing meals with the community.
Autumn Adventure & Outreach
Help the local church with a community event, repair a neighbor's roof, and spend your rest day exploring Monteverde's cloud forest bridges. Cool weather, warm hearts, and the greenest season in Costa Rica.
Christmas in Community
Spend Christmas week serving alongside the community of Tronadora. Share a holiday meal with a local family, help with a Christmas program for kids, and experience a Costa Rican Christmas you'll never forget. The most meaningful gift you could give.
Don't see your dates? We design custom trips for your group, church, or corporate team.
Build your Service/Mission TripTraveling With Purpose
What if your next vacation could mean more?
Available 2027 Dates to Choose From
Women's Service-Minded Adventure in Costa Rica
Join us in Costa Rica for an unforgettable Women's Service-Minded Adventure — created for solo women travelers who want to explore, connect, serve and experience Costa Rica with purpose. This isn't about coming to Costa Rica just to see the amazing country….
It's about experiencing it differently. Meet local communities. Give your time. Share your gifts. Laugh with new friends. Explore incredible places. And return home knowing your vacation meant something — to you and to the people you met along the way.
- 🌿8 Days / 7 Nights
- 💛Four ½ Days of Meaningful Community Engagement
- 🌊Waterfalls • Lake Arenal • Pacific Beach
- 🌴Monteverde Cloud Forest
- 🥾Hanging Bridges • Wildlife • Adventure
- 🏡7 Nights Private Cabin Accommodations
- 🚐Transportation • Meals • Tours & More
$2,495
Per Person
All Inclusive
✈️ Excluding flight to LIR
Women impacting communities together
Come to Costa Rica. Experience the adventure. Leave a little love behind. 💛
PLEASE contact or visit website for the date offered in 2027!
Your Service Base
Cabins built for
mission teams.
Your own glamp-ground — fenced for privacy, with exclusive stay for groups up to 25+. Six newly built teak cabins, each with kitchen and bath. An additional cottage for the youth leader, chaperone, or pastor. Outdoor cooking facility or meals included. On-site cafe for gatherings, meetings, fire-pits, and snacks.
- 1 hour & 15 min. from LIR airport
- Walk to the lake for swimming, paddleboard & kayak
- Ministry opportunities walking distance: local church & schools
- Easy day trip to zip-line, rafting, waterfalls & more
- Spaces to run, roam, gather, dream, play
- Between La Fortuna & Monteverde — Lake Arenal, Tronadora
Ways to Serve
Projects That Matter
Real local and community projects, walking distance from your cabin. Meaningful work in the mornings, Costa Rican adventure in the afternoons.
Local Church
Partner with the local church — join a Sunday service, help with outreach, support community events, or simply share a meal with the congregation. The church is the heart of the community, and you're invited to be part of it.
School & Classroom Projects
Walk to the local school and lend a hand — reading with kids, painting classrooms, repairing playgrounds, or sharing a skill. Projects that matter, walking distance from your cabin.
Community Gardens & Food
Work alongside local families in community gardens, help at the on-site aquaponics system, or prepare and share meals. Hands in the soil, food on the table.
Light Construction & Repair
Help a neighbor fix a roof, paint a community center, or build a fence. Practical, tangible work that leaves a place better than you found it.
Kids & Youth Programs
Run a sports camp, an art day, a music workshop, or just show up and play. The space and the kids are here — bring your energy and your heart.
Environmental Stewardship
Lake clean-ups, tree planting, trail maintenance — care for the land that hosts you. The lake is a walk away, the forest is all around.
Elder & Neighbor Care
Visit, listen, share a meal, help with errands. Sometimes the most meaningful service is simply showing up for someone.
Who We Welcome
Anyone Who Wants to Serve
Willing hands, open hearts. We welcome individuals, families, church groups, college & youth groups, and corporate teams alike.
Individuals
Come solo, plug into a project, meet the community.
Families
Serve together — kids learn by doing, side by side with you.
Church Groups
Mobilize your youth and adult teams into a base built for groups.
College & Youth Groups
Bring your campus ministry, student org, or youth group into a real-world service experience.
Corporate Teams
Step outside the office — serve together, build trust, and come back tighter than any retreat could make you.
Team Building
Shared work in a new place forges bonds that meetings never will. Real projects, real impact, real connection.
Long-Term Partnerships
Not a trip. A partnership.
Short-term service trips can create extraordinary moments — but extraordinary moments do not automatically create sustainable impact. We mobilize youth and adult teams to cultivate long-term partnerships where they go, moving from project-centered missions toward relationship-centered partnerships.
The question we ask
"What can our team accomplish during one week?"
"What relationship can we build that will still be producing fruit five years from now?"
It's not about arriving, doing, and leaving — it's about coming back, year after year, until the place and the people are part of your story, and you are part of theirs. From transactional service toward sustainable relationships. That's the difference between a service trip and a partnership that grows.
Conferences & Events
Looking for an international
speaker at your next conference?
Vanessa Pulio is an International Missions & Ministry Leader with more than 17 years of experience mobilizing volunteer teams in the United States and Costa Rica. Her perspective is unusual: she has worked on both sides of international missions — first sending teams and now living within the communities that receive and host them. Her practical and inspirational session examines how churches and organizations can move from project-centered missions toward relationship-centered partnerships, equipping participants to evaluate service opportunities through the lens of long-term community impact.
Moments in Service
Years of Local Service, Changing Our Lives and Others
A glimpse of the teams who have come to serve, learn, and grow alongside the communities of Costa Rica.
Come to serve.
Stay to grow.
Individuals, families, church groups, college & youth groups, and corporate teams — all are welcome. Tell us about your group and let's build something together.