Good deeds, good karma

This column usually tells travelers how to save money. But this week, in the spirit of the season, I’m offering tips on how travelers can give away their cash and time to charities.

Giving can be as painless as donating a few frequent-flier miles, joining a short charity walk on a cruise ship or sanding a picnic table for a couple of hours at a national park.

Occasionally, you can even profit by being generous. Some hotels, for instance, reward volunteer work with room discounts or include charitable gifts in package deals.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

Reserve a room that gives back: Under the “Giving With Aloha” package, some Marriott hotels in Hawaii will donate your room rate for the final night of a five-night stay to charities such as the American Red Cross. For a Jan. 10 to 15 stay with this package I recently checked on the website of Courtyard by Marriott Waikiki Beach, the daily rate, which included room and breakfast for two, started at $189.

Through Dec. 30, the Renaissance Seattle Hotel is donating 5% of its “Make-A-Wish Come True Holiday Package” to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions. Package prices, including room, two “Nutcracker” ballet tickets and more, start at $199 per night -- a savings of nearly 30% off regular rates.

A good way to find such packages is through DealBase.com, a website that searches for hotel deals. Go to www.dealbase.com/tags and click on “Charitable Donation.”

Volunteer your time: Under the upcoming “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” program, people who do volunteer work will get a free one-day admission ticket to either Disneyland Resort in Anaheim or Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. Disney plans to post the volunteer opportunities starting Jan. 1 at www.DisneyParks.com.

Sage Hospitality, a Denver-based hotel management and development company, runs a “Give a Day, Get a Night” program at more than 50 hotels that gives room deals to volunteers who complete at least eight hours of work with a nonprofit group.

For details, go to www.sagehospitality.com and click on “specials” at the bottom of the home page. When I recently called the Sheraton Tucson Hotel & Suites in Arizona and mentioned this deal, the reservations agent lowered my room rate from $169 to $99 for a Feb. 5 stay.

Tauck World Discovery, a tour organizer based in Norwalk, Conn., offers guests on two of its American West itineraries the chance to help with preservation and rehabilitation projects at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. More than half the guests choose to do so, said spokesman Tom Armstrong.

Give smiles with miles: Many airline frequent-flier programs let you donate miles or earn miles through donations to dozens of charities and causes.

Under American Airlines’ “Miles for Kids in Need” program, donated miles aid organizations that benefit children, such as the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. American is also one of 10 airlines (the rest are foreign carriers) that participate in “Change for Good,” which collects spare foreign currency from passengers on airplanes and in airport lounges to donate to UNICEF.

Take a hike: Since 2006, Holland America Line has raised more than $1.8 million to fight breast cancer through its “On Deck for the Cure” charity walks, offered on nearly all its 500 annual sailings, which benefit the nonprofit Susan G. Komen for the Cure organization. Passengers who participate pay $15 each (or more if they want) to join a 5K hike around the ship’s deck, said Holland America spokeswoman Sally Andrews.

During a 114-day world cruise last year on the Amsterdam, she added, “the guests wanted to do more than the walk, and they made it a goal to raise $50,000.” By organizing a special 24-hour-long walk and activities such as charity poker, they made it.

Now that’s what I call a vacation well spent.

Freelance writer Susan Derby contributed to this column.

jane.engle@latimes.com