how to travel without money: volunteer

How To Travel The World For Free? Volunteer With Worldpackers or Workaway

Wondering how to travel without money? Let’s find out in this travel blog. Also, in the blog, let’s discuss another FAQ: Worldpackers or Workaway (you will learn in the article if you haven’t heard about them!). So let’s get started…

Recently, while backpacking in Europe and Australia, I tried a unique way of travelling on a budget — volunteering! And that is how I got the answer to one of the most FAQs ‘how to travel without money’.

How To Travel Without Money? Volunteer!

There are quite a few online platforms where you can volunteer and travel the world without money. This includes Workaway, MovingWorlds, Worldpackers, Visit.org, Wwoof, and others.

The drill is… as a volunteer, you work for your host for a few hours every day and in return, you get to eat and stay for free. I’ve personally tried WorldPackers and Workaway and can recommend both for a similar experience.

But there is more to volunteering than just finding the answer to how to travel without money. Volunteering is a great way to explore a place locally. When you volunteer and travel, you understand the place and learn about its culture more closely.

My volunteer experience in Rome and Germany showed me a local way of life. As an au-pair, I had a chance to live in the German countryside while staying with a local family in their house. And since they ran a horse farm, and one of my primary duties was to look after them, I got to learn horse riding too.

travel without money

Later, while travelling in Rome and staying with a Roman family, I explored Rome like a local.

volunteer experience using worldpackers

A few months later, while travelling in Australia, I volunteered in an Australian countryside and helped a family-run Observatory, which, not let me explore an offbeat location in Australia, but also help me find my fascination towards astrophotography and stargazing.

how to travel the world without money

[Read More About The Experiences HereStaying With A Roman Family | Getting Horse Riding Lessons In Germany | Finding My Love For  Astrophotography And Stargazing In Western Australia]

And if I talk about the money I saved, in Rome alone, where it otherwise costs at least 30 euros a night for staying in a budget hostel and about 30 euros on top of food and water, I saved nearly 800 Euros during the two weeks I stayed with them — forget about all the home-made wine I drank, as the family-owned a private vineyard.

So yea, if you are wondering how to travel without money, volunteering is the answer! Of course, you can try Couchsurfing too, but since in volunteering you get free food too, it offers 100% free travel.

Now, next question…

Worldpackers or Workaway

At the moment, I’ve been using WorldPackers I signed up for a modest fee of 49 US dollars for a yearly membership. Before that, I was using Workaway.

Now, if you will ask me ‘Worldpackers or Workaway’ both are good platforms, but I personally prefer Worldpackers. And here are the reasons why…

Since 62% of people using WorldPackers are women, it assures travellers’ safety more than Workaway. Any host, before being able to invite travellers, need to go through a verification process, in which the Worldpackers Ops team chat with the hosts and ensures they’re offering a safe experience. To make it better, if a traveller has any issues related to their host during their stay, the company covers 3-nights for the traveller at a nearby hostel, and their support team gets them set up with another host ASAP (something that Workaway missed and I discontinued using them).

So yea, if you will ask me Worldpackers or Workaway, my answer will be “Worldpackers any day!” Important: If you chose to volunteer and join the platform, use my special discount code BY CLICKING HERE and save 10 dollars on signing up. So stop thinking about how to travel without money and go volunteering.

Speaking of the platform, this is the way how it works: you start by creating an account. All you have to do is sign-up, pay the fee for one year of USD 49 (or USD 39 with my referral code), create a profile and write a description about yourself — including your skills and the kind of jobs you’re looking for. Once you have signed up, you can start contacting businesses or local hosts based on countries, cities, and/or types of work. The general gist of each location is that you get room and board in exchange for a few hours a day (generally about 5 hours).

Each host profile will tell you about the host, and the kind of work they expect you to help them with. Read it carefully and ask for accommodation and job details, weekly routine, and food arrangements before you commit.

If you’re planning to travel the world without money, and moreover get a great experience out of it, hospitality networks like WorldPackers can help you in a big way.

There are people across the world who have been doing this. Other than me, I have met many people during my travels who have only been travelling using such networks while saving 100% on their food and accommodation — all they pay for is transportation and flights to get from one country to the other.

So let’s repeat once again: How to travel without money? VOLUNTEER!

worldpackers or workaway volunteer

Beyond Worldpackers Vs Workaway

There are a number of similar websites offering a different work-exchange prospect. WWOOF, for example, is a popular platform, that matches people looking for work on farms with farmers. But I’ve personally tried Worldpackers and Workaway only. So, I cannot say how good other platforms are.

Also, using Couchsurfing makes perfect sense if you are only looking for free accommodation. But if you want a free stay and free food, Worldpackers and Workaway are the only options to choose from.

I hope you have found some useful tips on how to travel without money. If you’ve any personal questions regarding Worldpackers or Workaway, you can contact me on Instagram.

Again, if you decided to use WorldPackers, here’s MY 10 DOLLAR DISCOUNT CODE for you to save a little more money.

Categories Volunteer And Travel

About

I am Dev, and I've been travelling full-time since 2016. I was a journalism student & started my corporate career as a documentary film-maker in England, before moving to India & becoming a full-time nomad. 25+countries. 50+ Brand Partnerships. And the adventure continues...

  1. Anubha Karol

    This really nice way to spend time in a place like a local. Are there any such organisations that work in india? And if yes, what sort of work /skills do they require generally?

  2. Anonymous

    Very useful tips. I have not used any hospitality network for travelling yet. But it sure looks like a great idea.

  3. Divyakshi Gupta

    This seems exciting. You get to work and enjoy your work and travel free! Thanks for the heads up. I can surely read up more on this and see how viable it is.

  4. Sounds like a fun deal…you work and earn your travel. Thanks for sharing this. Though am not sure I will be able to use such platforms and travel this way now. 🙁

    • aww that’s sad. And I’d say these platforms are not just a way to travel for free, but they also help you understand a place, the people and the community you’re dealing with much better. As a tourist and while doing ‘5 cities in 5 days’ such an experience is tougher.

  5. I’ve never tried Couchsurfing or even Airbnb but glad to know that there are several platforms that can help travelers to explore the life of locals without spending heck amount of money. Workaway sounds like a nice platform to travel the world without getting broke!

  6. So glad you had good experiences and were able to save money at the same time. I’ve always been curious to see if this works. Saving money is always good :-).

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