If you’re looking to travel and volunteer abroad for free if you don’t have the funds available or the desire to hop from hotel to hotel, then let me tell you all about how you can do it with these work exchange programs!
This guide will tell you all you need to know about volunteering abroad, how it works, the opportunities and experiences available and what work exchange programs to look at!
10 years ago, I found myself in a hostel in Sydney, trying to plan my travel route through Australia. I was on my first, big trip alone and had traveled all the way from Scotland to explore the giant, red-earthed continent.
A few years previously, my younger brother had traveled in Australia and he had mentioned a small hostel in The Blue Mountains, off the traditional east coast tourist trail that he had stayed at for a couple of nights.
I decided that this would be my next destination and I went back to my dorm room to pack up my belongings for the trip ahead the next morning.
Later that day I was chatting with another girl who was staying at the hostel and she told me that she loved Sydney but couldn’t really afford to keep paying per night as her money would run out. After paying her accommodation bill for that week at reception, she came over to me with a beaming smile.
She had mentioned her situation to the guy at reception and he had told her that the hostel was part of a program where she could work in exchange for her board.
The terms were that she would help with general cleaning for a few hours each day and she would then receive her accommodation for free. I had only heard about Wwoofing (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) so had no idea that you could do work in hostels.
The next day, as the train pulled into my stop, I stepped out of the carriage into the fog that hid any kind of view and made my way to the hostel. I was at the top of the mountains and I wondered whether the town was always engulfed by mist.
When I arrived at the hostel, I was greeted by a lovely girl who took me on a little tour, the place was super cozy and my heart literally jumped when she showed me the wooden hut out in the back garden complete with a fire pit. She told me that’s where most people hung out in the evenings, around the lit fire.
The couple of nights that I had booked flew by so quickly, and on my final evening, I felt so sad about the thought of heading on to my next destination. Whilst chatting with a couple of people in the hut, I mentioned how much I wished I could stay for longer and they asked me whether I was going to ask about working there.
It turned out that this hostel was also part of a work exchange program and immediately went off to find the person on reception so I could find out about all of the details.
There weren’t any free spots at that time but there would be someone leaving the following week so I gave my details to the owner and had a chat with him about the work etc that would be involved. He told me how many hours I’d be required to work each day and what I would get in return.
When I returned to the hostel to work, not only did I fall in love with the area, I fell in love with the town, people I’d met there and the mountain lifestyle. In the end, I stayed and worked at the hostel for 5 months – I loved it that much.
Working in the hostel gave me the perfect stop-gap in my travels.
The exchange offered me the opportunity to experience daily life in a small, Australian mountain town and not only did I learn a lot about the surrounding area, but I also ended up making some dear friends, some of whom I’m still very close with today, 10 years later.
Now let me tell you all about some of the brilliant work exchange programs out there and how YOU can start your volunteering abroad experience today.
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1. How can I travel and volunteer abroad for free?
Perhaps you’re asking, can I really travel for FREE..?
Well, not entirely. Your travel costs, any healthcare costs, necessary clothing costs, and sometimes your food cost are not covered by the work exchange programs.
What’s normally included is your accommodation, your food or some of your daily meals.
Sometimes your host may provide you with some kind of temporary borrowed transport whilst you stay with them, a bicycle or a travel discount card if you find yourself in a city, and perhaps your host may offer to show you around the area that you’re staying in with their own transport.
Yes, you need some cash behind you in order to cover your plane ticket and yes, sometimes you need to have a certain amount of cash in your bank account to enter some countries. But, these platforms make traveling more accessible for more people from different backgrounds.
You don’t need to let not having a trust fund or not having won the lottery stop you. By joining up to or becoming a member of a work exchange program, you can indeed start your journey and volunteer abroad for free.
Another way to save money while traveling: How to Become a House Sitter – The Complete Guide
2. Why volunteering abroad?
Aside from ticking countries off your destination list and exploring new countries, maybe you’re wondering, why volunteer abroad?
By choosing to volunteer abroad, you can be challenged to open your mind by leaving behind the comfort of your home and immerse yourself in a culture that’s completely different from your own.
A great part of volunteering abroad is getting involved with the people you are there to help, becoming a part of their community, and working together towards a common goal.
The meaningful cultural exchanges that you can experience by helping with chores, sharing food with your host family, and learning from and about one another can provide you with a whole new perspective on life.
There is even research to show that by volunteering and helping others, you can boost feelings of well-being and improve your overall mental health, how wonderful is that!
Volunteer work can help improve your self-esteem, your confidence, help develop your social skills and problem-solving skills. Working abroad can offer you hands-on experience doing things that you never imagined you could do and can give you insight into a whole new way of living in the world.
Before you set off on your travels, it’s important to sit down and do some research not only on the country that you plan on visiting but on the type of work and projects you want to volunteer with.
With a big rise in ‘voluntourism’ over the last few years, it’s really worth asking yourself some questions about the place you plan on visiting such as ‘is it ethical?’.
Ethical volunteering not only concerns how you volunteer, as in choosing to volunteer with good intentions but also is about the project/program you choose and doing the research to make sure that the way they operate does not harm or take advantage of the community it‘s based in.
There are sadly programs that exist where exploitation is happening on a regular basis, be it by exploiting locals and not paying them fairly or by mistreating wildlife and animals in sanctuaries.
This is why it’s really vital that you do your research before you go.
Ask yourself some questions like, what impact does the project have on the local environment, does it benefit the community, and does there sound like there will be an actual cultural exchange? Reading other volunteers’ reviews of ‘Host’s that you’re interested in going to help is a great way to gain an insight into the experience you may have, or want to avoid.
However, if you do your research beforehand, your experience of volunteering abroad can be greatly rewarding, ethical, sustainable, and a wonderful way to travel.
Living with local people and experiencing their way of life, learning a new language, visiting nearby places off the tourist trail are just some of the brilliant things about volunteering abroad.
Most ‘Hosts’ are not just on the lookout for some free labor, they are interested in a meaningful cultural exchange with people who can help them in their work and daily lives. HelpX and Wwoofing are great platforms to start your volunteering abroad journey as all of your time goes straight into helping local people and families.
If the idea of traveling solo has you feeling a little overwhelmed, then volunteering abroad through a work exchange program can offer you the chance to be a part of a family on the other side of the world, learning how to cook food that has been passed down through generations and creating lasting connections and relationships with people who would never have met at the local pub.
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Or if the idea of traveling too far has you a bit spooked, some programs advertise volunteering opportunities in your own country.
I was talking with a lovely neighbor recently and she voiced that she had been feeling the pull of travel in her heart, however, it was travel within Scotland, where she currently lives that had interested her.
I told her about one of these work exchange platforms and she found a handful of exciting opportunities online that same evening. Now, every morning I look out and I wonder if her car is gone because she’s packed a bag and headed off on a new adventure!
Volunteering abroad can also be the perfect way to spend a gap year before starting college or maybe you’re taking a sabbatical from work. Covid 19 pushed us to change and adapt our plans so that people all over the world are considering new lives and ways of living.
Stepping away from a traditionally structured academic year to volunteer somewhere in the world can be the best decision you have ever made, equipping you with important life skills and offering valuable personal development time.
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3. What is work exchange and how does it work?
Work exchange gives you the opportunity to temporarily live somewhere in exchange for work.
You may be asking, how do I go about finding work, do I have to pay to volunteer abroad and how can I stay abroad for free? Well, let me tell you about how it works.
Work exchange is organized through a work exchange program. There are many different programs online but all require you to pay an initial joining or membership fee which allows you to create a personal profile within the program. Each program offers different types of opportunities but all include volunteering opportunities abroad.
Once your profile has been created, you then have full access to a database jam-packed full of different profiles. These profiles give you all of the information about the volunteer opportunities on offer.
They state what type of help is required, the location, how many hours of work they are looking for, and all about who they are and what their place is like. It’s then completely down to you as to where you want to volunteer abroad and the profiles you then choose to select and contact.
There are a number of different programs available to choose from depending on where you want to travel to and the type of work that you’d like to do. HelpX, Wwoofing, Workaway, and Helpstay are all current work exchange programs that exist today and I’ll tell you more about these later in the article.
When doing volunteering work abroad for free, the type of work offered within these programs can vary wildly. There is SO much on offer when you volunteer abroad for free, below are just a few examples of the different types of work available through work exchange for room and board :
- Trekking with alpacas in New Zealand
- Picking grapes in Australia
- Assisting in a Buddhist monastery in Scotland
- Working on a flower farm in Corsica
- Building an eco house/earth ship in Portugal
- Working in a hostel in Barcelona
- Teaching surfing in Bali
And the list goes on and on. The variety of work available through these programs is huge. There is something for everyone and it’s worth taking the time to look through and think about the type of work you actually would love to do before contacting anyone.
Like I mentioned before, it’s important to do some research and ask yourself is the work that’s being advertised ethical? If you’re prepared and knowledgeable about the place you’re headed to then yes, with work exchange, it can be.
All places, through work exchange programs, offer free accommodation in exchange for work. The amount of time you’re required to work each day differs from place to place.
Say for example you choose to become a member of HelpX, and there’s an opportunity to volunteer on a farm, your working hours may be more here than if you choose to volunteer at a hostel, it just depends on what people are looking for and what kind of place you choose.
Once you have chosen where you want to go, you can contact your ‘Hosts’ directly through the work exchange program and start communicating with one another in order to make set plans for your arrival.
Then it’s just a case of booking your flight and packing your bag before you set off on what could be the biggest adventure of your life so far!
A new culture and way of life await you by choosing to do volunteering work abroad, for free!
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4. Advantages and disadvantages of work exchange and volunteering for free
From my first work exchange experience in Australia, I have since volunteered abroad in Italy, France and various places around New Zealand. I have volunteered as a solo traveler as well as part of a couple and each time I have learned something new.
Whether it’s been something about myself or visiting places that only locals know about, work exchange offers so many benefits.
My work exchange experiences have provided me with so many wonderful opportunities from meeting new people and learning new skills, to improving my self-confidence and social interaction with others.
The cultural exchanges I have had with local families across the world have given me some treasured memories. And my eyes have been well and truly opened to opportunities that I didn’t know were even available to me before I experienced work exchange.
I now know that you don’t have to have a huge amount of money in your bank account in order to travel the world. If you haven’t traveled before and the idea of hopping on a plane alone and heading out without a plan is daunting for you, organizing a couple of work exchange bookings could be the answer.
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Like anything, there are advantages and disadvantages to everything. There are some people on these platforms who are unfortunately just looking for free labor.
However, because your work is mostly voluntary, if you find yourself in a place where this is true, you can just leave. It should be an exchange, a chance for you to experience another culture and spend time with your hosts, learning about the local area and helping one another work towards a common goal.
My experience of volunteering abroad in Tuscany, Italy wasn’t one of my most favorite exchange experiences. Mostly because it didn’t feel like a balanced exchange between helper and host.
My partner at the time and I had signed up for a couple’s membership and had found a great-sounding place in rural Tuscany. The work had sounded varied, helping stack firewood, looking after the goats and animals, and helping out with some daily chores, with time off to explore the local villages and area – ideal.
Our week there wasn’t unfortunately a positive one.
Leaving us alone to look after their children in the evenings for more than half of our stay, expecting us to serve their friends food and drinks after our workday had finished, and expecting me to be nanny to their children as my partner was invited to sit and drink beer, all added up to make this experience really disappointing.
Any cultural exchange was sadly non-existent and we had realized that our presence there was purely for their benefit. We parted ways and wrote an honest review of our experience on their profile.
In my opinion, the benefits from work exchange completely outweigh the negative and I’ve only ever had this one slightly disappointing experience in all of the times I’ve volunteered.
Your experience of volunteering will differ from another person’s experience, it just depends on what you hope to get from your work exchange and what you decide to put into it.
Staying open and listening to your intuition would be two pieces of advice that I have held onto each time I’ve traveled somewhere new to volunteer. It could be the greatest experience of your life.
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5. The 4 best work exchange programs
1. HelpX
I would say that HelpX is my go-to work exchange website I use when looking for volunteering work abroad.
Not only does it offer a wide and diverse variety of opportunities, but it’s also easy and very straightforward to use.
Before you’ve even paid your membership, you can access ‘Hosts profiles across the world for free.
This allows you to browse through the volunteering opportunities available to you, in your chosen country and when something catches your attention, you are then prompted to create your membership so that you can contact the Host.
With HelpX, the majority of the Host’s are local people who are looking for some kind of help rather than organizations.
It’s a brilliant website to start with and it’s a bargain to join as a TWO YEAR PREMIER MEMBERSHIP will only cost you €20 for TWO YEARS. You can register here.
2. HelpStay
HelpStay is another work exchange website that offers volunteering opportunities in more than 100 countries.
You can browse volunteering opportunities before joining like HelpX but differently, this website includes charity organizations that ask for payment to volunteer with them.
An annual membership costs €34.00 but they have a great special discounted price of €29.99 for a single person at the moment. You can register here.
3. Wwoofing
Wwoofing (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms or// Willing Workers on Organic Farms) is a platform that provides a way for people to learn about farming, organic food, and culture.
As a volunteer or ‘WWOOFer,’ you get the chance to spend some time working on an organic farm, learning what it’s like, how it works and what sustainable agriculture is all about.
The organization operates on a local basis meaning that you cannot join and access worldwide opportunities through just one membership. Once you know what destination you want to go to, you then become a member of that country’s Wwoofing network.
A WWOOFer yearly membership fee is $55.00 for a single traveler.
4. Workaway
Workaway is our final work exchange platform that I would recommend.
In a very similar way to HelpX, you create your profile and then have access to volunteering opportunities in more than 170 countries worldwide.
An annual membership for a solo traveler will cost you €39. You can sign up here.
I hope that this article has been a helpful guide for you in learning about how you can travel and volunteer abroad for free through work exchange programs, here’s to your next adventure!
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Many thanks your article. Have you a good day
You’re welcome and thank you!
Thank you. This article is was very helpful to get started in a work exchange program. I have the lust for travel but very limited funds