While traveling can be fun, it can also be down right expensive. That is the reason I hear most often as to why people do not travel more. Repeat after me, TRAVELING DOES NOT HAVE TO BE EXPENSIVE! We want everyone to be able to experience the world without breaking the bank. Here are the three things we have done to travel nearly for free!
WWOOF
In the summer of 2016, we spent the summer working and living on the island of Oahu. Hawaii has fairly high living costs, but we managed to live there the whole summer eating and doing whatever we wanted for less than $200 total! How? Though the glory of WWOOFing! The basic idea behind WWOOFing is that farmers around the world need help with their crops, land, etc. but cannot afford full time workers and there are thousands of travelers who would love to stay somewhere for cheap, so WWOOFing brings them together. In exchange for housing and (usually) food, the traveler works a small amount of time on the farm.
We worked on an aquaponics farm that also had a cafe and gift shop. We worked 9 hours a day for 4 days then had 3 days off. The farm was right on the beach and we lived with 5 other travelers in a mini mansion! Because the host did not live to cook, she gave us money every month for food instead. The only time we had to spend our own money was when we wanted to do something more extravagant.
WWOOFing is available all over the world in many different ways! There is no “normal” WWOOFing experience but we cannot recommend the experience high enough!
Downside? You do have to pay to be registered in the WWOOFing system to look at available farms. Also sometimes the farmers can be strict, so make sure you check the reviews from former WWOOFers.
Peace Corps
Most of you who follow this blog know that we are currently volunteers serving in the Peace Corps. For those who didn’t know, surprise! Anyway, is an amazing way not only to travel but to experience and immerse yourself in a culture. Getting into the Peace Corps is much like applying for a job but once you are accepted Peace Corps covers everything. They pay for your flights, housing, food, and medical care for the 27 months that you are abroad. There are six sectors of work you can do in the Peace Corps in more than 60 countries!
We are currently both economic and community development volunteers working at NGOs in Ukraine. So far, we have only spend our own money when traveling abroad in Lucerne and Prague.
Downside? Peace Corps is a very competitive application process and is only available to United States citizens.
Skiplagged
This one is not a program, but instead it is a nice little trick. Skiplagged is a flight search engine that was created with the concept of splitting layovers. Meaning, instead of me buying a ticket directly from NYC to San Francisco for $300, why not buy a ticket from NYC to Seattle with a layover in San Francisco for $170 and just not get on the second plane?
Whenever I am looking for flights this is one of the first places I check to see if there are any good deals floating around. And if you are flexible about your travel dates, they have a very user friendly slide bar to find the best ticket prices. We were able to fly from Oahu to Chicago for about $400 each which is an insanely good deal!
Downside? Finding flights is not an exact science, sometimes there is no better options available than what you will find elsewhere.
What do you do to travel for free? Let us know in the comments so we can try it too!