It's a frequently asked question on oh so many online fora: how can I travel for a really low cost, even free?
If you are imagining yourself being paid to travel from city to city every few days and seeing the most beautiful places in the world, entirely for free, for a few weeks, a few months, even for a year or two, then this isn't the page for you. This page is based in reality. If you are willing to go and work somewhere for at least few months before moving on then, and are ready to be very flexible in your schedule, then, yes, this advice might help you.
I have no program to sell. I don't represent a travel company. I'm just a not-at-all-rich person who travels frequently and wants to help other people do it - and not get scammed.
Here are ways you can work travel "for free" or for extremely low cost, in the USA or abroad (and if you are just looking for ways to camp cheaply or for free across the USA, see this resource):
Campground hosts live in public lands campgrounds, like national parks, national forests, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands, State Parks, State Forests, and even County Parks, for several weeks - even an entire season (about three months). They live for free in their own hard shell, lockable camper (they must provide their own), in exchange for assisting paid staff and other volunteers with campground operations and assisting visitors. Campground hosts remind visitors of campground and food storage regulations, post safety advisories and provide information on area hiking, required permits, points of interest, road conditions and more. They may also handle posting reservations, provide back country permits and provide interpretive programs. Campground hosts provide supervisors and rangers with information regarding campground facilities, visitor use, wildlife sightings and safety concerns, but they do not take direct action involving law enforcement situations. They may also clean the bathrooms, but very often, this is handled by paid staff, and they are never required to handle money. Campground hosts live in designated sites within the campgrounds and are subject to visits and requests for assistance at all hours of the day, though they do get at least one entire day off usually. If they are out of cell phone range, they are expected to drive somewhere to be in range, or stop by park headquarters, to get the latest updates and reservations.
Here's information about being a volunteer campground host in Glacier National Park.
Here's information about being a volunteer campground host in Oregon State Parks.
To find other applications at other parks, type the name of the national park, national forest, national monument, state park or other public land and the words camp host into Google or Bing. For Canada, add Canada to your search.
Some people live year round, or almost year round, as campground hosts, traveling around to different campgrounds every few months all over the USA - and some other countries have camp hosts as well. That means that campground hosts have to complete applications for new gigs regularly so they always have a new place to live ready when another gig is ending.
Note: you must have a hard shell camper of your own in order to be a camp host at most public land sites - most won't accept tent-only campers as camp hosts. That can be a hard shell camper on a pickup. You will also need a very reliable vehicle to get to and from the nearest town for groceries and to get to your next camp hosting gig. When you fill out your application, you are going to be asked a lot of questions about your camper, such as
Some states, like Oregon, recruit people to live in certain remote sites - such as living in an old fire lookout. Some serve as actual fire lookouts. This web site has more information. Some of these roles will even pay you a small fee. However, note that you will live very remotely: no flush toilet, no store within walking distance, and you may need your own four wheel drive vehicle or you may need to backpack in and out for supplies. Here's another really great post on reddit about such opportunities. For these gigs, you have to commit to at least a full season - you can't just drop in and work for a week or two.
HI Wilderness Hostels in Canada have opportunities for both full-time wilderness hosts that live on site at each small, 20-30 bed rustic wilderness hostel and seasonal wilderness hostel relief managers that travel between several of wilderness hostels to cover the days off of the regular managers. Some wilderness hostels have electricity, indoor toilets and hot showers. Some don't have electricity or running water, but do have alternative energy sources that power the lights and heat rooms. One hostel has a sauna heated by wood. The kitchen at each hostel is fully-equipped for all cooking needs, all hostels are surrounded by nature. For these jobs, you have to commit to at least a full season - you can't just drop in and work for a week or two.
There are overnight camps all over North America, most focused on children, and some have housing (usually shared dorms) for some workers. Some require you to be of a certain religion and an active member of that religious community. All want you to have experience working somehow with the clients served by the camp, usually children. Meals are usually included. How do you find these? You start looking for camps where you want to work at least six months before you would want to work there, and you look at their web sites to see employment opportunities they have, and you apply as appropriate.
There's no credible program that places volunteers without a TEFL certification in any environment to teach English. NONE. If you find a program that says they will send you to a foreign country to teach English, but they don't require a TEFL certification, then they are not making students their priority. Same And you should never take a teaching gig The TEFL (teach english as a foreign language) world has become a bit too commercialized and bureaucratized. It can be a real challenge just to find a company that will actually do what they say they will: help you get certified and placed in a school abroad.
If you are ready to make a commitment of at least six months, up to two years, and you are highly skilled in an expertise needed abroad, you may be qualified to be accepted into a Peace Corps program (they have their usual two-year program and a six-month to one-year program), as part of a United Nations Volunteer assignment, or other volunteer-abroad scheme. These assignments do receive a monetary stipend, and you will have days off during assignments to travel for leisure around the area, often to adjacent countries. However, note that these programs are highly competitive for applicants - they do not take everyone who applies. Here's more about volunteering abroad.
If you have ever been on a big, long cruise, you will have encountered people who give lectures and lead short excursions from the ship. Very often, these are not paid staff - they are people cruising for free. The people I know who do this were veteran cruisers - they'd been on a few very long cruises as paid customers - and, therefore, knew how lectures and group leaders are supposed to function. They are charmers and quickly learned who to approach about doing this themselves. They also are both very well spoken and well "put together" - they know how to command an audience. There is a downside to such free travel: such people have to be willing to give up part of their vacation to render the services, they have to always be publicly presentable in terms of dress and attitude and they have to always be ready for positive guest interaction - they are, at all times, representing the cruise line. You also have to be prepared to sometimes do exactly the same cruise twice in, say, a month.
So many people dream of traveling around and working on farms here and there and they travel around. This is far more of a dream than reality. It's just not at all economical for a farm to house and feed unskilled workers who are going to come for just a week or two. Being able to use power tools, having basic carpentry or plumbing skills, and understanding how to operate farm equipment can be helpful, but even with all that, rare is the farmer that can house you. That's why most people that host WWOOFers - the travelers who want to partake of Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) - charge those travelers, in addition to asking them to work at least 25 hours a week. There is no one national or international association of farms that host travelers - there are several associations, and these associations have minimal bars for membership and no regulation of members. The most well known is wwoofinternational.org. You can also do a search for ecovillage and intentional community on your favorite search engine to find opportunities.
The Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Missouri has a work exchange program.
Here's a place in Kenya I found by searching for ecovillage and intentional community: the Sadhana Forest Kenya.
It's up to you, the "volunteer," to talk to a host directly, not some association, about if there are any fees for you to work onsite, what accommodations are like, how many hours a day or week you are expected to stay, what facilities you will have access to (kitchen? bathroom with flush toilet?), etc. Get the agreement in writing - if it's via text, save those texts somewhere in addition to your phone. It is also up to the volunteer to research and arrange any visas required for their such a stay - the host organization probably will not help you, you will be entirely on your own. They may even ask you to tell immigration you are coming as a tourist, so you can get a tourist visa, and to not mention you are going to work on a farm. Most farm stay hosts require workers to be 18 years old. In most countries people below 18 are still considered by law to be children.
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Some of my favorite photos from my travels. Very hard to pick favorites.
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