Do you love to travel but have the need to travel cheap? When you travel, do you enjoy meeting locals? Do you ever dream about living in a different country for a while to immerse yourself in the culture? If so, consider joining the “workaway” community.
What is Workaway?
Workaways are a type of exchange where the host offers free room and board for an agreed amount of time in exchange for some type of assistance from the workawayer. The most well known site for these types of exchanges is workaway.info. There are alternative workaway sites, but workaway.info is the one I’ve used (both as a workawayer and as a host), so that is the one I’m going to focus on here.
How Workaway Works
Both hosts and workawayers create profiles on the workaway website which include photos. The hosts’ profiles contain a description of where they live, the type of help needed, and information about the hosts themselves, including what languages they speak. The workawayers’ profiles include general information about themselves, their interests, and their skills. There is plenty of space provided to share as much as you want about yourself and I think it helps a workawayer to get accepted if they take the time to write a good and thorough description of who they are. Hosts profiles are free, and at the time of this writing, workawayers pay an annual fee of $59 for individuals or $69 for a couples account. (Couples accounts are for any two people wishing to travel together, not necessarily couples.)
Before any profiles are published on workaway.info, they are reviewed by the website’s staff, but background checks are not conducted and identity verification is not mandatory. However, the site does offer optional ID verification for both workawayers and hosts at no additional charge. Anyone who is ID verified will have a badge on their profile.
Typically, it’s the workawayer who makes the initial contact by reaching out to hosts that they are interested in. Although not as common, it is also possible for hosts to search for workawayers and make the first contact. As a workawayer, it’s very easy to search for hosts based on location, but I’ve found that the search filters for types of work don’t work very well.
The type of help that hosts advertise for can be just about anything (although if you help them in a business, they are supposed to pay you something). I’ve read hundreds of host profiles and I found that the following are the most common types of requests, at least in Europe:
- Building and renovation projects.
- Childcare
- Elder Companionship
- Permaculture projects.
- Help with gardening and housework.
- Assistance with a foreign language.
I noticed that the majority of workawayers on the site are young (mostly 20’s and 30’s), so I was a little concerned that I’d have trouble finding opportunities, since I was 56 at the time I joined workaway. But, thankfully it hasn’t been a problem. Workaways provide a great opportunity for people of all ages, including seniors, to volunteer abroad. I think you just need to be realistic about whether or not you fit well with the needs and desires of each host before applying.
The reason I joined workaway was because I wanted to experience what it’s like to live in Italy. But I decided to do a workaway in the U.S. before trying to find one in Italy. There were a couple reasons for this. One reason is that the hosts and the workawayers review each other, and I wanted to get a good review on my profile before applying to well-reviewed hosts in Italy that may be competitive. The other reason was that I wanted to do my first workaway closer to home in case I hated it. Well, I’m glad to say that I didn’t hate my first workaway experience in Vermont. In fact, I enjoyed it very much, but I did discover there are some important things to consider.
Harvesting Garlic
How to Ensure a Good Workaway Experience
1. Scrutinize the host’s profile. In addition to reading the entire profile multiple times, pay attention to the details (or lack thereof) in the photos. Two young Italian women who my husband and I hosted recently had a pretty bad experience with a host before coming to our house. Although they said that the woman was very nice, the living conditions in the house were horrible. The photos on this host’s profile were kind of odd. Most of them had a very narrow field of view. For instance, one photo showed a plant and a small part of a fence, another photo showed an empty hallway, and there were no photos with people in them.
2. Read reviews carefully. I find that if a host is really nice, workawayers are reluctant to give less than a 5-star review, even if the experience warranted it. (This is also true of Airbnb hosts/guests.) So read each review carefully and critically, looking for any hints of criticism. The host profile includes both reviews they receive as well as the ones they give. Be sure to also read the reviews that the hosts have given; from those, you can gain a lot of information about what the host is expecting from their workawayers. Also, if you see that the host’s profile includes a lot more reviews that they’ve given than ones they’ve received, that can be a red flag! This was the case with the unpleasant workaway situation I described above. The host had given out six reviews but only received two, and one of those reviews was from someone who had stayed on their boat, not in their house.
3. Ask a lot of questions ahead of time. Most hosts like to do a video call before accepting someone. If they don’t ask for it, you should insist on having one. You’ll want to make sure you are comfortable talking to your host. Don’t ignore any negative vibes you might get during the call. Make sure you fully understand what to expect from your accommodations. The cabin I stayed in at my first workaway didn’t have running water or AC, and I went to the bathroom in a porta-potty outside my front door. This was pretty well described in the host’s profile, but if your host’s profile isn’t clear, be sure to ask very specific questions.
Downstairs Interior of My Cabin
Also, make sure you fully understand the type of work you are expected to do and the hours you will be working. Ask questions like, What time does work start?. Do we get breaks? What time do we usually finish in a day? The host profile might say no more than 5 hours a day, but when you get the fine details, you may find that it adds up to more.
If you won’t have a car, be sure to ask about transportation. Not just how you will get to the host, but also, how you might get around on your days off.
Ask about meals if the host’s profile wasn’t crystal clear. Will the host provide all of your meals? Will you have to prepare them or will the host cook? Will everyone in the house be expected to eat together? If you have dietary restrictions, be sure your host understands them up front.
4. Be realistic about your capabilities. If you are someone who typically spends most of your day sitting indoors, then you are going to be exhausted if your host is asking for 4 to 5 hours of help in the garden every day. Trust me. I learned that lesson.
5. Once you are committed, go in with an open mind and try to stay positive. Keep your expectations low and focus on meeting new people and learning about different ways of life. Your workaway might be everything you hoped for and more, but realistically, new places and experiences are seldom exactly what we imagine they will be.
There was another workawayer already there when I arrived at my first workaway on 50 acres in the country. She was a young woman in her 20’s from New York City who told me she was a country girl at heart. Apparently, she had done one other workaway on a horse farm and had found that really enjoyable. Well, I think the expectations she formed from her first workaway, made her miserable when she arrived and found a totally different situation. She even had a bedroom in the house with a bathroom right next door, so I’m not really sure what she found so objectionable. But after about 3 days she made up an excuse and left.
During that same workaway in Vermont, I struggled at first with not having a bathroom in my cottage. As promised, there was a port-a-potty right outside my front door, and my host kindly had it emptied before my arrival. Well, I learned that port-a-potties smell really bad right after they’re emptied, and the smell is magnified in sunny 90+ degree weather! I tried to avoid using it at all costs, which during the day was fine because I was allowed to use the bathroom in the house which was about a 10 minute walk up a hill. But when I had to go in the middle of the night, that walk really wasn’t feasible. And even after the smell subsided, I wasn’t comfortable going into the port-a-potty with no light.
Exterior of My Cabin Which was Part of a Garage/Barn
So, I improvised. I repurposed a 32 ounce plastic container that I’d brought with me to use as a pee cup. It took some practice, but I eventually got pretty good with my aim! Then in the morning, I’d throw the content over the steep incline adjacent to my cottage. I hope that story didn’t scare you away from doing workaways, but that is an example of why you should really think through what you’re getting into, and keep a positive outlook.
Despite unexpected hot temperatures, exhausting work, and bathroom challenges, I really enjoyed my first workaway experience. I got to take in a little of the Vermont local culture, I learned some new skills, but most importantly, I met some great people! And two years later, I met my goal of doing a workaway in Italy. Actually I did two workaways back-to-back for a total of 3 ½ weeks in northern Italy.
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