I sat in the open-aired back of a red Land Rover. Sun rays shattered through the trees as we drove along the dirt road. The cliff that sat a little too close to my right dangled over the ocean below. Feeling like I was thrown into a scene of Mamma Mia, I remarked at the fact that I was in Greece, working on an island, for free.
When people think of travel, they assume the necessity of money and wealth to carry them from place to place. While the luxury of time is needed, there are many ways to see the world for less money — one of these being WorkAway. Workaway is a website that travelers and hosts use to arrange work in exchange for housing. On the site, you can find thousands of listings for people who need workers around the world and are willing to host you to help. There are options anywhere, from nannying on a boat in the South of France to working on a farm in Laos.
This past summer, my sister and I spent a month in Greece through WorkAway for almost no price. We volunteered for a woman who ran Skopelos Trails, a hiking trail maintenance non-profit. Working alongside two other volunteers from Canada and Washington, we spent three days on then one day off, clearing, cutting, and building hiking trails on the island of Skopelos. On our days off, we would backpack around with the other volunteers to different beaches, islands, and hikes.
Aside from the benefit of free travel, Workaway gives you an experience that cannot be bought through traditional travel. Rather than staying in hotels and eating at tourist restaurants, we lived in the (slightly cockroach-infested) home of a local man who was neighbors with the women running the non-profit. We ate in the houses of our host’s friends, discussing Greek politics and the daily struggles of those living on the island. This fully immersive experience was unlike anything we could have paid for. Through Workaway, my sister and I truly lived the life of the locals around us.
With that being said, it is a different way to travel, and it requires finding comfort in uncomfortable situations. You must be the type of person who craves moments where you are so out of your element that you have no choice but to be so present in your reality.
It takes a lot of creativity and a strong desire to truly explore the world, but options like Workaway make that desire a reality.
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