Workaway experiences: The pros & cons of volunteer exchanges

Being a travel lover and at the same time a student with no money is not an easy combination. Traveling requires money, we all know it, which is not always easy to have. But nowadays there are a LOT of cheap ways to travel and discover the real soul of the place we are visiting: volunteer and work exchanges, and in particular Workaway experiences, are one of these possibilities.

Workaway has the right combination of user-friendliness, beautiful layout and amount (50,000+ ones!) of offers. So now I want to tell you a bit about Workaway and what I think are the main pros and cons of volunteer and work exchange holidays!

I spent 3 weeks Workawaying between Portugal and Austria, and now I want to share with you my experience because I think this is a wonderful way of traveling: it gives you an amazing opportunity to combine budget traveling with getting to know new, international people and meanwhile living like a local does. But at the same time, it is not the classic, relaxing vacation: you have to be adaptable, positive, and self-motivated. You are going to a stranger’s home, and it’s all about mutual respect and trust: you are expected to help out for  a certain amount of hours in exchange for room and board, and only in your free time you will actually be doing your tourist things (if you wish to). So it is important to find a project where you’ll be doing something you know you enjoy, or at least something you’re interested to try!

So I’ll tell you what I believe are the main pros and cons of work and volunteer exchange holidays. My particular experience was with Workaway. I’ll start with the cons because I think it is important to know them, and especially because I loved my Workaway experience and I want to highlight the pros at the end, as I really think there are way more pros than cons!

Your volunteer and work exchange holiday will not be like going to an all-inclusive resort, where you can spend all your day at the beach and come back just for lunch and dinner. Being a Workawayer means being a volunteer, a helper, a member of the family or the community who is hosting you, a learner, and a traveller who is open to exploring new environments and new ways of life.

Generally hosts would ask volunteers to help 5 days a week (but you can always ask your hosts for some flexibility), 5 hours per day, that is not much. The kind of tasks volunteers usually help with requires an earlier rise (not ideal if you want to sleep everyday until noon!). The good news is that this way you’ll mainly have the whole afternoon free, and you’ll be able to explore the area. That is good if you are in an interesting place with a lot of things to do around, but if you are staying somewhere isolated with not too many options to go out into town, it may be annoying because you won’t have a lot of time to get to other destinations.

Firstly, choose a place that you like, where you know there are places you want to visit and things you want to do, and be prepared to have some lazy afternoons without a travel itinerary… it’s fine, it’s part of the experience. You are living like a local after all, and it means also enjoying some rest at “your” place.

Secondly, choose a place that offers a type of help you think you’ll enjoy! As obvious as it seems, this is the most important thing, because that’s what you are going to spend your time doing on most days as a workawayer, and if you want to avoid feeling like you are wasting your time you should really take it into account. There are a lot of different offers on Workaway, you can have a look at the website and you’ll immediately have an idea of it. You can find everything, from farming and gardening, to helping out in a hostel, taking care of animals, babysitting, teaching languages, fishing, riding…everything! Choose something you like and time will fly more than you can imagine!

Nothing is free, but it’s all about coming up with an arrangement that is fair for all. Yes, hosts give you food and accommodation for free, but you are expected to give something back too. So you can’t just lie around all day, you should be active, or even better, proactive in offering your time, enthusiasm and skills. Think like a member of the community you are living in, help with cooking, cleaning, everything that can be done and you feel like doing to thank them for welcoming you into their home, and for the friendship and trust. Some rain, a bad day or wanting to go to the beach are not reasons that should keep you from being a team player!

Sometimes they could ask you to do something that was not specified in the agreement, and you might not like the idea. It could be anything, from cleaning their bathroom to catching a runaway chicken, nothing necessarily bad but, if unexpected, it can be disappointing. Of course they can’t force you to do anything, it’s all about helping where needed but it’s not slavery! Just be honest with yourself, and if you decide you don’t like it but you can make an effort and do it, then go on and you might be pleasantly surprised! If not, just politely tell them and from our experience, they will always understand.

If you are Workawaying in a country that is not your own, people could be very different from what you are used to. They could cook you unusual meals, they could have strange behaviors, they could do things you don’t understand or don’t agree with. Just remember the aim of travelling is also getting to know these cultural differences, and you should be prepared for it. If you prefer to avoid this, then you should have a classic holiday at a resort. But if you really want to discover a different culture or way of life, meet different people, try new, unexpected things…Workaway is just the perfect tool!

This is crucial. I think the level of adaptability needed changes a lot from experience to experience, but think about it: the people who are hosting you are often trying to create something, or need help with maintenance, or want to start a new activity. These situations usually mean that the places they are living in are sometimes a bit hectic, or are not even completed yet!

Moreover, hosts might have more than one volunteer at a time, but they might not allhave enough space for everyone in the main house. So there’s always a possibility that you’ll  be living in a caravan, a simple cabin separate from the main house, or anything in between. You usually know it before going, and if there’s not enough detailed information about your accommodation in their profile, you should totally ask about it before making any decisions.

But even if you know it, sometimes arriving at your destination and actually seeing the place you are going to live in, can be surprising. That’s why adaptability is needed most: what can you do if your room is not even technically a room, or your bed is just a mattress on the ground, if that is just how everyone sleeps there? So you adapt, you try to make yourself comfortable and eventually you’ll probably even enjoy it! Just because something is completely different from home, doesn’t mean it is bad – with the right mindset it is a fantastic opportunity to experience a different way of life, just like a local!

When I was in Portugal, I was living in a very rural environment, and my room was in a side house. I had no bed, just an inflatable mattress on the ground. And in hindsight I was probably sharing my accommodation with a couple of mice, which is  common in some places but not easy for a foreign traveller to accept. But I eventually did it!

On the other hand, I enjoyed living in a construction trailer in Austria a lot more than I imagined! It was nice and warm and I had a comfortable bed, quite far away from the main house. I was completely surrounded by some of the most stunning nature I have ever seen, and the quietness was perfect for me after a day of volunteering to be in my own company. It’s annoying if you wake up during the night and need to pee, but if you let life stop you with some little hurdles, you will miss out on the best of an adventure: finding out that there is beauty in every place on Earth.

These were the cons. Only these? Yes. Because if you love travelling, if you want to try something new, if you are thrilled about challenges and unique experiences… Workaway only has pros!

As I said, Workaway offers a lot of different opportunities, basically everything you can think about, in every country of the world. Really. The world out there is crazy: it is full of people who dropped everything, bought a property somewhere and made their dream a reality out of nothing. And it is AMAZING! After all, haven’t you also had your own crazy dream too?

But it is not easy to do it. Most people don’t exactly know what they want, they are scared of making such a big life change, they are limited by societal pressure or responsibilities that they can’t get out of, they keep dreaming about it for the future…….ehm, yes this is me, too. This is most of us! Well, guess what: Workaway was invented for us, for the dreamers who haven’t found their way yet, for people who want to follow their dreams just for a while, without changing their entire life… because with Workaway you can be whoever you want, do whatever you dream, wherever you desire.

So you should follow your passions, your dreams: you can try every lifestyle and every job you can think about for a limited time and with no consequences, even the craziest ones! People who are crazier than you are doing it, and not only will they give you the chance to be a part of it, they’ll also let you go on holiday in their country basically for free!

I love horses and horse riding, and my dream is to work with them one day…with my studies right now I can’t fully commit to this option yet, but Workaway gave me the chance to live my dream and just try it for a while. I volunteered for a charity association in Portugal and helped to save some abandoned, starving horses. Then I went to a therapeutic riding stable in Austria, and it was amazing. These were wonderful experiences that I’ll never forget, and it’s something I am really grateful for, because it made me grow, live my passions and make a difference too. I also got to travel  to two beautiful countries I never had the chance to visit before, on a very low budget.

Volunteering is something really beautiful and helpful, and a lot of people would like to do it as an alternative to a typical holiday. I think helping others in general is something really rewarding, and doing it in a foreign country is a wonderful way to make something more out of your holidays.

But when it comes to making it real, it is not as easy as it should be. If you try to type “volunteer holidays” on the internet a lot of results will come out and most of them are charity associations or travel agencies. In the first case, you are probably going to help at a local community, but usually you have to pay a fee (that can be ridiculously high sometimes) and they will ask you for a minimum stay of some months, with fixed departure times and periods. If you choose a travel agency (it seems like volunteering is becoming “fancy” because a lot of them offer this kind of holiday), you will probably get to do some incredible activities like take care of elephants in Thailand, but they will mostly ask for a lot of money and might not even help the local community.

Workaway allows you to volunteer on your own terms: everything, from how long to where to do it, is all up to you. I only had about 3 weeks this summer to volunteer, and I was able to do it both in Portugal and Austria, trying different things, meeting interesting people, seeing a lot of places…and paying almost nothing!

Moreover, you can really choose what kind of activity you like: if you feel more like working with animals, like me, there are plenty of opportunities from petsitting at your host’s home or volunteering at an animal shelter, to training horses at a stable or helping with marine wildlife conservation. The same for childcare, you can go to Ugandato help at a local school, or help a family in Spain look after their kids! You choose where, when and why, so you can make the best out of your time even if it is not much. 

During a Workaway experience, as in every other travel, you will probably meet a lot of new people from all over the world, from all kinds of backgrounds and cultures. But Workawayers, as well as the people who host them, are special.

Talking to them is eye-opening, since they have seen and done so many things, and it is so motivating that you will immediately start planning your next big trip! They are people who love travelling, like you, and who love life and want to spread positivity, and you can’t help but get along well with this kind of people…because they are exactly like you!

But most of all, people who host Workawayers are incredible people. They can be foreigners in that country, who used to have a conventional job, a house, a ‘normal’ life, and they gave it all up to buy a piece of land and literally build their dreams on it! Or they can be locals, who love meeting international people and opening up their houses to them. In any case, they have great stories to tell, useful skills to teach and a lot of interesting points of view! Meeting all these people in a Workaway experience is one of the best parts of it, and the best (and most logical) thing is that, after a Workaway experience, you will become one of them too.

One of the aims of every trip should be getting to know a new place and the people who live there, apIn this case, Workaway is perfect. Whatever opportunity you choose, you will definitely integrate into the local community, get to know not only travellers but also locals who have lived there all their lives. And it is always interesting to chat with these people. I love to talk about politics and culture with people from other countries, for example, because I am always shocked at how many differences (or similarities) there are where you would never expect them!

It is also perfect if you want to learn a language or to regain one you studied in your childhood: of course it won’t be easy without a language course, but with a good book, an app on your smartphone and a lot of motivation, it’s incredible how helpful it is to be immersed into a language!

Sometimes, hosts offer to teach you their language too in exchange for some lessons in your native language…a really immersive (and inexpensive) way to improve!

Let’s be honest, who has ever heard about a town called Odiaxere, in Portugal? Or about Radenthein, a small place in southern Austria? Maybe someone has but probably very few, not even the people who have visited Portugal or Austria.

So, you probably won’t know that near Odiaxere there is an incredibly beautiful lagoon, perfect for kite-surfers, where the blue waters blend with green strips of cultivations and white sand. And after climbing some sandy dunes, you find yourself in front of the ocean, beautiful and completely unexpected.

I didn’t know it either, and I would have never known it if it wasn’t for Workaway. When I found the charity house for horses in Portugal, I would have never expected that wandering to the beach alone one day would end up the most memorable experience I had in that beautiful lagoon (probably one of the best beaches I have ever seen!).

When we travel, we usually go to well known tourist destinations, we look for the most popular  places to visit on Tripadvisor and go home with a perfectly typical trip just like everybody else. When you Workaway, you find yourself in places tourists would probably never visit because they don’t know them, but that may be equally amazing. It’s a totally different way of discovering a place, one that is not based on a pre-planned itinerary, but on discovering the place you found yourself by going off the tourist path. And if you are a travel lover who loves to explore, it will be a priceless experience.

What else can I say about this amazing experience? I am so grateful I had the chance to do what I did, see what I saw and meet the people I now call friends for life. But what I wanted to do is to explain everything I could about Workaway or volunteer/ work exchanges in general, both in the negative and the positive parts. So that if you decide to do it, you’ll know what to expect. But, ultimately, if you are a travel lover the way I am…you can skip all the cons at the beginning and start to plan your next Workaway experience right away!

Good luck fellow travellers, and don’t forget to share your experience with the community🙂