Workaway reviews, feedback and ratings - page 6

I spent 6 wonderful weeks at this place. I look back at my time with so much joy. I arrived during the last bit of the rainy season and was welcomed in pouring rain and by two other lovely volunteers (Ella & Maelle) with whom I was for two weeks together at the stables. The other four weeks I spent with Saita, who is every bit as great as the other reviews say, as well as two new volunteers, and of course Gnern and Chanti (the fantastic local staff). Saita is a very kind and happy person, and you can learn a lot from her about horses and Lao life and history! She has rescued and trained all the ponies herself. I loved that they were only ridden bitless. Though I had quite a bit of experience with horses earlier in my life, it had been a long time and I am very happy to have both learned new things and re-learned old things during my time here. This was exactly why I wanted to come to the stables, and I’m very grateful for it. The ponies are fantastic. Each of them has their own personality and I had a great time getting to know them all! The location of the stables itself is beautiful, a green oasis, and Saita has put so much time into building the stables and guest lodges. The work itself mainly consists of feeding, brushing and taking out the horses in the morning and cleaning their paddock, and bringing them back in late afternoon. When there were lessons, I was able to assist sometimes. In between, I was able to go on some beautiful horse rides in the Luang Prabang country side, do lots of sightseeing around Luang Prabang, went hiking for some days in Nong Khiaw, celebrated the beautiful Boun Lai Heua Fai festival, and many more. All in all, I had a wonderful time and can only recommend this WorkAway. By the time I left, it felt a little bit like leaving home. Thank you Saita!

Elia has worked at our place for quite a long time. He is efficient, reliable and hard working. Great at cooking, able in the gardening area and a lovely and intense, company to have around. A strong friendship has born! Thank you so much Eli for all the time you spent with us and the big help!

My partner and I stayed with Monique and Jürgen for a week, and we very much enjoyed our time with them. They are such a warm and welcoming couple, and they truly made us feel as if we were part of their family. Monique is a talented cook, and everything she made was delicious and healthy. Jürgen is a great musician, and we very much enjoyed listening to him play. We appreciated their help getting to and from the train station so we could do a day trip up to Vienna, as we don't have our own vehicle. We helped with small DIY improvements to their house. The work schedule was flexible. They always checked to make sure we were comfortable with the tasks and that we weren't overworking ourselves. We could have easily spent longer with them, and we both hope to see them again in the future.

It was a great exchange and a good start of the year, being on Nina’s farm with the girls and all the animals. Sheep, horses, donkeys, chickens, ducks, dogs, cats, wild animals…The list goes on! Many of them roaming free on the land. I guess if you work well here, you get fed well. Food there was always plenty & tasty and I didn’t starve here; wild boar burgers with fries, Thai soup with gambas, Rothkohl mit knödeln (German specialty), but of course, you have to work for it!🪚 There’s many and more things to do here on the farm (It can be overwhelming sometimes), but there is the possibility to pick up a project that you like to work on. For example I made the compost toilet for volunteers. So when you (new volunteer) sit there, sheltered and dry, with the beautiful views, thank me in silence🙏 For me it was the first time to be fully integrated in all the family dynamics, which I greatly enjoyed, but sometimes, in the hustle and bustle of busy mornings, I needed a bit more calmness and that was no problem, and I appreciate the good communication with the host. The land is quite wild and has many hectares. You could visit Monsanto from here, or do some nice walks or just spent time with the animals or yourself. I hope to come back to pick up another project.

We stayed with Bishwo and Lena for 1 month, living in the Hostel and working in the farm, and what a wonderful time we had! Work was either construction such as plastering and painting or farm work, and we even built a bamboo barn all together. We learnt so much from both Bishwo and Lena about harvesting and planting and maintaining land. The project they are doing is very exciting and we consider ourselves lucky to have contributed towards it. We met some amazing volunteers and guests during our stay and enjoyed lots of lovely social time together, almost like a family! Bhaktapur itself is a very special place. Bishwo and Lena were great at showing us around and sharing local knowledge and culture. We also had lovely food and cooking experience there thanks to Nisal 🙏 We would definitely return if we come back to Nepal in the future! Thanks for everything once again! 💙

We looked after Sanna and the house for 5 weeks between December and January. We had an absolutely amazing time there. Seb and Alex made us feel very welcome and made sure we had everything we needed while staying there. They gave us a lot of recommendations for the area, and if we had any questions or problems, they were always quick to answer. The instructions were also always very clear and not complicated. We absolutely fell in love with this place, and of course also with Sanna. We had a lot of fun exploring, and while the surroundings were already absolutely beautiful without the snow, it felt like a winter wonderland as soon as the snow came in. We're really grateful for the time we got to spend there and for Seb and Alex for trusting us with Sanna and their home. We're really gonna miss Sanna, our daily walks, her stick obsession, playing and cuddling with her, and the cozy feeling of the house. So again, thank you so much for this experience! Alina & Ella PS: We really hope that she stopped knocking on the door

My experience with Vivienne and her amazing family was truly the most educational and incredible experience. Vivienne actually contacted me to stay with them as my profile seemed to fit what she was looking for, and I'm glad I accepted her request!! I stayed for a week (shorter than planned as my onward plan changed) and I did/saw so much. The kids, Vovo and Remi, are the most intelligent children I've met. they both speak English and mandarin (vovo more as he's older) and there were many times I had to rely on him to translate between other locals we met and myself which humbled me ! I was lucky enough to go to his football class and gymnastics class which was so cool to see this from a Taiwanese perspective. I must say Vivienne put a lot of trust into me from the beginning as she let me take him myself to football class and it was so nice to see him play with his friends as well as inviting me to play with them too! I also taught him a little gymnadtics of my own, as well as drawing with him (and Remi too sometimes!) aaaand even teach him and his friend about shapes (via a shape book). My last day I got to teach a couple other children how to cook lasagna, and even though I'm not a good cook (and the lasagne was undercooked haha) it was truly so fun to show how to make a dish that's maybe less common in Taiwan. I'm very very grateful for all the opportunities Vivienne gave me and I learnt so much. The kids are wonderful and I even got to meet Vivienne's husband's wider family and enjoyed great food, and good conversation. (Btw Aping the husband is a little shy but I really think we bonded well towards the end!) They live in a beautiful area, very quiet and friendly with views of mountains and lots of trails nearby where you can use their bike to explore. We went to outings and I often felt part of the family. I really recommend workawaying with this family if you get the chance and you will both receive a great experience and also learn all the wonderful things Vivienne is working towards relating to her home schooling plans and super mum activities. One side note to say though is if your anything like me (a mixture of introvert and extrovert) the kids can be a little overwhelming after hours of playing with (mainly Vovo) so a simple explanation to him that you need a little break and he will understand! and then you can rest and come back down when you've recharged 😂 I will miss everyone!!!! thank you for this opportunity :)

I really enjoyed working together and spending time with you, your family, and your friends. Ted is the heart of a local community—always surrounded by friends and organizing events, so it never gets boring. Thank you very much for your trust and hospitality.

Before I went to La Mesa, I never would have dreamed that I would have such a wonderful time there. In the end, I didn't want to leave. I spent six weeks with Debra and couldn't have imagined anything better. She is a warm-hearted person, very thoughtful and profound, and I felt that she didn't expect much. I just took care of the two cute ponies and helped Debra clean the house and yard from time to time, but otherwise I was allowed to do only things I love and enjoy: cooking and baking, painting and woodworking in the barn, and a little gardening. It was so easygoing. The fridge was always full of the best food. Debra took me to meet her friends and to the most beautiful places. We had a lot of fun doing different things—the beach, the coast, parties, gaming, hiking... I feel like we became friends during my stay, and I hope she comes to visit me or that we take a trip together as planned.

Jenny was a lovely workawayer. She is very creative and thoughtful. A gentle soul who embraced the life here and entered all the tasks and activities I was able to offer her. She brings with her an intrinsic sense of peace and calm that was welcomed. She loved the doggies and and was always kind and generous with her time spent with them and me. I have no hesitation in recommending Jenny to future hosts.

Dominik was a great guest , helped us with our animals and some work around garden. Lovely experience. Recommended to other hosts!

I stayed in the monastery for initially 20 days, in November and it was so good that I decided to see if I can stay an extra 10 days and they said that I could, the work is really chill and nothing is pressured, the people working there not only the workawayers but the people from the EU government thing (sorry I forgot the name) were really social and wanted to get to know people and so you feel right in with the community. Also if you are Christian this is a great place to develop ur faith, when I came it was amazing and the presence of God was definitely felt, but even if ur not religious at all this a great place as of course you are not forced to do anything you don't want to do, and you can learn a lot about Christianity as many of us would talk about the origins and the proof etc. overall it's an amazing place and actually is a 5/5 place

Alex and Andi are an asset to the work away community. They are reliable and trustworthy. Can see what needs to be achieved and can do a good job with procision. They painted the terrace and helped with the design of the garden.You will be happy you chose this energetic couple. Enjoy your adventure guys.xx

Misky was really a delight to host. She was very flexible with her time and went above and beyond helping out with everything . Always a kind and positive attitude, she was patient with my crazy schedule, paid close attention to instructions, and quickly adapted to all tasks. We all enjoyed the time she spent here and fully recommend her to any other hosts lucky enough to get a request from her.

Awesome awesome and even more awesome. Great worker, clean, friendly and extremely helpful.

Stanislav is a very secure person. He speaks very well English. He has done gardening overhere, mowing - also with the tractor - and replaced the battery from the bluetoothspeaker, which was a difficult, precise job!

I visited this place six months ago and the feeling of staying there is still in me. I feel like it was a month that I needed, just slowing down, meeting new people, taking care of some duties, actively participating and actively listening to both wonderful and vulnerable stories and experiences. What I would love everyone to know before coming there, since I have spoken with some volunteers about this, is that you help to shape this place and then this place helps to shape you. Just to remember, that you are a part of the community, the community is not waiting for you, you have to (or you should want to :) ) help to create it. Simply said, don't expect anything and welcome everything. Practically, I stayed for one month in summer (July-August) when it was hot, well, it is summer in Spain and I was afraid of it. Luckily, you can spread your work according to you and stay in the house when it is the biggest heat so that was no problem. There is work for anyone who is willing to find it. People in here, volunteers or not, are happy to teach you new skills and even if not, there is still work for you, don't worry. On the other hand, a big part of the time the "work" didn't feel like work, sometimes it just meant playing with Enki, a bit of cleaning or taking care of plants which are also nice ways to relax. I was working 5 hours a day and still got plenty of time for myself and for getting to know others. I think it is great to stay a bit longer as you get to know more people&get to know them better but also you can see how everything works a little bit more, but for that I would need to stay longer than 1 month of course. That said, thank you for allowing us to come to your place! One day, may we meet again :)

Karla was huge help to our shelter and dogs loves her. A lot of them were in walk every day which is very big help to us, we dont have much time with all other work. She is very nice person and we recommend her totaly for the future.

A very lovely place. Goshen is very experienced in gardening and he teached me a lot. I really enjoyed the fresh fruits fromcthe garden. Thank you for receiving me as a guest!

It was a great experience and Helena and Justin are super lovely hosts. The dogs are cute and like cuddles. Highly recommended place, thanks for having me there as a guest.