We all see photos and Instagram posts of the highlights from other people’s vacations and think; “Wow, must be nice! Some day, once I have a few million in the bank I’ll travel to those exotic destinations too…”.
The truth of the matter is that world travel could actually cost you far less than your typical monthly expenses back home. What makes international travel so expensive for most people is the ridgid timeline they travel on and the need to do as many activities as humanly possible in a small window of time.
As I was finishing my undergraduate studies I knew that this style of travel was not for me. Frankly, like most other recent university graduates, I wasn’t able to afford an expensive study abroad trip. Instead of going deeper into debt for a foreign travel experience, I resolved to get a job abroad and to earn money while I traveled.
In this article I’m going to go over a few of the most common ways that people fund their travels and minimize expenses so that they can live abroad, even without a trust fund.
Teach English on a foreign visa to establish a temporary homebase
English is the modern language for international business and travel, which means that schools all over the world employ native English teachers. Teaching jobs are plentiful and for native speakers landing a job at a language academy or filling up your days with private English classes should be fairly easy.
The beauty of getting a job teaching English abroad is that you can establish a home base overseas which then becomes a takeoff point for even more travels. Once you’re set up within Europe, for example, the costs of travel diminish exponentially. Using budget airlines like EasyJet or RyanAir, flying around Europe can cost you less than the price of filling your car’s gas tank back home.
As long as you have a university degree or a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certificate, many countries have programs that will provide a student Visa for native English speakers to teach for a year or more. I found a teaching position with the Spanish government (Auxiliares de Conversación) after graduating from university which provided me with a student Visa as well as local health insurance for the year.
There are numerous programs like this in countries such as Japan, Korea, China, or Germany that will pay young teachers to speak with their students and help run their English department. Some countries in Asia will even pay for your flight out there and provide teachers with housing stipends.
For Americans there are positions with the Fulbright association, for Brits there’s the British Council, and for native speakers from any of the major English speaking countries, Educators Overseas offers positions all around the world.
While it may be one of the careers with the most demand internationally, teaching English isn’t the only job out there if you want to move abroad.
Remote work/ Digital nomad visas
As workplaces around the world try to strike a new balance between in-person and remote modalities following the coronavirus pandemic, there are now more options than ever before to earn a living abroad. If the idea of doing your current job from a beach hut somewhere sounds like something you could be into, this might be the option for you.
Using platforms such as Flexjobs or Upwork you can easily find jobs in your current field that are 100% remote. Once you’ve adjusted to working outside of your old office environment, new opportunities worldwide open up to you.
In countries such as Estonia, Costa Rica, Bali or Barbados your dollar will go much further than it did back home. Not only is life more affordable in these places but your free time can be spent exploring new cities, learning about local cuisine or practicing a new language.
Applying for a remote work Visa
Requirements vary from country to country but most of them are looking for proof of a few things: enough savings to show that you can pay for a year of living expenses if necessary, health insurance in the host country and proof of a steady income stream above a fixed minimum.
Once these conditions are met you can apply to any number of countries offering remote work Visas. Living on an average American salary in a country like Georgia or Mexico can be an eye opening experience. Once you realize how inexpensive life elsewhere can be you’ll wonder why you’ve been paying such high prices for so long.
After the pandemic I personally know a number of people who now work remotely and have moved from city centers to more affordable suburban or rural areas.
If you don’t have enough money saved up to take advantage of these types of opportunities there are still plenty of other ways to get started with international travel.
Taking a job or volunteer at a hostel or hotel
Working in hospitality is another classic route for getting established abroad and an easy way to get to know people from all over the world. While many of the places offering volunteer work won’t provide support for Visa paperwork, it can be an affordable way to get to know a few foreign cities on a tourist visa. If you already have a work visa this can also be an easy way to save money during the summer months when most students are away on vacation and jobs are harder to come by.
I have also met countless travelers paying their way by working as cleaning staff in hostels or hotels. They changed the bed sheets each morning, cleaned bathrooms and the common areas for a few hours and then explored the city or relaxed for the rest of the day.
If you have a foreign language under your belt already there are volunteer jobs available working in hostel receptions all over the world as well. If you don’t know where to start, check out my post on learning a new language for travel.
I combined both teaching English and working at a hostel for about 6 months which allowed me to save almost my entire teaching paycheck for summer travels. With a little creativity and hustle, work or volunteering opportunities can present themselves. I later turned my experience volunteering as a hostel receptionist into a paid position in Granada, Spain, which helped supplement my teaching salary.
Working on a cruise / private ship crew
One of the great aspects of working hostel reception is that you get to meet thousands of travelers and hear their unique stories.
Another common way I have heard of people paying for their travels is putting their cooking or sailing skills to work. There are tens to hundreds of people working on cruise ships to make the whole thing run. From entertainers, chefs, waiters, medical support, cleaning crew to deck crew, there are a variety of jobs to be had. Using a website that lists cruise job openings you can easily find jobs that you might be interested in.
These ships often stop for a day or so in various ports, which is generally when you would have some free time to get out and do some exploring. Though you may not get to spend every day immersed in foreign culture, this is still a great way to see the world and meet other travelers.
If you have a lot of experience in hospitality or cooking you can also find positions working on private boats or yachts. One obvious benefit of this arrangement is that most everything you earn goes into your savings account, as it’s hard to spend your savings out at sea.
Working as a nanny or au pair
Many families look for young people to help them around the house and to help their children learn a foreign language while preparing meals and cleaning up. In exchange they generally get free room and board as well as a little bit of spending money for their time off.
Some families will be willing to sponsor your Visa and have you live in their home with them. This type of work generally skews towards female travelers but I have also heard of males working out arrangements with host families. I have even heard of hosts offering to pay for a nanny’s university education if they would commit to staying with the family for a few years.
Using a website like greataupair.com you can set up your profile and find someone in an area that interests you who is looking for someone to help take care of their kids.
Volunteering with organizations like WWOOFing or Workaway
These two also fall into the category of volunteerships that are not likely to sponsor a Visa, but still present a great opportunity to travel inexpensively for a few months at a time.
‘Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms’ or WWOOFing, connects organic farmers with people who are looking to work in organic agriculture and learn some new farm skills.
In exchange for 4 to 6 hours of labor per day you’ll receive food and accommodations. Though there is no payout for the work that you do, the only expense that you will be expected to cover is getting there. This presents a great opportunity for learning about the rural parts of a country while spending hardly any money at all.
Workaway is similar to WWOOFing, though it has a bit more variety as far as the types of work opportunities that are listed on their website. You can find volunteerships at music festivals, working on boats, helping at local schools and tons of other projects including organic farming.
All of these volunteering opportunities are great ways to spend some time in a foreign country at nearly no cost. Most countries in Europe give out a 3 month visa automatically to countries like The United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. If you can find an inexpensive flight to your destination a volunteership can help you stretch your budget for weeks or even months.
Though Americans without visas can only travel for 3 months out of the year in the Schengen zone, if you intend on traveling longer there are still plenty of countries to visit throughout the rest of the world with visa agreements with the US.
Read all about my experience working on a German farm using Workaway.info here.
House sitting or house swapping
If you are looking for a travel experience to get away from work for a while, you could consider trading houses for a few weeks or months with another family. Some of the teachers I worked with in Spain worked out great one to one swaps with families in New York City, for example. If you don’t live in a destination city there are still ways to work out house swaps.
Using a website like homeexchange.com you can list your home online for potential trades. They use a system which allows you to earn “tokens” renting out your home which can later be used as payment in destinations of your choosing. This way you can build up credits and travel wherever you want without needing to find someone who wants to visit your specific location.
House sitting involves a similar process but finds people who can take care of your animals or properties for you while you’re out of town. If you’re worried about leaving your pets behind while you travel this is a good way to make sure they’re taken care of. Conversely, if you love animals and don’t mind taking care of them, you can plan an inexpensive vacation using a platform like trustedhousesitters.com.
The network has members from all corners of the globe which present opportunities for incredible house sitting experiences. I would much rather spend two weeks taking care of a dog in Budapest than paying 100+ euros for a hotel with no kitchen.
Minimizing costs to travel for longer
Adjusting to the slow rhythm of longer term travel can be difficult at first. If you’re used to spending your entire vacation budget over two weeks this can be especially true. There are a few simple things you can do to keep your costs low and therefore buy yourself more time out on the road.
If you’ve committed to taking an extended trip in a different part of the world there are a few expenses you should consider:
- Cut down on expensive alcohol (especially in expensive destinations like Scandinavia) or look to buy it from more reasonably priced supermarkets. Many countries have more relaxed open intox laws than the US, meaning that it’s okay to have a picnic with a few beers out in the park.
- Dine out less often. Eating at restaurants can actually be cheaper in some places and living situations, but in expensive destinations like western Europe you can cut your expenses down significantly by cooking one or two meals a day at home.
- Pause or cancel subscription services you can’t use while traveling (things like Netflix, home country phone bill, Spotify or similar streaming services). I was paying to keep my phone number for over a year before realizing that it just wasn’t worth the extra money. If you have many recurring expenses back home, this is a good time to think about whether or not you really need those services and how often you really use them.
- Take it slow, see as much of a country or region as you can without rushing off to the next place. If you only have a few months, focus on enjoying your time in a handful of locations rather than seeing thirty different places for one day each. After the first week of zipping around you’ll get tired of having the same experiences over and over in different locations.
Final thoughts
This list barely scratches the surface of all of the possibilities out there for living and working abroad. Hopefully these examples have helped you start thinking about what your travel goals really are and how you could possibly fund them. Though you may only see pictures of your friends at the beach or on mountaintops, behind each awe-inspiring photo is everything they didn’t want to post about; grueling hikes, hours of planes, trains and busses, waiting in lines, getting sick, and the list goes on.
Everything in life is a tradeoff and sometimes sacrificing a small comfort here or there can pay off massive dividends in the grand scheme of things. If you’re interested in taking an extended trip or spending a year or two abroad I hope this article has given you some ideas as to how you can make that a reality.
Have you tried any of these types of programs? Drop a comment down below if you have other ideas on how to make a living abroad or similar experiences to share.
Useful links
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/how-apply/fees.html
Information on getting or renewing a passport for Americans
https://www.workaway.info/
Workaway volunteer platform
https://wwoof.net/
Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms – volunteer farm work
https://www.greataupair.com/
Website with families looking for nannies
https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/
Pet sitting / house watching platform to find sitters or sitting opportunities
https://www.allcruisejobs.com/
Cruise ship job opportunities
Homeexchange.com
Page that helps facilitate home swaps
Teaching English Abroad
https://www.britishcouncil.org/study-work-abroad/outside-uk/english-language-assistants
British Council website, opportunities abroad for Brits
https://jetprogramusa.org/
JET – Japanese exchange and teaching program for Americans
https://www.educacionyfp.gob.es/eeuu/convocatorias-programas/convocatorias-eeuu/nalcap.html
Language assistant teaching opportunities in Spain
https://www.educatorsoverseas.com/
Educators overseas- opportunities for any native English speakers to teach abroad
https://fulbright.org/
Fulbright Organization – worldwide teaching opportunities for native English speakers
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