Blog Post #12: How to Travel the World for >6 Months with only $10,000 CAD: Workaway

Read time: 10 minutes

TLDR:

• $10,000 is enough to travel for 6 months provided you don’t mind a slower pace and exchanging work for room and board
• With work-exchanges, it’s amazing for cultural exchange and you can decrease travel costs by eliminating costs those of accommodations and food
• I used Workaway to connect me with hosts and it works for couples too. If you have a family, an alternative would be home exchange.

Preamble:

Hello Readers,

Some people have asked me how I manage financially to travel for an extended amount of time so this post is for you!

Background:

In July 2023, I quit my job and left Vancouver to go travelling for 2-6 months. Little did I know that 2-6 months would turn into 9 months (and now with the plan to be 2 years). Financially, this was anxiety provoking for me especially since I come from a family of accountants and frugal living was in my nature. Even though I have a good amount of savings, planned for this trip 6 months in advance and had a regular budget, the idea of spending money and not saving it was anxiety-provoking. I was only used to saving money for the majority of my life!

The Original Budget:

When I originally did my budget for this Europe trip, I calculated that it would cost ~$30,000 for 6 months. WOW way too much money! I wasn’t comfortable spending that much (I told myself that at $15,000 spent, I would go home), but for me it was helpful to have a ballpark of knowing worst case scenario. What I realized over time; however, was that one doesn’t need that much money, even when you account for things like accidentals. Below are my original calculations (you do not need this much):

Cutting down the Costs:

Looking at the spreadsheet, it’s easy to see that the majority of the costs come from food and accommodations. Once I learned how to take care of those expenses, the costs became quite minimal. Now a few caveats to consider:

• I’m someone who doesn’t need to be out seeing tourist sites each day – I like slowing down
• I enjoy living with travellers/families/locals who will show me their life

Considering Work-Exchange:

Back in late October 2023, I was feeling really burned out. I was tired of finding places to stay, things to do and I wanted to park myself for a while, but wasn’t ready to go home. I also noticed that I had a tendency to go out and explore a city even when all I wanted was to hide in my room just because I’d paid $50 for a night and didn’t want to “waste” my time. TLDR: long term travel requires parking oneself and chilling out once in a while. You can read about it: here).

Anyway, I was fortunate that I came across some travellers in Albania who recommended I try Workaway. (i.e. exchanging work for room and board). I’d heard about this before, but was a little intimidated. Many thoughts plagued my mind: Will I be safe? How do I get to these locations? Will it be fair? etc. etc. etc. The people I spoke with though gave me the confidence on how to find safe exchanges so I thought I’d give it a shot.

A couple days later, fortune shined on me because I was already at a hostel in Albania and they had an opening for a volunteer! It was a super homey hostel with the owner’s grandma who cooked the meals.

My First Work-Exchange: Blue Door Hostel:

The arrangement was for a bed and 2 meals a day, I’d help out in the hostel at 25 hours/week. 5 days on, 2 days off. Work was easy and fun…the homey chores that I desperately missed in my day-to-day life. It consisted of checking in/out guests, answering questions, doing and folding laundry, preparing beds and generally making sure the hostel was clean. Thank you Mimi and Leo for making my first experience such a wonderful time…and for only giving me morning and afternoon shifts so I could sleep early and not be a grumpy cow. ^^

Making a Family of Volunteers:

Volunteering at Blue Door, I also made myself a little family of volunteers. These goofballs were taught me the ropes.

Workaway – What is it and How does it work?

Nothing lasts forever. Even though I was having a blast, I could only stay in Albania for 3 months so I needed to find my next place to go. How I did that is via Workaway. It’s a website catered to people wanting to exchange work for room for board. There are tons of hosts all around the world and there are so many different work experiences. I personally love this concept because I get to learn skills from others, learn their cuisine and have the chance to experience how others live their lives.

The set up is pretty simple. You make a profile, list your skills, add some photos and start searching. The cost is $49 USD as a single person (the same as one night’s accommodations in a European hostel). You can even start your search without having made a profile so if you see something you’re interested in doing, then make a profile and away you go.

Workaway – How Do I Pick?

There are several different factors and each has led me to very safe, amazingly fun and interesting experiences.

Factors I Consider	Comments
Safety – does the host have only 5 star reviews?	This is an absolute must for me especially as a solo female traveller. I want to know that my host has a similar mentality and has treated others well.
Does the work sound interesting?	There are so many places to stay and you’ll have a much more fun time when you enjoy what you do
What can I learn?	Free skills to be learned from across the world. I’ve considered working on a farm because with my city upbringing and job as a pharmacist, when am I ever going to work on a farm? Plus, maybe country living is more my style? Don’t know unless you try.
Does it include food?	Not a necessity, but it’s fun to eat local cuisine in a family home. Without food, typically the work is less at ~15 hours/week.
Location?	If it’s in a really rural area, I might not have an easy way out if things go sideways. Plus, I also want it in a central enough area that I can go sightseeing on my days off.
Timing	Hosts look for workers from anywhere between a couple days to 1 year so it’s great even if you only want a short stop.

Contacting the Host:

After a choose a Workaway Host that I’d like to work with, I send them a message and request a video conversation. I think this step is super important to get a feeling of the person and ensure that both parties are on the same page. I ask questions that clarify their profile and ask what a typical day looks like and also if I can share their contact information with my mom. It makes my mom feel better knowing where I am and that she has someone to contact in case of emergencies. Also, if they’re normal people, they’ll understand my mom’s concern and often are super happy to have someone in case of emergencies too!

My Next Workaways:

Honestly, it’s pretty hard for me to go back to hostelling because I’ve only had amazing experience with Workaway. I lived with Nati and her family teaching her boys English in Barcelona, lived with Gaby and Tamàs in Budapest cleaning their guesthouses and travelled to Taiwan and stayed at Unlimited Lights Chinese Culture Academy helping them translate a pamphlet into English. Each Workaway has taught me about their culture and would definitely not be something I would have experienced had I been staying in a hostel. Staying in a hostel isn’t bad and I still do at times, but I enjoy the cultural experience more of work-exchanges.

Revisiting the Budget:

If we remove the costs of food and accommodations, here’s the new costs:

To be realistic though, you’ll need to spend some money on food, so let’s round it up to $10,000. $1500 worth of food ($250/month) is plenty provided you don’t mind cooking sometimes. Also even though Workaway is great, sometimes I do need to stay in hostels/hotels so keeping money for a few nights’ accommodations set aside is a really good idea (see. Misc.).

Also, having $2000 set aside for a emergency flight home and having travel insurance is essential to me. Flight costs can get expensive especially when it’s last minute so make sure not to spread yourself too thin especially if you don’t have other savings.

As an aside, $10,000 will last you even longer depending on how you want to travel. When I was in Albania living in Blue Door Hostel, my expenses totalled around $300/month and that was only because I really wanted some random Asian ingredients and to take transportation here and there.

Couples or Families:

Workaway is also available to those who enjoy travelling with friends or with their partner. The membership is slightly more expensive for a couple membership ($59 USD), but well worth it again.

If you have a family, Workaway isn’t the ideal situation, but I came across the concept of home exchange on my travels. It’s the way Nati and her family in Barcelona are managing to get free accommodations for 3 months in both Seattle and Vancouver! I don’t know much about it as I personally haven’t done it, but many people do it even for 1 week vacations.

Summary:

Travel really doesn’t cost as much as you think provided you’re willing and interested to stay with locals and learn the local trade. Go out, explore and have fun ^^

~Tracy

ps: if you want to see my Workaway profile, here it is: My Workaway Profile

pps: my cousin taught me tons about financial independence which helped me get to where I am now. Her blog is here and talks about tips/steps to early retirement: https://eatsleepbreathefi.com/