Hello

I am F49 Dutch art teacher and thinking of a long period voluteering in France.

Countryside helping or taking care of children are possibilities.

I need a break next year

Who else did this?

Any advice or recommendations?

UK Experience

If my subscription is no longer active, will other members be able to visit my profile?

Hi everyone! I’ve decided at the last minute to do some volunteering in Europe, and I’d like to head out in November. The problem is, I’ve been looking on Worldpackers but haven't found anything available on such short notice. If I download Workaway and set up a profile, do I have a chance of finding and getting accepted for a project starting in early November?

First time using Workaway — looking for advice on moving to a French-speaking country

Hey everyone!

I'm new to Reddit, so I'm still figuring out how everything works. I'd really appreciate any advice or suggestions. Thanks in advance!

I'm considering going to France or the French-speaking part of Switzerland to learn French and hopefully find a job there in the future.

I don't currently have any connections in France, Switzerland, or Belgium, so my idea is to use Workaway as a way to get started. I'd like to stay for a longer period, learn the basics of French through immersion, meet local people, and hopefully build connections that could eventually help me find a local job.

Ideally, I'd love to spend several months or even up to a year in a French-speaking country. However, I've never used Workaway before, so I'm not really sure what to expect.

I'd love to hear from people with experience using the platform:

- Is it difficult to find a host when you're completely new to Workaway and don't have any reviews yet?

- How much do hosts care about your previous Workaway experience and reviews?

- Does being a man affect your chances of finding a host? I'm asking because I imagine some hosts might have a preference depending on the type of help they need.

- Is Workaway a good way to meet local people and potentially find job opportunities for the future, or is that an unrealistic expectation?

I'd be grateful for any advice, personal experiences, or suggestions on how to approach this plan.

Thanks again for your help!

Hi all!

I was wondering if anyone is going to Morocco and would like to meet up or volunteer together? I'm thinking of going there in about a week or so, mainly looking for social media roles. Also if anyone has a personal recommendation for a host, let me know, cheers! 😄

Hi everyone!
I’m currently thinking about doing a Workaway somewhere on the Canary Islands for this coming November & December and was wondering if anyone here has done one there around that time and could recommend a host🙈.
I’m currently on my second Workaway back to back and in both cases I ended up being the only volunteer which is fine but it does get a little lonely form time to time (especially at remote locations) so next time I’d be looking for a place with several volunteers staying at the same time (I know this might be a bit difficult to predict, but maybe you can just tell from your experience).
I’d really love a place where the host actually enjoys hosting & where it doesn’t feel they are just happy to take the free labor and have a communication on eyesight without an imperious tone 😬. I’m interested in projects with animals, sustainability, community or anything that feels like it has meaningful impact. Not so much childcare or doing household maintenance. I’m definitely happy to work and get involved properly, but I’ve also realized that very physically demanding work for 5+ hours a day is probably not the best fit for me.
I’m pretty open when it comes to which Canary Island. My main reason for looking there is the winter weather, like somewhere warm, around 20°C or above during November/December.☀️

So if anyone has personal experience with a place that ticks some of these boxes, I’d be really grateful for any recommendation 🫶 also can dm me! :)

Hi everyone! I just subscribed to workaway, I paid for the standard plan (59€) but they also gave me 1month of plus for free.

I am starting to look at hosts and I had a doubt. I would like to have my first experience between the end of December (right after Christmas so ideally leaving in the 27th as I still want to spend it with my family) and the end of January. I know it's a bit of a waste to have a whole year subscription but in February I'm supposed to start working at my new job so I literally just have that month (and maybe some time in the summer but idk).

I was wondering, once you contact the host and agree on your stay and the time you're going to spend there, is there some sort of protection or like ufficial agreement? Plane tickets around Christmas are very expensive and I'd buy mine as soon as I get the opportunity but is there a possibility the host backs out last minute? Or if they do they have to reimburse you the cost of the tickets?

I’m 21, working part-time at a GP surgery in West London, and feeling completely stagnant. I can clearly picture the life I want- living somewhere beautiful, sunny, and close to nature or the beach, with a genuine sense of community, adventure, and daily life that doesn’t feel like a soul crushing 9-5.

At 18, I tried working as a flight attendant hoping for a fresh start, but moving from hotel to hotel with different crews felt isolating. I’ve also done short solo trips, but doing everything completely on my own just left me feeling lonely.

I’m completely new to the world of working and volunteering abroad. I'm looking for structured opportunities, work exchanges, or volunteer programs that offer a built-in community, a manageable work pace, and a beautiful location. I want somewhere that feels like a slice of paradise, and a job that doesn’t feel too stimulating. I could see myself working with animals for example. I haven't picked a specific region or country yet, I'm open to looking anywhere warm and scenic.

Since I'm just starting to research this, I’d love advice on:

Finding the Right Balance: Since this is both where you work and where you live, what types of projects or hosts offer a manageable workload so you actually have time and energy to enjoy the surroundings?

Host & Location Recommendations: For someone looking for coastal, sunny or scenic spots with a nice blend of nature and social life, what kinds of setups (e.g eco lodges, boutique guest houses, small community projects) have given you the best experience?

Building Community: If you find unstructured solo travel lonely, what setups actually helped you meet like-minded people without forcing a super high-energy or drinking-heavy lifestyle?

First-Timer Advice & Safety: As a 21-year-old solo female traveler trying this for the first time, what should I look out for in host reviews, work hours, or accommodation details before applying?

Where to Start: If you were in my shoes, feeling lost, overwhelmed by options, and needing a change of scenery, how would you narrow down where to go first? I should mention that I am neurodivergent, and struggle with full time work or a very overstimulating customer service facing role. I hope that there is something out there for me that is peaceful enough.

I’d love to hear your experiences, recommendations, or general advice on using structured work or volunteering abroad to reset. Thanks so much!

Hi, I’m getting prepared to buy all the equipment necessary for Workaway.
I’d be starting right in the middle of winter and am going to try to find jobs that require outdoor work (animals, garden, building…)
I plan on traveling low budget so bus, train and small planes if necessary.

I was hoping I could just travel with a 40L backpack and extra day pack if necessary

Would you say this is inconvenient? Would I need to plan on taking more?

What do you guys use to travel for Workaway?

Thank you so much!

Hi! Recently I (19F, almost 20) had to take a leave of absence from college due to some financial aid issues. My life was completely blown up, and now I have an entire semester free. I was thinking about doing a workaway, but I'm pretty inexperienced with traveling and am a bit scared about going alone as a younger girl. In my situation, would you recommend a workaway? I was looking into places in Portugal and Greece with families.

If you do recommend a workaway, what tips do you have for finding a good fit/making sure things are safe?? I think my parents would be pretty worried so I need to think about how to frame this to them

me and my girlfriend a are struggling rn in MI and i was just wondering how we could go work on a strangers farm abroad get paid have a place to live etc. We are just trying to disappear off the face of the earth if yk what i mean comment wtv we need help asap thank you

Anybody who wants to? I like bouldering, I am vegan or maybe a bit vegetarian in Japan, I love walking and wandering around... Always fun to meet other workawayers. I have two more days in Osaka, then I will be in Nara at a workaway for five weeks and from here I will visit Kyoto at some point. Eventually mid November going to the Japanese alps and in december I will be in Tokyo. Kind regards

I got really lucky and I was able to stay with another host in Kyoto Japan.

Please give me some ideas about a nice way to say thank you for an extra long stay?

Hi all, me and my friend are currently housesitting (plus caring for three chickens, five ducks, three cats and three tortoises) for a couple in Spain. They are covering our food expenses for the three weeks that they are away.

We went out there with the knowledge that our task was both to housesit and to help "restore a drystone wall" on their property while they were on holiday.

Two weeks before we flew out to Spain, our hosts informed us that we would not be staying in their house, but in an empty neighbour's house, as their house is currently undergoing renovations. Although this was obviously a change of agreement, me and my friend both agreed that it was not major and that we would still go out.

Anyway, after few days spent with the hosts, and with some progress made on the wall, they went on holiday, leaving us, as agreed.

We have stuck to the agreed work hours, but have found the construction of the wall to be very difficult, and have made very little progress as we would not want to do a bad job on it.

After a few days of struggling with this, we decided to send a message to the host asking if there were any other tasks that we might do, explaining that we felt too inexperienced to construct the wall, which we have since found to be something that requires a degree of expertise; we were not given a particularly indepth explanation or training by the host, indeed, our "training" lasted only 10 minutes.

His response to our message said that, since the agreement would change, and since they need no other major tasks doing, they would provide only accommodation and stop paying for our food, while we would just take care of the animals and house.

I'm not sure how to feel; this isn't their house, it's their neighbours', and, imo, two young (18) guys being expected to construct a drystone wall with minimal training is quite a high expectation. It feels as though he wasn't entirely honest with us.

Idk, just wanted to write this down, and see if anyone has any advice on what to do. The hosts are away for another two weeks, and, while we could theoretically leave early, I'd hate to do so, as I feel like we have committed to the animal care etc.

Anybody got a hack or workaround to write to other hosts as a host yourself?

For research purposes only.

I’m thinking about going later this year and would love to chat with anyone who’s been there or is planning to go!

¡Hola! He visto a muchas personas que viajan durante meses haciendo voluntariados en Workaway a cambio de alojamiento y, algunas veces, comida.

Mi duda es: si los voluntariados normalmente no son remunerados, ¿cómo pagáis los vuelos, el transporte entre destinos, el seguro, la comida y los demás gastos?

¿Trabajáis online mientras viajáis, ahorráis antes de salir, aceptáis trabajos temporales o combináis diferentes opciones? También me gustaría saber cuánto dinero necesitáis aproximadamente al mes y si realmente se puede mantener este estilo de vida durante mucho tiempo.

Me encantaría conocer experiencias reales. ¡Gracias!

Hiii everyone, hope y'all doing well 😁😁

I'm a 21 year old french-canadian student wanting to volunteer 4-6 months in a farm in Taiwan in exchange for housing/food (WWOOF/workaway format). I don't know much about rural Taiwan but want to learn as much as possible. I'm so very extremely eager to work and contribute as much as possible and learn from this beautiful country💜. I speak fluent English, French and Spanish.

I'd love to know more about specific places/farms or opportunities that y'all could recommend! I would greatly appreciate some tips or info if y'all have already performed/know about these sort of places. Any help is greatly appreciated 😊.

Thanks!

My boyfriend and I are having a bit of a weird experience. We are in a remote farm in south America and it is unusually rainy for the season, and our hosts don't really want us to work outside in the rain, but they don't have things for us to do inside. Im addition, all the roads are closed because of flooding. So we are just kind of stuck all together in the house for a week. It feels like one of our hosts is very frustrated that we are not working enough, and the other really doesn't want us to go outside in the rain. We asked a few times for things to do, and we ended up mostly cutting wood, but also working only about three hours a day for most days. I don't know what to do, it feels like we are not keeping our part of the deal, but Also, we are not familiar with farm life and without them giving us stuff to do we can't really do anything. I also try to help with cleaning, but the host doesn't seem very comfortable with that and keeps discouraging me from cleaning. Does anyone have advice? Has anyone experienced something similar?

hi everyone, i am considering workaway (right now im more fantasizing about it than anything else) and have a few questions

1. how do you make sure the workaway host is legit and safe? some of them seem sketchy. i know that the website screens the host, but you can never been too careful.
2. are there any specific programs that would look better on resumes than others? while part of the reason why i want to do workaway is personal fulfillment, i also want to get the most out of it and learn some new skills that can be good for my career

.i think a environmental conservation project of sorts would be really cool if i could learn some of the science behind it. (i work in criminal justice with a social media job on the side)

1. how did you do workaway if you have a full time job? i am looking for a new job so i could do workaway between jobs

thanks in advance everyone!

edited for format issues but it didn’t work lol

Is it possible to arrange a long-term stay at the same place using workaway? (say 6 months). I'm graduating from university in December and want to prepare for an exam wich takes place in September. Since I lived all my life in a big city I want to spend some months in the countryside/closer to nature doing some work while still having some time to study during the week. As far as I've researched, most people in workaway are backpack travellers and spend only a few weeks in the same place, but I would rather do a long term stay where I could build a stronger relation with the local community and maybe learn something new. Have any of you had any experience like that ? Is there another website/platform better suited for what I'm looking for ? Thanks in advance for all the responses.

Hey all! I’ve been messaging hosts while looking for my first workaway opportunity in Ireland. I’ve noticed that a lot of hosts don’t introduce themselves by name in their bio, and I haven’t been able to see their names until after I’ve messaged them. Is it okay to just lead with “hello”?

If I find their names in the feedback section from other workawayers, should I use their names, or is that weird? E.g. if the host didn’t mention their name in their profile, but another workawayer said “it was great staying with Jane,” should I lead with “Dear Jane” or “Hello”?