Lash working on a farm in NZ

Work Exchange: Pros & Cons

A great way to travel through more expensive countries of the world, particularly for hopeful wanderlusters who feel their travels thwarted by a lack of funds, is to do a series of work exchange gigs. The concept works along the lines of ‘You pat my back, I’ll pat yours’.

Generally we ‘volunteer workers’ put in about 4 hours per day, 5-6 days a week in exchange for room and board at people’s homes, farms, guest houses or small businesses. In other words, work for your keep as you travel the world.

Several work exchange organizations exist online, the most well-known being WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) and HelpX (Help Exchange). Other groups are focused on a particular country such as Australia or New Zealand.

They all function pretty much the same. Each group consists of: a. hosts all over a country or the world and b. volunteer travelers who are happy to put in a few hours a day to stay at the hosts’ premises. Anyone interested simply joins up, pays the member’s fee (which varies significantly from group to group), fills out their profile listing all skills and interests, then starts searching for hosts in the area they plan to travel through.

Then it’s up to the hosts and the applicants to hash out all the details of an assignment, including number of work hours per day/week, sleeping arrangements, meal arrangements, type of work, how long to stay, and so on. If the hosts and travelers are happy with everything, then set the arrival dates and head on over.

painting for a new house in Fiji

For you travelers on a budget, doing work exchanges might be one of the only ways to afford traveling through more expensive countries. During the assignment you’re generally able to cut out all your accommodation and food expenses. If you don’t need to spend money on anything else – like personal supplies, transportation, drinking – you could essentially have zero expenses!

Some volunteer workers might find the social aspect of these gigs the most rewarding: getting to meet and befriend new people, learn about their lives and lifestyles, and temporarily become a part of their lives. Others might feel most rewarded by the mutual exchange of help with other humans.

Still others might love the idea of earning their keep. Or they might most appreciate traveling expense-free or the chance to travel through a country that they otherwise could not afford to visit. Whatever the primary motivations, work exchanges are great fun.

As for myself… in previous years I did several gigs with WWOOF in Australia and the USA. More recently, I joined several HelpX gigs while traveling through New Zealand for three months. And I’ve just completed a 2-week assignment in Fiji!

pruning trees in NZ

Most of my gigs in both organizations were good to great. In fact, I’ve only had one really bad experience – through WWOOF USA, which you can read about here to find out what went wrong and my tips for avoiding such bad assignments.

This year I’ve just completed 7 separate HelpX gigs in New Zealand, each lasting 1-2 weeks and 1 assignment in Fiji. Since the experiences are fresh on my mind, I’ve put together this post detailing what I feel to be the pros and cons of doing work exchanges while traveling.

I hope this will help you decide whether such ‘work for your keep’ gigs are right for you and, if so, to give you a head’s up on what to expect and, perhaps, how to prepare. I’ll be writing a few more posts about my HelpX experiences soon.

landscaping in NZ

Pros:

Meet locals and stay with them in their homes

It’s always great to meet the people who live in the countries, towns and regions you visit. You can’t really get a true feel for a place unless you get to know some locals, after all. Most likely, they’ll be excited to tell you about their lives, their families and their work.

By staying in people’s homes you also get to observe how people lead their daily lives. It’s probably impossible to learn that sort of thing when staying in hotels or youth hostels.

joining a vintage car road trip in NZ

Possibly get invited to join local gatherings, events, parties, festivals or road trips

Many hosts like to get their volunteer workers involved in their family and/or friends’ functions. Maybe there will be a birthday party, a holiday event, a day trip, or other events going on while you’re staying with them. You might just be lucky enough to join in.

During my various HelpX gigs in New Zealand, because of staying with HelpX hosts, I got to join a day-trip to Napier town, stay three days in Tongariro National Park and go on a 4-day vintage car rally, among other great things. It was all just by chance.

at Bag’s End – Bilbo Baggin’s hobbit hole in Hobbiton

Get tips from locals about what to see & do in the area and/or country

Many hosts enjoy sharing their hometowns, neighborhoods and events with their volunteers. If there are certain attractions in the area you’d like to see, hosts are often happy to help you out by giving you rides, if necessary, and giving your information about things to do.

Possibly get shown around the town/city/area/attractions by local hosts

If there are certain attractions in the area you’d like to see, hosts are often happy to help you out by giving you rides, if necessary, and giving your information to help you do them.

One of my New Zealand hosts gave me a ride to & from Hobbiton, to a nearby lake, and to the nearest town which had an interesting walking tour. Transportation in New Zealand is expensive and we were staying in a remote farm area. If she would not have given me a ride, I probably could not have visited Hobbiton, one of my favorite days during three months in NZ.

LashWorldTour with other HelpX volunteers

with other HelpX volunteers I befriended

Perhaps make new long-term friendships

It’s quite likely that you’ll get along really well with some of your hosts. You may just end up with a few new life-long friends.

Possibly meet other work exchange travelers

Most work exchange opportunities are at people’s homes or small farms/businesses. They generally only want 1-2 helpers at any given time.

But large farms, fruit orchards, backpackers and small resorts might need several volunteers all at once. In these places you have the chance to meet and work with other like-minded travelers. It can be quite fun.

Live in a house, with use of all facilities

Let’s face it, it’s really nice to live in a house rather than a hotel room or dorm. To have a kitchen, living room and space to move around.

one of my HelpX bedrooms

Have your own private room in people’s homes

I think most of us westerners prefer having some privacy and our own room to sleep in. Most hosts in western countries will give you your own bedroom while staying.

In some situations, like on large farms with many workers, you might have to share a room with other helpers. But in most cases, you’ll get your very own, fully furnished bedroom.

In expensive countries, budget travelers might generally have to stay in hostels, sharing dorm rooms. Doing work exchange gigs allows you to get away from dorms and have your own space.

Most likely have free wifi / internet access

Aside from really remote locations or off-grid living situations, most people nowadays have internet or wifi in their homes. And most work exchange hosts are happy to let us volunteers use their internet services.

Please note that in some countries, like New Zealand, monthly internet plans are priced by data useage, not with unlimited access. So doing tasks that swallow up lots of data – like downloading movies, watching YouTube and making skype calls – will quickly deplete the monthly internet allowances and cause people to have massive bills. If your hosts ask you not to use their internet for such tasks, please abide by their requests.

Lash feeding baby goats

Help take care of pets

When traveling it’s generally not possible to have pets. So if you love cats or dogs, then staying with people who have pets is a great bonus.

Chance to try out new lifestyles and/or jobs

Maybe you’ve never had a chance to live on a farm, to feed animals, to help build a house or barn, to raise a vegetable gardens, to work at a B&B or backpacker hostel, or other types of jobs. Work exchanges can often give you the opportunity to try out new tasks or lifestyles.

Cut out accommodation expenses

Cut out most or all food expenses

Be able to afford traveling around an otherwise expensive country

Joining work exchanges might very well be one of the only ways – or only way – to afford traveling through places like Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. All these countries have thousands of work exchange hosts looking for volunteer workers to help them out.

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One of the messiest houses I stayed in

Cons:

Lose control over your living environment

When you go stay at new peoples’ homes, you’re stepping into their preferred living environment. They might have TV on some or all the time. It might be blasting loudly and it might be playing stuff you greatly dislike.

On the other hand, they might never turn on the TV or not even have one.

Alternately, they might be blasting music all the time. And it might be music you greatly dislike.

Or they might prefer living in utter silence.

They might be immaculately, fastidiously clean and strict about that. Or they might be incredibly messy and unclean, or somewhere in between.

They might run cold a/c, have windows & doors open even in winter, or their homes might be sweltering hot.

I’ve walked into all those situations.

You just never know how people live their daily lives until you arrive. And there’s generally not too much you can do about it. Though you might be able to ask for reduced TV or music volumes in some cases, if that’s something that bothers you.

Lose control over what you eat and when you eat

When your hosts are supplying you with meals, most likely they’re going to serve you what they normally eat, and at their own meal times. Makes sense, right?

Only if you’re very lucky will the hosts ask what you enjoy eating and attempt to buy and make meals/food that you prefer.

If you’re the type of person who’s very flexible about meal times and what foods you eat, then this should be no problem.

But for me, it can be a disaster. I can get very sick, very quickly, if I can’t eat when my body needs calories. And I do not do well without animal protein on a regular basis. So I actually have to let all my hosts know about my eating needs upon arrival, if not beforehand. Thus far, all my hosts have been completely flexible about that. No worries.

I felt pretty retarded doing manual labor while in glorious Fiji!

Use your time working rather than exploring an area

Let’s face it, if you’re traveling around a new country, you most likely want to explore the attractions, do a bunch of fun activities and learn about the places you’re visiting.

When doing work exchanges, you lose about half your daily ‘travel and explore’ time by working. Is that really how you want to spend your time while traveling in new places?

Have to deal with many different personalities, lifestyles, world views

with a host I became good friends with in NZ

I’ve had hosts who bossed me around. I’ve had people throw temper tantrums at me for little things such as calling their dogs by the wrong names or putting the ‘wrong’ types of food in their pans while cooking. I even once had a man ban me from dinner because he decided I’d eaten too much that afternoon (and it was MY food I was eating!)

I’ve had to bear couples arguing, bossing each other around and even throwing things at each other. I’ve also been woken up in the middle of the night by arguments.

On the other hand, most of the hosts I’ve stayed with did not have temper, anger or control issues. Most of them have been emotionally stable, even-tempered and have good communication skills.

Once again, you just never know what you’re getting into until you arrive.

Have to depend on hosts for pick ups & transportation

I’m generally a trusting person. When people make plans with me, I assume they are going to be good on their word. And that nothing will go wrong. But people don’t always come through as they say.

My first host in New Zealand completely forget to pick me up at the airport when I arrived at midnight. My second host left me sitting for three hours in a puny town because she decided to go join another event after having previously agreed to pick me up.

welcome-Hersheys-kiss-on-my-towel

You never know exactly what you’re going to get into until you arrive

Essentially, the downside of doing work exchanges, from my perspective, is that you lose a lot of personal freedom, particularly as regards food, your living environment and who you’re interacting with. For me, that’s a very big deal. I’m used to independent travel, paying my way as I go and thus choosing exactly where I stay, what & when I eat, and who I spend time with.

I definitely prefer clean, quiet and smoke-free living spaces. And my eating habits are very different from most other peoples. So it’s not easy for me to adapt to noisy spaces, food I dislike and new eating schedules.

However, I realize that for many travelers, those things are complete non-issues. For people who are really laid back about what they eat, when they eat, and the details of their living spaces, then work exchange might very well pose no negatives at all.

The other major potential pit-fall is dealing with a wide variety of personalities, living habits and world views. Not only having to deal with them, but to live with such people in their homes as a guest worker.

I don’t know about you, but I do not appreciate being verbally attacked, particularly for minor mistakes. And I do not like sharing space with people who are yelling & arguing. It’s not an emotionally healthy environment.

But you never know what people are really like, despite many email discussions beforehand, until you get to their homes.

I can deal with those situations and those types of people, but it’s certainly not ideal.

Of course, you can always talk to people about their behavior and how it makes you feel. And you can also always leave anytime you want. You’re not indentured to them.

the cute caravan I slept in at Auckland HelpX gig

Conclusions:

Work exchange programs are a great way to travel around expensive countries, to meet new people and try out new lifestyles. But it’s not for everyone.

If you’re thinking about doing such volunteer work, first carefully consider all the pros and cons. It definitely works best for people who are flexible about their living situations, food and types of people they interact with. It also works best for people with good communication skills, who can politely discuss their wants, needs and preferences.

And of course, work exchange is for travelers who are actually going to put in their fair share of work in exchange for the privilege of staying in people’s homes and eating from their tables. Nobody appreciates a free loader.

You might also want to read about my other work exchange experiences:

WWOOFing in Kuranda

WWOOFing at Sanctuary Retreat

WWOOFing Gone Wrong

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