Do you dream of travelling the world but your bank account doesn’t allow you? Well, what if we told you that you can now travel for free?
Now we have more opportunities than ever that allow us to travel for an incredibly cheap price or, even better, to travel for free. If you’re willing to be open-minded and to change your mindset a bit, the world will be just within the reach of your hand.
Very often we get asked “but how can you afford to travel this much?”. It feels like universally there is this deeply rooted misconception that you need to be rich or well-off to be able to afford travel.
But we are here to tell you – you don’t need to be rich to travel. Heck, you can be working on a minimum wage and still make travel a reality.
So in this article, we are giving you a list of ways you can travel for free. And before we go ahead and open your mind to this whole new world of free travel opportunities, we want to mention that we used some of these ways ourselves, so we know what we are talking about.
Some of these options will offer free accommodation and some of these will offer a fully-funded experience. Either way, all opportunities have their own advantages and disadvantages but for anyone with a tiny budget, all of these free travel opportunities will be life-changing.
Become a house-sitter or pet-sitter
When we came across some of these websites that were wholeheartedly dedicated to finding people who could sit homes of other people while they are away, we were blown-away by genius of it.
Think about it, some people who have pets can’t always take the pets with them and the idea of bringing them to kennels doesn’t sound quite appealing as well. They would much rather leave their beloved pets at home (where they feel safe and surrounded by familiar environment) which are left vacant during their time away.
This is where you come in. You can contact hosts and pet-sit while staying at their home for free. Of course, this means that you have to revolve your day around the needs of the pet you’re looking after but if you’re an animal lover, then this opportunity would be perfect for you.
If you’re interested, try Trusted Housesitters and MindMyHouse for free house-sitting opportunities all around the world.
Volunteer abroad
If you have more time at hand, you could always try volunteering abroad in exchange of free accommodation and sometimes even a bit of pocket money and free food.
The most famous volunteering program worldwide is WWOOF which stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. It allows you to work on an organic farm in exchange for a free room and board. The only downside is that you have to pay to get to the farm but other than that you get to experience the great outdoors of any destination you want with the locals.
Another great initiative for volunteering abroad is ESC (European Solidarity Corps) which is open to all EU residents and other countries that are a part of this program who are younger than 30. They offer various full-time volunteering opportunities which are usually compensated by the EU, so you don’t have to pay anything.
There are a lot of opportunities to volunteer abroad for free travel on our travel opportunities database which we would encourage you to check first. We always looking for the best volunteer opportunities that don’t require you to pay a fee and that are genuinely rewarding experiences for both parties.
Study abroad
If you’re still a student or plan on enrolling in a course anytime soon, we highly recommend researching what kind of study abroad opportunities your university or collage has to offer.
We absolutely love Erasmus+ study abroad program and Dual partnership program some universities have. We ourselves spent a semester abroad studying in Budapest and South Korea, so we know first hand how life-changing these opportunities are.
If you aren’t enrolled in any program right now, you might want to check out our study abroad section in travel opportunities database. We often upload new fully-funded program invited for international students.
This means that you can find a bachelor’s, master’s or even PhD’s program abroad that will be fully-funded for you. Free education, free accommodation and free travel experience for you in one!
Go on an internship abroad
Another fun way to travel for free is to go on an internship abroad. This is super easy to achieve if you’re currently a student in a university/college as they usually offer incredible opportunities with Erasmus+ internship program.
They pay for your transportation to the place of internship and give you monthly scholarship which covers all your living abroad expenses.
Another good website to check out is AIESEC. They have a huge database of different internship programs which you could apply for anywhere in the world. You will only need to pay a very small application fee (and only after you have been accepted to an internship) and they will take care of everything else.
And, of course, make sure to check out our own internship opportunities database which we are updating every week. We are only picking the programs which are fully-funded and don’t include any fees.
Teach English
If you have good English knowledge, you could always try teaching the language abroad. All you need is the ability to speak English fluently or a TEFL degree, depending on the country you work in.
Some of the organizations that are looking for teachers offer all-inclusive deals that often cover all travelling expenses, provide you with a house to live in and even give you a salary.
How cool is that?
If that’s something you’re interested in, you can check out this international recruiting agency called Search Associates.
Additionally, there are many different websites and programs that pay you to teach online from anywhere in the world as long as you have a good Internet connection.
Some of these websites are italki, VIPkid, Cambly.
Participate in Erasmus+ projects
This is our, by far, the most favourite way to travel and connect with people. Erasmus+ youth projects are funded by the EU and focused on including youth into important processes in our society and environment.
They are short-term projects which usually take around 14 days and have a specific topic, theme around them. So you have a group of young people (18-30-year-old) who come from 2-6 different countries and spend two weeks together discussing, brainstorming solutions and exchanging experiences surrounding that said topic (for example, climate change or hate speech).
Everything is paid for and provided for you by the EU. The only thing you need to do is apply, pack your bags and enjoy your two weeks abroad with a group of strangers who often become your best friends at the end of the project.
We have a special section for these projects in our database, so take a look at Erasmus+ projects if you want to get involved.
Win all paid vacation deals
This is our wild card.
There are so many different contests that will pay for your travels or give you a certain amount of money which you can allocate to travel. Yes, winning them is the hardest part and you definitely shouldn’t rely on there but it’s good to know that such free travel opportunities exist.
We have a few different travel contests in our travel opportunities database if you want to check them out. They usually require you to write an essay, submit a travel photo or simply give your email details and hope for the best.
We personally haven’t won any of them but never say never, eh?
Final thoughts
These are only some of the ways you can travel abroad for free but they are a good place to start if you want to travel more.
Our ultimate goal when we founded Take Off Kit was to inspire as many people as possible to invite travel into their life and showcase just how easy it is to see the world in the 21st century.
We hope that this article has inspired you to spend some time researching different travel opportunities rather than mopping around and wishing you could travel as much as the person on your Instagram feed.
Have you ever tried any of these opportunities? Or maybe you know another way to travel cheaply or for free that you swear by? Let us know in the comments below.
