You may think the title of this blog is a typo. How can someone stay in Europe hotel bill or rent free for two months. Well, I’ll tell you. Ever hear of a site called WorkAway.info.
Well, I had been knowing about WorkAway for a few years now, and finally joined and thought I would give it a try. It basically works like this: You pay a small fee to join. At the time this blog article was written the price was Solo Traveler starting at $69/yr, and Couples membership starting at $79/yr. You pay the fee to join, then as a WorkAwayer and then you can start searching for WorkAway opportunities that fit your interest(s) and where you want to travel to. You pay your own way to get there… but you do not have to pay for lodging in exchange for working doing whatever projects you agree to work on. However, you have to reach out to the hosts. Send them an email through the platform telling them why you would be a good fit for their WorkAway opportunity. Seems the standard is if you work for 5 hrs., the host provides meals (usually breakfast, lunch and dinner). If you work for 3hrs. a day, usually the host does not provide food, and you have to buy your own food and cook it yourself. To see if it would be worth your money to join, you can always browse their site before you join to see what is available. For me, I love to garden, and doing home improvement DIY projects. So that is the type of work I looked for, and I chose to visit France. Some other types of projects included working with kids and animals, that didn’t interest me… so I didn’t apply for anything like that. Also if English is your native language, there are alot of people who just want you to join their family to do a cultural exchange, so they can practice their English around you.
Now on the other hand, say you have an extra room in your home (extra bedroom or separate apt.) and you have some work that you need help with, or just want to do a cultural exchange to practice a new language you are learning, etc…. then you may want to join the WorkAway.info platform as a host. Then people will help you with your project.
Long story short… I was lucky enough to get accepted at two fabulous WorkAway assignments. The first one was staying in a castle in the Burgundy region of France with a Count and his wife (Countess). Sounds fancy, but they were so down-to-earth and a very nice couple. Except for the time, I was telling the Count I was going to put some mustard on my baguette with pork pate. I think he was about to faint. So I didn’t do it. I didn’t see the problem. Seemed like cheese on it would have been a good idea too. Seemed just like any sandwich to me. But I guess any pate requires more respect than to be next to mustard and cheese. I planned to use Dijon mustard. From where I come from… Dijon mustard is fancy.
Well, at the castle, I had my own room, which was very spacious, about the size of 3 rooms actually. I was asked not to share pictures inside the castle, since it is open to the public and regular visitors have to pay to view inside. Since I happened to be the only WorkAway worker in May, I had the entire floor to myself and didn’t have to share the bathroom, which I was prepared to share if I had other workers there. The only thing that I missed, was having other workers on that assignment to talk to while I worked. Thought that would make the work go by quicker. They said that May it is hard to get WorkAwayers in France because of all the national holidays in France during that month. Breakfast was mainly croissants and coffee. I kept wanting to load my croissant up with preserves, but was informed that the French never put anything on their croissants. I ate lunch and dinner with the Count and his wife. She was an excellent cook, making fancy gourmet meals that she said were French staples and favorites from the Burgundy region of France.
On this burgundy castle WorkAway, I was supposed to do painting and cooking. But I ended up doing some gardening (mostly pulling weeds in a large peony flower bed, a large bed or roses). If they say gardening, remember to bring your rose gloves if you have any. I left mine at home, and wished that I had brought them with me. I also did some painting. Painted the above garden gate and another garden gate. And on days it rained and I couldn’t work outside, I helped with some cleaning inside the castle. Washing windows and vacuuming. On a workaway, you have to be willing to pitch in where needed, assuming it is not too far off from what you agreed to do. I didn’t end up cooking because I caught a bad cold, since it was raining there a lot and was cold when I arrived in the region.
On my off days and my weekends, I visited some nearby towns via train, and also visited London for the Chelsea Flower Show. I had been wanted to go to see the Chelsea Flower Show for several years since I found out about it. I’ll write a separate blog article about that experience.
Anyway, on to talking about my second WorkAway experience. This one was very exciting. The hosts were an older English couple (Nicky and Mick) who were retired college professors who lived part-time in the United States. I stayed in a small hilltop village town in the South of France in the Cotes d’ Azure region.
Nicky’s garden is unbelievable, even by Chelsea Flower Show standards. I might write a separate article listing the plants that were in her garden. I cataloged them. It was quite impressive. Just from the editable items alone, she had: Grapes, Olives, Peaches, Lemons, Grapefruit, KomKuat, Oranges, and Pomegranate. Now that is just the editable plants…. she had so many flowering trees and flowers, roses, vines, and of course lavender plants, like the one I’m cutting in the photo below.
This WorkAway felt different since there were several great fellow workers that I got to meet. There was separate apt. for the female workers, and the one male worker was in an apt. in the garden area just past the Pickleball court. Oh, yes, she had a Pickleball court, and she gave us all instructions on how to play the game. I had started playing before I went on this trip and even traveled with my own set of paddles and balls. Which I really could have just saved that space…. or just taken one paddle. Lesson learned. I won’t be overpacking again. I say that every time, but this time I really mean it. Next trip, no shopping and only bringing a small carry-on bag and a duffle bag.
On this WorkAway, I worked 3 hrs each morning, and so we had to buy our own food and cook for ourselves, which was ok. Our hosts were nice enough to serve us coffee, croissants, and fruit each morning after our work was finished as we talked about politics, culture, sports, etc.
Our hosts were engaging and lively. On my off time, I often took the local bus for 2.60 Euros to one of the nearby beaches. One time, I even got a chartered boat to a private island nearby off the French Riviera (Porquerolles), where I rented a bike and rode all over the island, finding some beautiful beaches. On another weekend, a group of us split the rental car expense and went to Saint-Tropez. On another weekend, I booked a Lavender tour that left from Avignon (where I stayed one night in the Hotel Bristol).
Above photos are of me with some of the fellow WorkAwayers and/or Hosts.
Long story short…. you can use platforms like WorkAway.info and Trusted House Sitters, to extend your stays so that you can have a more immersive experience in another country. This was the first time I used WorkAway to do this, and I plan to do it again in some future trips I want to take to Portugal and New Zealand. I haven’t tried Trusted House Sitters, so I have no firsthand experience with it… with it you are usually pet sitting for cats and/or dogs. That seemed too restrictive to me, since I want to have the freedom to go away for the weekend if I want, and with pet sitting, that doesn’t seem possible.
This program seems great for retirees, students on a break, and remote workers. Because most WorkAway Hosts want you to stay 2 weeks – a month minimum. For the Burgundy Castle WorkAway I stayed 3 weeks, and for the South of France garden project, I stayed 5 weeks. Also management styles are different of the Hosts. At the castle, they left me alone to just get the job done, but at the South of France large garden, the host was more hands on working side beside you.
If anyone reading this has had experience doing WorkAways, please let me know how your experience was and where you did it, in the comments.
Happy travels and volunteering. This experience helped me get outside of the touristy large cities of Paris and Nice, which is basically all I went to the first time I visited France.