I’m 18 almost 19 on a gap year and really want to immerse myself in France for cheap and help out some French families (I took a level French) and I found work away and it seems great! The only thing is it is costing my 54 pounds before even knowing that I will actually be able to find somewhere???

I need some advice to know if it’s worth paying or not?

So I have around $3,000 saved and I want to travel around Europe for about 3 months while doing Workaway. I’ve already found a decent-looking host in Portugal for 2 weeks, and the flight there is relatively cheap.

My problem is that there are so many hosts that I have no idea how to decide which ones are actually worth choosing. A lot of the reviews are very positive, so it’s hard to tell which hosts are genuinely good and which ones just look good on paper.

One thing I care about quite a lot is not being the only volunteer. I’d rather stay somewhere where there are usually multiple Workawayers and I can meet people. Because of that, I’ve mostly been using the filters “Community” or “2 or more”.

But I noticed that selecting "2 or more” gives me way more hosts than selecting “Community.” Are these actually different things on Workaway? I initially thought they basically meant the same thing.

For people who have done longer Workaway trips: how do you plan your trip in advance? Do you book several hosts before leaving, or do you just book the first one or two and figure out the rest while traveling?

I mainly want to avoid constantly having to worry about where im going next while still keeping enough flexibility to change my plans if I find a better host or place.

Any advice on how you would approach a 3-month Workaway trip around Europe would be appreciated.

Should I send a long message introducing myself, explaining why I'm interested and listing my skills, like I'm applying for a job or something?

I’ve been living in Montreal for just over a year now and despite making a consistent daily effort to improve my french it’s still really holding me back job wise.

I’ve got myself up to a B1, I can have simple conversations but I’m still not anywhere close to the fluency requirement I keep hitting on my job search.

I recently discovered workaway and since I’m discontented with my current job anyway and I have an ok amount of money saved up, I thought maybe it’d be a fun way to finally breakthrough linguistically if I just disappeared to France for 4 months and got immersed in the language working at a hostel.

The ideal place would have a built in social group with other work awayers (preferably around my age group, early 20s to mid 30s), and have the dominant language being French obviously. I don’t want to have the easy way out of switching to English.

Just wondering if anyone has done something similar before and if you’d have some advice for me about unexpected costs, how to maximize my learning while there and red flags to look out for when choosing my host.

Appreciate the help!

Edit: sorry the title should say Workaway

I want to preface this post by saying that this is my first Workday experience. 

So right now I’ve finished the workaway, and I’m not sure if I want to leave a review. 

The host seems to have hosted a fair share of people, but from what I can tell, only handful of people have left a review on the website, and they were mostly 4 star reviews. As many have pointed out, 4 stars seems like a scenario where it’s rather ambiguous what you might say. I’ve seen 3 star reviews where the host isn’t feeding people enough, and 5 star reviews where everything is great. Given the nature of Workaway’s website, it sometimes feels like reviews under 4 stars are malicious. 

I’m conflicted because I want to leave a review because of certain bad experiences that I think I myself would have wanted to know before coming to the place. 

To begin with, the host’s profile has not been updated for 6 years. The post shows his wife and daughter, but when I showed up, it was only him and his adult son (who was not on the profile). The place is 90 mins from the nearby city and 20 minutes to a nearby train station. The host was rather ambiguous about whether other family members will be staying with us. I don’t feel too unsafe on the, but I feel like the lack of accuracy from the profile can cause other people alarm or feel misled at the very least. No other people have shown up.

What made me uncomfortable are certain hygiene practices in the house. The host doesn’t really cook as much as he just heats canned foods. The rags in the kitchen have a bad stench, the toilet bowls and cooking pots have algae growing in them, dirty dishes are piled up for a week (they are picked out from the sink and wiped with said rags), the floor in the house sometimes has imprints of animal excrements (this is not a farm). The kitchen is ridden with flies because of the foods the host leaves out and refuses to refrigerate. When I asked if I might be able to help clean up any part of it, he insists that I didn’t and that he will clean it. He has not throughout my entire time there. (There is more to it but I hope this paints the picture.)

The work, on the other hand, is not too crazy. I’m averaging 3-4 hours of work a day, and these work differ from day to day. Some days I just have to move stuff, and it’s really not very taxing. However, I’ve had to operate certain machineries without the necessary safety precautions, or sometimes these power tools are in need of repair that not only make the work less efficient but potentially unsafe. Often I am asked to push on when I vocalized the concerns with the equipment. Still, I think the host is fair as far as he ask me to do anything that he wouldn’t do himself. It’s more of an attitude towards safety. Sometimes the tasks are not communicated very clearly but that’s really manageable.

The subjective side that I find difficult to say. He makes misogynistic comments, imposes on me his political views (it’s not that we don’t agree politically but he is aggressively political), and is, I think, not open to new cultures and experiences. He asks me to prepare his food but fails to communicate how he wants it. When I suggest how I would prepare it, he vehemently protests it. But when asked for an alternative, he doesn’t know how to do it. 

You see feedbacks on the website that describe the host as a very welcoming and open person, or someone who is attentive and caring. However, it’s hard to leave a comment when some of these “soft” attributes are missing. At the most basic the host is hospitable, but that has varying degrees. Ultimately, the host is feeding me and not asking for blue-collar, 8 hour workdays. At Workaway’s basis is work in exchange for room and board. I’m fed, and I’m doing the work I’m being asked. The host isn’t super stingy about food. So as far as that’s concerned, we both hold up our ends of the bargain. But of course, Workaway is marketed to be more than that, and the way that it is set up seems to discourage me from saying what I’ve described here. It seems to be bad faith to insult the man who has just fed you for 2 weeks. But ultimately what makes or break a Workaway is often not the work but living there in a different environment.

What I wish to know is how to communicate these “conditions” of living as opposed to the more general stuff that people would write about in feedbacks. I think personally I would like to know about these things before coming in to the experience. I’d like to think that I’m coming into this with an open mind, but perhaps I am not open enough. What is the best practice in terms of leaving a feedback? Or is it best to overlook this?

I hope I’m not being too vindictive with my post and that the things that I’m asking for aren’t too unreasonable. Let me know if I should perhaps change my expectations. 

Thanks. 

is this actually the case or am i missing something ? ive tried several ways but keep getting 9 hosts only, any insight?

I have a genuine question: is it possible to volunteer while studying? That is, provided it fits within the permitted schedule.

I ask because I plan to attend university in Italy—I haven't even been accepted yet, but it’s something on my mind, and knowing such an option exists would put me much more at ease.

If anyone has had similar experiences and could help me out, I’d really appreciate it.

I’m Brazilian, and I’m looking for a way to find temporary—or perhaps even permanent—accommodation for the duration of my studies.

Hi, im 19 and live in Germany. I recently quit my part-time summer job, and my last day is in about two weeks. After that I have no major commitments. I have around €3,000 saved and I really want to use this opportunity to travel after my high-school graduation since i wanted to travel for a really long time now and i am tired of not doing what i actually want to do with my life.

So my current plan is to do a Workaway in Spain. Ideally, I'd find a host now, book the flight soon and leave in about 2–3 weeks. Since accommodation and food would mostly be covered through Workaway, the main upfront cost would be the flight.

Heres's my dilemma:

I've applied to more than 50 cruise ship jobs. I've already received some rejections, so I know companies are looking at my applications, but I obviously don't know whether or when I'll get an offer.

I don't want to sit at home for weeks or months waiting for a cruise job that might never come. On the other hand, imagine I book Spain, arrive at my Workaway host, and two days later a cruise company contacts me and wants me to start ASAP. If it were a good concrete job offer, I’d probably take it, meaning I'd potentially lose the flight money and have to leave my Workaway host much earlier than agreed.

Waiting another two weeks before booking Spain doesn’t really solve the problem either. I could wait two weeks, hear nothing, book the trip, and then receive a cruise offer the following day anyway.

One more factor is my parents. They'll probably tell me this is a bad idea and try to make me feel like I'm not capable of travelling on my own. I can handle disagreement, but if I tell them weeks in advance that I’m planning a flight, because i want to know whether they can drive me to the airport or not, I know I'll get constant pressure and comments that make me doubt myself. That's why I'm also trying to figure out how to plan this without turning it into weeks of asking for approval.

Would you just book the Workaway trip now and accept the financial risk if a cruise job suddenly comes through? Or would you wait for the cruise applications even though there's no guarantee when ( or if ) they’ll lead anywhere?

I’d appreciate any help/advice.

I found paid opportunities, but they are below the actual minimum wage. I find it embarrassing to volunteer and receive accommodation and food, yet I still say the pay is low. Is it appropriate to ask for a raise since I will be volunteering for about a month? Is there a polite way I can avoid asking without missing an opportunity and being refused entry?

Thank you in advance

Hi everyone, we're trying to sign up for Workaway as hosts and submitted our profile a week ago. When I login it says, basically, we have a backlog and its taking us "longer than usual" to approve new hosts. It's been a wrek amd I also emailed them / filled in a contact form last friday. Still no chance and no response to the contact. Has anyone signed up recently and can tell me what timeline to expect? We had hoped to find a workaway for September.

Hii

I was very excited to do a workaway in Spain. But now everyone i know is a bit worried and idk what do to:/

I found this single mum as host. The thing is that i offered to do two weeks and she agreed even if the kid will not be there the first week... She is not very clear about what i need to do. The kid will not be there all the time, she didn't said anything about other mansion and when i said i want to go to spanish school she offered to do me lessons.

Idk. She seems nice and all, even in vedeocall.

But i don't understand why she wants to have someone to live with them without working.

She has no references since it's her first time (but for me too.. so i understand) and my family and friends said to me it's a bit strange and they are worried

Someone has advice?

Things to ask her to be more sure?

Similar experience that can help me take a decision?

Is that okay, or did you request an invitation letter?

Curious to hear about some of your best experiences.

Hi! My boyfriend and I are planning to get a working holiday for the UK (youth mobility scheme I think it's called) next year and I thought it would be a better idea for the first weeks/months to start in a workaway, specially because his English is not that good and he doesn't feel confident speaking it yet.

The problem is we don't feel really comfortable cohabiting with large groups of people (like hostels for example), we have no problem with small groups of people (like a family would be great)

This is the first time we'll be doing a workaway, and most of the opportunities I found were of voluntary work with big groups of people, may be doing a workaway is not for people like us? Or am I just not finding the right host yet?