Workaway Program: An Insider’s guide To totally free accommodation worldwide

have you ever considered work exchange programs? While you won’t make money this way, you also won’t be spending much either. Nick and I first heard about Workaway when we were backpacking in Turkey in 2011, and although it has always interested us, we never really knew much about it until interviewing Erin here in this article. 

Not only do these jobs abroad come with accommodation, but three meals a day are included as well! and in numerous cases, a car for your use (depending on your relationship with the host, or the previous agreement).

Workaway is a great way to immerse yourself in the countries you visit and meet interesting people — while not dipping into your savings. 

In this interview, we’re chatting with Erin who has done a few work exchange gigs around the world. read on to learn about Workaway, how to sign up, how to pitch yourself to hosts, the pros and cons of work exchange programs, and Erin’s recent experience with Workaway Europe at a vacation home in Montenegro.

The village of Virpazar in Montenegro where we did our Workaway

Jump To:

Introducing Erin from Curiously Erin travel Blog

What is Workaway?

What is the compensation with Workaway?

Why choose Workaway Europe in Montenegro?

What are the expected daily tasks?

How numerous hours per day are you expected to work?

What are the Workaway hosts like?

What is the accommodation on a work exchange?

What was the Montenegro experience like? 

Do you need to have qualifications to join Workaway?

Pros of Workaway

Cons of Workaway

Who can join the Workaway exchange program?

How far in advancement do you need to plan a Workaway?

How to join Workaway and the fee for signing up

Top suggestions for contacting hosts

Final thoughts about Workaway 

First of all, tell us a bit about yourself.

I’m Erin from the Curiously Erin travel blog. because finishing school over 10 years ago I have been travelling and working my way around the world. I’m not a digital nomad nor have I ever had a job that allows me to work remotely. Instead, I have found jobs and volunteer positions in the locations I travel to.

A few highlights of my time working abroad include teaching children to ski in California and Australia, living on a superyacht throughout the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and working in paradise at Australia’s Lizard Resort.

Hiking Mt. Rumjia during my Montenegro workaway
Having previously been a predominantly solo traveller, I am now on a long-term trip through Europe with my boyfriend. We had some savings before leaving home but keep our costs low by doing volunteer programs like Workaway. many recently we spent 7 weeks volunteering at an activity centre and vacation home in Montenegro.

What is Workaway and how did you get started with it?

Workaway is this great online platform that connects volunteers to hosts all around the world. The volunteers are a community of travellers who are searching for a much more enriching travel experience than the typical traveler stops.

Workawayers (volunteers) are on the site for a few reasons: to help aid in community projects, develop language skills, experience living life as a local or just because it’s a great way to keep costs low as a budget traveller. anybody can sign up to be a host, so you can find volunteer opportunities doing all kinds of work, in all corners of the globe.

I got started with Workaway when I first quit my full-time job to go travelling in 2015. I wanted to travel as long as possible and didn’t have the savings to be paying for accommodation all over I went.

What is the compensation? Are you paid, or is it a work exchange?

There is typically no payment involved when doing a Workaway.

In many cases, you do 5 hours of work, 5 days a week. and in exchange, you receive totally free accommodation and 3 meals a day.

Each program does vary slightly. Some programs will ask you to do fewer hours per day, but work every day. Others will ask for 3 hours of work, 5 days a week but not offer any food (this is common in hostels or they just offer breakfast).

The last program we were on, we weren’t given any meals but were given a weekly food allowance of 75 Euros between the two of us and we cooked our own meals.

Each host will list what they expect from you and what they give in return on their Workaway profile. If it isn’t specified you ought to ask before your arrival to know what you’re going into.

What made you choose the Workaway Europe program in Montenegro, instead of another country?

There were a few things that drew us to the Workaway Europe program in Montenegro. Firstly, we had spent 90 days in the European Schengen zone, and as Australians, we were required to leave the Schengen for a even more 90 days.

So our first search criteria were countries that weren’t part of the Schengen. We didn’t have a plan for which countries we wanted to visit, so we were open to anywhere if the program sounded good.

Secondly, we searched for a program that had interesting jobs or things to do when we weren’t working. The hosts we found in Montenegro run weeklong mulit-activity trips that include hiking and kayaking. We are very outdoorsy people and thought that sounded best up our alley.

The third thing that drew us to Montenegro was that the hosts provided a car for us to use when we weren’t working. That was a massive draw for us as it allowed us to explore so much much more of the country than what we could have seen just by bus.

Kayaking during a trip with the vacation home guests

RELATED POST: Magical Montenegro – Experiencing The Bay Of Kotor

What were your daily tasks in Montenegro? 

The daily tasks at the vacation home were very straightforward and easy to complete. Our hosts had been using Workaway volunteers for a few years now, so everything was very well organized and the communication was great.

The guests who were part of the activity trips stayed in a vacation home that was on the property where we lived. Every morning we would wake up and start work around 8:00 am. one of our main jobs was to water the plants (but due to half of our time in Montenegro being torrential rain storms we didn’t have to do this).

Next, we split up and I would work inside the vacation home and do a basic clean which included a sweep of the common areas, loading or unloading the dishwasher, wiping the benches and taking out the rubbish and recycling.

My partner Ben would do the outdoor areas. This included pool maintenance and cleaning, general garden upkeep, sweeping the paths and putting out sun lounge cushions.

Once a week, a mid-week clean was required. This was a tidy up of the bathrooms and rooms so that it looked good when the guests returned in the afternoon.

Each Sunday was guest changeover day. This was our most significant day of work, as the 4 rooms in the vacation home required a deeper cleaning and all the bed linen to be swapped over. We were also expected to keep the turf cut, weed and do odd jobs that came up around the property.

View from the vacation home in Montenegro that we worked at

In addition to the vacation home jobs, we were in some cases required to drive the guests to the starting location of their daily activity. typically when this was the case, we would also get to join the guests on the tour. We also would take the recycling to the depot, make the occasional packed lunch for the guests and do a little bit of babysitting for the hosts.

How numerous hours per day did you work?

At this particular Workaway program, each day and week was a little bit different. We were required to do our morning responsibilities 7 days a week; this took one hour at most.

On the day of the midweek clean, we would work up to 4 hours. On Sundays we worked for about 6 hours.

We had two official totally free days a week after our morning duties.

Some days we could get asked to help out with certain jobs, although there were numerous days when there were no extra tasks. Usually, if we did need to do a few odd jobs we wouldn’t work much more than 2 to 3 hours on that day.

What were the hosts like?

Our hosts were amazing. As a result of them having hosted various Workawayers in the past, they had really figured everything out. The couple was originally from the UK and had lived in Montenegro for 11 years, so we didn’t have a language barrier to deal with.

Also, unlike other places where you are expected to put in 5 hours of work per day, they were pleased for us to be finished once we had completed our daily tasks — even if it only took us an hour.

Another great thing about them was their flexibility. We wanted to take a couple of days off and explore Durmitor national Park during our time in Montenegro. They were pleased to work around this request and allowed us to take some time off.

Exploring the Durmitor national Park during the Workaway
Getting close to the end of our stay we hadn’t had the opportunity to go kayaking with the guests, so they brought in their cleaner on a midweek clean day and took us along with them. As we didn’t live in their house, we were often invited into their home to have drinks with them and they even took us out for a farewell dinner on our last evening.

The hosts had 3 children, aged 8 and 5-year-old twins. They had two cats and a canine that we loved dearly and would often come and visit us.

What was your accommodation like?

The accommodation in Montenegro was an eco-hut on the property. It was really good that we had our own space as we had been living with others because we started travelling 6 months prior.

The eco hut was a converted animal shed and had been fitted with a double bed and a gas stove cooker. There was also a sink with running water, a cold shower and a composting toilet. At the time of year we were there it was still cold in Montenegro. We weren’t expected to have cold showers and were able to go in and out of the host’s house whenever we wanted.

Another great thing about this Workaway was that the hosts went away for a week. during this week our responsibilities changed and we became house sitters.

We were able to spend a week living in the guest vacation home (which was easily the nicest place we have stayed on our ‘budget’ trip). Our hosts were so lovely; they even let us spend an additional week after they had returned, as there was a spare room.

What was your experience like in Montenegro? Were you able to travel around on this Workaway? 

Montenegro rapidly became a highlight for us. because we had a car to use during our Workaway we were able to explore so much much more than without one. As we finished a lot of our workdays early morning, we had not only 2 days off a week but also many afternoons totally free to discover Montenegro.

Montenegro is a beautiful country with a lot of natural unspoiled areas. For anybody who loves nature and the outdoors Montenegro is the ideal place for you. We had a list of all over we wanted to explore in the country, which we didn’t think we would manage to do all of. Yet after 7 weeks, we managed to see everything on our list.

Montenegro has a spectacular coastline, although, it’s overdeveloped. The seawater is crystal clear and typically completely calm. We travelled and explored the whole coastline, from the northern Herceg Novi, and Bay of Kotor, down through some of the smaller beachside towns best to Ulcinj on the southern border with Albania. We spent days hiking throughout the country and went to 3 of the 5 national parks.

Visiting Lake Skadar national Park
The highlight of the Workaway in Montenegro was certainly how much of the country we were able to explore.

Do you need to have any qualifications to join Workaway? 

You don’t need to have any qualifications to join Workaway just a willingness to spend your travel time helping in someone’s home or business. It’s a great opportunity to receive totally free accommodation and food, so it’s essential not to abuse this opportunity and work hard.

Workaway is much more so about community and cultural immersion than totally free accommodation.

Certain hosts will require you to have a particular skill or experience level before accepting you. For example, a host may want to build a new deck for their house and want someone with carpentry knowledge. another example would be if you were to be working reception, language fluency could be a requirement.

If a host were searching for previous knowledge or experience they would list this on their profile. other placements may not require any particular skill sets so take a look through the site and you will find something that suits your needs.

What are the pros and cons of the Workaway program?

Pros of Workaway

I love Workaway as it has allowed me to travel for longer periods of time and also to live within a community I wouldn’t get to otherwise. financially I wouldn’t have been able to afford to travel as long as I have without it. The main perks of doing Workaway programs are:

Great for budget travellers – As you get totally free a