Do you dream of seeing the world but don’t have a fat travel fund to do it? Today, there are more opportunities than ever to travel the world on the cheap — or even for free.
My wife and I visit an average of 10 countries every year, all on her salary alone. No, she’s not an investment banker or neurosurgeon. She’s a school counselor with a salary comparable to a teacher.
Part of our travel strategy involves visiting inexpensive countries and looking for low-cost accommodations through Airbnb and local guesthouses. But the primary reasons we can afford to see the world are all the ways we’ve found to travel for free.
Travel Tips to See the World for Free
Some of these options offer free accommodations, others offer free transportation, and a few offer both. They all come with limitations and trade-offs, but for anyone looking to travel on a tiny budget, these travel tips are hard to beat.
One quick note: We’ll talk about maximizing credit card rewards in more detail below, but we do want to mention upfront that you should always use a rewards credit card to book travel and make purchases abroad. (Those you can’t avoid using these free travel strategies, that is.)
Our top travel rewards credit card pick is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. Its selling points include:
- An excellent sign-up bonus
- An annual $50 hotel credit against eligible hotel bookings through Chase Travel℠, making it one of the best hotel credit cards on the market
- 5x points on eligible Chase Travel℠ purchases after the $50 hotel credit is exhausted
- 3x points on eligible purchases, including restaurant dining, select streaming service purchases, and online grocery purchases
- 2x points on all other eligible travel purchases
And now for the most reliable strategies to save money while traveling the world.
1. Work Abroad in Expat-Friendly Industries
There are plenty of expat-friendly job options overseas, from international nurses and doctors to au pairs to educators to engineers.
Teaching abroad is how my wife and I can afford to do so much traveling. She works at an American school in Abu Dhabi. It provides us both with round-trip flights home every summer, free upscale housing that includes a gym, pool, and jacuzzi, and comprehensive health insurance. Oh, and there’s no income tax in the United Arab Emirates.
Living in Abu Dhabi has allowed us to travel all over the world. We flew nonstop to Bulgaria for $185 round-trip. We spent even less on nonstop round-trip flights to Cyprus. Every time we fly back to the United States, we make a stopover in Europe for a few days to enjoy gastronomy in Lyon, the Christmas markets in Munich, or the nightlife in Amsterdam.
There are thousands of international schools worldwide looking for qualified English-speaking employees, from IT specialists to administrators to teachers of all specialties. If you’re interested, check out international recruiting agency Search Associates.
Don’t have a teaching degree? You can still potentially teach English as a foreign language with a TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) certificate. But don’t expect the same benefits as credentialed teachers working at international schools.
Or keep it even simpler and research international positions for your existing skill set. You’d be surprised at the number of opportunities for Americans overseas.
2. Look for Work Exchanges
There are plenty of employers who provide free housing for short-term or even long-term stays in exchange for work. This arrangement is called a work exchange.
For example, if you’ve ever been intrigued by the idea of living and working on a farm, WWOOF is your chance to see the world while you do so. WWOOF stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms.
Farming is primarily seasonal work, and farmers need seasonal help. While they often have an abundance of space, housing, and food, many organic farmers don’t have an abundance of money. So in exchange for four to six hours’ help each day, they provide room and board. You’re on your own for the cost of transportation to get there, though.
You can go “WWOOF’ing” by yourself, as a couple, with friends, or even as a family with children. Select which country you’re interested in, and WWOOF will show you a list of host farms and connect you with the farmers.
And many hostels find themselves in a similar situation as organic farmers — with plenty of beds and rooms but short on labor. So they offer a free room (and sometimes free meals) in exchange for work. A few even pay a small stipend of spending money.
Check out HelpX, helpStay, and Workaway for thousands of opportunities worldwide to stay for free in exchange for your services.
3. House-Sit or Pet-Sit
Did you know there are entire websites dedicated to connecting house sitters with pet owners? Pet owners don’t want to leave their pets in kennels surrounded by unknown dogs and cats when they travel. They’d rather let them stay at home — a home which is just sitting vacant and unused.
House sitters can stay for free at these homes for the price of caring for the owners’ pets. While it’s a relatively easy job, it does mean you have to schedule your day around the pets’ needs. You can’t leave for a weekend excursion or go on 14-hour day trips. But for animal lovers, it can be an easy way to save money with free accommodations anywhere in the world, often in high-end homes.
And house-sitting isn’t limited to pet owners. Some homeowners sleep easier knowing someone is minding their home while they’re away, whether that means you care for their plants or are simply there to deter break-ins.
But these opportunities are the exception, not the rule, and most house-sitting gigs do involve caring for pets.
Try TrustedHousesitters as a starting point for free house-sitting gigs in many different countries.
4. Volunteer Long-Term With the Peace Corps
The Peace Corps offers incredibly rewarding opportunities to live for several years in a community that needs committed volunteers. While the Peace Corps is a large international organization, they do an excellent job of keeping their focus on the grassroots level. Volunteers go to the ends of the earth, living and working in the poorest communities on the planet.
The Peace Corps isn’t for everyone, though. It requires a 27-month commitment: three months of training, then two years in the field. You’ll also be leaving the comforts of Western democracy behind. You may or may not have mobile phone service, and you may not have air conditioning in hot climates.
You receive a living stipend, which is enough to cover housing (if they don’t provide you with a free place to stay), food, and basic spending in the community where you’re stationed. But when you come home to visit, don’t plan on fancy dinners out or hotels. Expect to crash with friends and family.
That said, you’ll have the opportunity to personally transform poor communities into livable, sustainable towns and villages. In many cases, you will literally save lives. If you’re truly driven to change the world and see some of it in the process, the Peace Corps may be a good fit for you.
5. Volunteer With Short-Term Volunteer Organizations
If your volunteer travel timeline is measured in weeks or months rather than years, try short-term volunteer placement services like Go Overseas or Idealist. They offer global opportunities for work ranging from teaching English to building infrastructure.
For a comfortable way to ease into international volunteering, try Diverbo. It hosts one-week English retreats in Spain and Germany to immerse non-Native English speakers in English-based activities. As a native speaker, you’re there to give them someone to practice with. It pays for hotel stays and meals. All you have to do is get there.
There are endless ways to volunteer abroad for free travel and rewarding experiences in a new culture. Spend an hour researching options online, and you can’t help but be inspired by the possibilities to give back while seeing the world.
6. Organize Your Own Volunteer Trip
You can also organize your own volunteer trip. With crowdfunding websites like GoFundMe, you can raise money from your friends, family members, and colleagues (and sometimes even strangers) to cover the costs of your volunteer trip. Perhaps they’ll even join you on your expedition.
But ensure your trip will genuinely change lives for needy people rather than serve as a cover story for you to persuade your friends to pay for your vacation.
I saw this happen just recently with a newly arrived couple at my wife’s school. They raised money from their friends back in the United States, inventing the name of an education-based “ministry” they claimed to be leading here in Abu Dhabi. It was an utter scam, as they have the same generous teaching package my wife does.
Whether they got away with it among their friends back home or not, they didn’t get away with it here. The link to their GoFundMe page made the rounds among the school faculty, and they’ve found few friends as a result.
So approach any crowdfunding attempts with complete sincerity and transparency.
7. Maximize Credit Card Rewards
If you have the right card, you can earn free plane tickets by putting purchases on your credit card. And many of the best travel rewards credit cards offer some enticing benefits. But that’s far from the only option for maximizing your rewards.
Many travel rewards cards, such as the Delta SkyMiles Platinum card from American Express, offer free or discounted companion vouchers every year. You can score a free flight from your rewards points plus a cheap or free flight for your travel partner from the companion voucher.
Then there are sign-up bonuses. Some are positively generous, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card‘s.
You can also maximize rewards by using your credit card every time you pay for flights. Some credit cards and partner airlines offer double or triple rewards — or higher — for booking flights.
There are loads of ways you can score free flights with rewards. Just don’t overspend in the name of saving money.
8. Capitalize on Loyalty Programs
Rewards don’t just come from credit cards. Airlines, hotel chains, and other travel businesses often offer loyalty points for frequent travelers.
If you always fly with the same airline, you can rack up frequent flyer miles. The same goes for hotels. These businesses sometimes offer brief promotions with killer deals to score points quickly and cheaply or accept fewer points than usual for flights or stays.
Travel forums and frugal travel blogs let you stay on top of current promotions. Some travel credit cards confer automatic loyalty status as well, which can be a major perk of membership and easily offset any annual fee if you travel often enough.
9. Swap Houses
You live in Seattle and want to visit Berlin. Someone in Berlin wants to visit Seattle. Why not swap houses with them for your trip? It’s a win-win. You get to stay for free in an authentic local home rather than a hotel, and your home doesn’t have to sit vacant and vulnerable to catastrophes like break-ins or flooding.
Granted, it’s not always that simple. Perhaps you want to visit Berlin in July, and the Berliner wants to visit Seattle in October. Perhaps you’re worried about the risk of having a stranger stay in your home.
The good news is reputable home-swapping websites provide a level of transparency, with peer reviews and identity verification to give members greater peace of mind. Some home-swapping websites also offer credit systems for indirect house-swapping. By offering your house to others, you accumulate points or credits, which you can redeem at your leisure at houses all over the world. Think of it like couch surfing for grown-ups.
A few reputable house-swapping websites to try are HomeExchange, Love Home Swap, and HomeLink. But even if you’re using one of these services, always do your homework before agreeing to your first swap.
10. Travel to ‘The Old Country’ for Free
Some countries offer discover-your-roots programs for descendants to come back and visit the home of their ancestors. In most cases, these programs are designed for young adults to come and stay with local host families.
Programs include:
Whatever your heritage, do some research on private or government-funded programs to streamline your visit back to “the old country,” stay for free while there, and potentially even cover your airfare.
While you’re at it, you can also look into citizenship programs for descendants. For example, Italy has a generous citizenship program through which descendants who can prove an Italian ancestor are generally eligible for dual U.S.-Italian citizenship.
A close friend of mine who was born in Boston was able to dig up proof that his great-great-grandfather was Italian, and he now has an Italian passport and the option of living in the European Union if he so wishes.
11. Drive Someone’s Car Cross-Country
During cross-country moves, people sometimes need help moving their cars. That’s where you come in. Some car owners will pay you to move their vehicles from Point A to Point B within a specified time frame. In some cases, they also cover your flight home. There’s no better way to get to know a country, especially your own country, than driving it.
In my 20s, I spent two years moving across the country every few months with my then-girlfriend, a travel nurse. I drove across the country a half-dozen times and developed a fondness for and truer sense of the U.S. than I ever felt from flying and visiting cities for a weekend.
After sitting alone in a car for six hours, when you stop at a roadside diner for lunch, you’re more likely to strike up a conversation with the locals. You can end up meeting fascinating people while eating local favorites.
And these road trip experiences don’t necessarily have to happen within the U.S. People on every continent need their cars moved. Start with Auto Driveaway for U.S. and Canada car transports — and a free road trip.
12. Crew a Yacht or Cruise Ship
Just because you don’t know a slipknot from a half-Windsor doesn’t mean you can’t crew a boat. Yachts and cruise ships need crew members of all skill sets, from cooking to security to communications. The ship provides room and board plus a chance to see the world while sailing the Seven Seas and beyond.
But expect the hours to be long and the wages to be low. One of my friends spent a year working on a cruise ship. She reports she averaged five hours’ sleep every night they were at sea. And even when you’re not technically on the clock, you can never truly relax. The possibility of an all-hands-on-deck emergency is always present, however remote.
If you long for the sea life but are wary of cruise ships, look into yacht jobs instead. Several websites help connect yacht employers with crew members, including CrewSeekers, Yacrew, and Find a Crew.
13. Sit Through a Timeshare Presentation
I’ve taken plenty of free vacations through timeshare presentations. But it’s playing with fire, and it can cost you far more in the long term if you end up buying.
Timeshare sellers have their pitch down to a precise science. They’re the best salespeople you’ll ever meet. Take my father’s advice and commit before going that you won’t buy, write it down on a piece of paper, and pull that paper out of your pocket to read it when you feel an overwhelming desire to buy.
Think about it. If it weren’t so profitable, how could they possibly give away a free vacation to everyone who attends?
At the event, the salespeople make the initial presentation and offer. A few people buy at the opening price. Then, you sit down one-on-one with an expert salesperson, who pitches you personally, probing for weaknesses and customizing their pitch directly to you. Then they drop the price — a lot.
After they probe and coax and tempt you some more, they drop the price again — and then again and again. By their final offer, the price is a tiny fraction of the opening price from the original presentation, which is hard to pass up.
If you understand and accept the risk, you can scope out some of these deals at TimesharePresentationDeals.com.
14. Take Advantage of Overbooked Flights
You’ve probably experienced this one. The airline employee opens the intercom and announces, “We’re slightly overbooked for today’s flight and are offering a free flight voucher up to $500 for any passengers willing to take our next flight at 7pm.”
It’s not always practical to take them up on it. Sometimes, you need to get home for a pressing reason, such as a big meeting the next morning. But sometimes, it only costs you a few hours at the airport, and you stand to save a lot.
Typically, if no one takes the airline up on these offers, they escalate. They may start at a $300 voucher, then $500, then $700, and keep going until the offer is so astounding people race to the counter to take it. If the first offer isn’t worth the inconvenience to you, but you do have some flexibility, move closer to the counter and keep your ears open. Be ready to jump on the deal if it escalates enough to be worth your trouble.
A little flexibility can go a long way.
15. Open a Bask Bank Account
Most rewards programs require you to spend money — counterproductive to saving.
But Bask Bank rewards you with American Airlines miles for saving money, rather than spending it. Every dollar you save earns you 1 mile with American Airlines, every single year.
Best of all, Bank Bank doesn’t charge fees, so you get the rewards at no cost. Unlike credit cards, who fund their rewards programs with the interest paid by less savvy-cardholders who don’t pay their balances in full each month.
Final Word
The less glossy the travel experience, the more memorable, rewarding, and authentic it feels. I can’t tell you anything about the Bahamas Wyndham I stayed in when I was 23 and trying to impress a girlfriend. But I can give you every detail of the $19-per-night guesthouse in Telavi, Georgia (the country, not the state), where the owner poured us homemade wine from her own vines.
Stay flexible and open-minded, and you can find ways to travel the world for free. Just remember there’s usually some trade-off to free travel, and you need to understand it completely before committing.
