I am planning on travelling around South America for 6 months towards the end of this year. I was wondering can anyone advise me on casual work I can do whilst travelling that can help fund my trip. I was thinking of working on vineyards in Chile or Argentina picking grapes, if anyone can advise me on this I would be grateful. I don't really know much about it so any information would be a great help. I was also thinking of maybe working on boats as a way of getting to the Galapagos Islands and Easter Island. Again any info on this would be gratefully received. I have a degree so I would consider teaching English, however my travel buddy doesn't so I don't know if this would be a problem. Any working ideas would be really appreciated. If anyone has any experience of this I would love to hear your opinion. Thanks in advance:)
Groan, yet another 'how can I fund my travels while travelling' post. lamoss, it appears you are new here so let me give you some advice, do a search. There is a search box near the top right of this page. If you use it you will find all kinds of threads on the topic. There is nothing new, original or different in your question.
The bottom line for your question remains the same as always. There is possible and probable, while it is possible to find a job to fund further travel it is far from probable and if there was an easy answer it would be well known here on the TT.
Picking grapes is hard work and never pays more than enough to barely survive on while you are doing it.
Crewing is something I have experience with and while someone with no experience can find a berth in some places at some times of year it is not easy and most importantly doesn't happen when YOU want or take you where YOU want to go. You show up in the right place at the right time, spend days, weeks, asking around, showing your face on the docks and MAYBE you get lucky. Most berths for someone with no sailing experience are unpaid, some ask you to pay to share expenses. Paid crewing generally requires that you have experience beforehand and rarely pays enough in the short term to save from to fund further travel.
Teaching English is the most common idea for making money that gets posted here on the TT. Generally it requires that you spend a fairly lengthy period of time in one place doing it, which is contrary to travelling (that's why there is a Living and Working Abroad branch here on the TT). While it may pay enough to save from to fund travel after a year or so of working, it is also a question of possible vs. probable if you are willing to sit in one place long enough. As I said it is the most common idea here on the TT and while some do indeed find work teaching there are no doubt a whole lot more who do not.
The BEST way to fund travel is to work at home before you leave. That might not be what you want to hear but it is reality. You can probably save more money working a second part-time job flipping burgers at MickeyD's than you would ever make while on the road. It isn't glamorous, it isn't exciting, it isn't thrilling, but it's true.
So it's up to you, you can search for those 'easy money making ideas while travelling' on the internet or you can put your nose to the grindstone and earn the money you need before you go.
yeah style pretty much sums it up... you are only going to be traveling for 6 months anyway its better to even cut your time short by a month or two and have a nice budget so you can enjoy yourself then to travel the full 6 while having to pick grapes or do construction work....
now if you want to turn into a fulltime traveling that´s a different question but, in my opinion for a a trip like you shouldn´t be working
i would say its fine to work if you are a ¨working NOMAD¨ but ast i explained if you are going for only 6! months you are really just wasting your time if you are gonna spend 3 of those months picking grapes in argentina. as i said my opinion would be to better to use that time to work in your own country. to each his own though
"Pathetic comment! "
To suggest someone has made a pathetic comment without an explanation of what makes it pathetic in your opinion is pretty pathetic in my book.
As I read it paulblue5 has simply said it isn't worthwhile spending time working when you only have 6 months total and that it would be better to either save more before leaving or shorten the time with the existing funds. It's a valid opinion as far as I can see, whether you agree with it or not.
What alternative do you have to suggest to the OP NOMAD? You haven't even replied to the OP.
yeah travelinstyle has pretty much summed up what i was trying to stay, but is a bit more articulate then i :-) ... not good at the whole message board thing yet.
as the OP has said he would like to travel around the whole of South America for 6 months.... south america is a massive continent. even traveling straight for 6 months you still probably wouldnt get to see it all. if the OP is serious about seeing all of SA in his travel time i would personally suggest to not try and work and instead use your budget for comfort and to save time (EX. take a flight to patagonia and back to BA in argentina instead of busing it all the way back, this would allow the OP to save a lot of time and see more things in not only Argentina but along with the rest of South America,)....
now it may be different if he was refining his stay to one or two countries (EX: ecuador & peru)... then he would probably be able to do quite a bit of traveling as well as maybe work for a bit.
i was just basing my opinion off what the OP had written and says he wants to do.
I agree with the above, there are ways of extending your time on the road by working in hostels in exchange for a room or wwoofing (willing workers on organic farms) where you work on a farm in exchange for room and board. However if you're planning on funding your travels by working forget it, as Travelinstyle says it is possible to find something but highly unlikely.
As for working on boats for the Galapagos or Easter Island, first of all only a few private yachts make the journey out to these islands, people normally fly there and then board a boat - at least the Galapagos, Easter Island, obviously, is not visited by boat being a single island. Then the boats that trawl the waters of the Galapagos are manned by experiences crews and there's no shortage.
As for teaching English, fine if you plan on doing it for a year or more but if it's for a month there's not point. Plus you'll have to get a tefl.
I completely agree with paul - for a trip like this you shouldn't be working. Better save the money at home.
Toad I don't know if you are aware that WWOOF is not legal in all countries where it is offered. Some countries such as Canada have passed specific laws that allow someone to work for room and board for a limited period of time (Canada says up to a month) but in other countries it is illegal. While most countries will turn a blind eye to WWOOFers, insurance companies will not. That means that a traveller's insurance will NOT cover them if something happens while they are working illegally. WWOOF makes no mention of this on their main website and very few individual country WWOOF websites cover it. Personally I think this is an intentional oversight on the part of WWOOF. They don't want to advertise that it isn't always legal. That would discourage members (the farmers pay to be members) from buying a membership.
Canada's website covers it under Visas and interestingly suggests printing out the relevant quote to show to Immigration if questioned. That indicates to me that people ARE questioned. They also say to telephone them immediately if you have trouble. http://wwoof.ca/node/30
Australian Immigration covers it here under voluntary unpaid work: http://www.immi.gov.au/visitors/tourist/676/how-the-visa-works.htm#volunteer
But you don't find the info on the Australian WWOOF website. It does provide a link however. The New Zealand WWOOF website provides no info and no link. NZ Immigration covers it here: http://www.dol.govt.nz/immigration/knowledgebase/item/1350
Where it is shown to be considered paid work and as such you cannot WWOOF on a visitors visa, it is illegal !!!!!!! You would have to obtain a work visa for NZ.
So any suggestion that someone look at WWOOFing should be followed by some kind of qualifying statement such as, 'PROVIDED IT IS LEGAL IN THE COUNTRY YOU VISIT.'
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