Looking for someone interested in doing a WorkAway, WWOOF, HelpX, etc. I want to make sure it's not a trap and don't go alone to one of these places. Also, some of them only allow for duo's to go. So i'm wondering if anyone else is interested in this type of thing. I am looking to try for 1-2 months, soonish (within 1-2 months maybe? to get to know each other before we go?)

Hi, this question has probably been asked a million times, sorry.
I was thinking of starting Workaway this winter and I’ve heard different feedbacks on the time it takes before finding a host.
What freaked me out is that some people say we need to start looking 3-4 months before.
Is this true? I wasn’t expecting to have to start looking immediately.
What are your thoughts on this? How much time before do you start looking?

Thanks!!

I’m currently doing Workaway in Ontario, Canada. The listing says volunteers work 25 hours per week, meals are provided, and cooking time counts as work.

I am already working the stated 25 hours, but I have cooked at least four times and that time has not been counted. The daily schedule is unclear: we start at 9 a.m., but there is often no agreed finish time. On day 11, after I had worked since the morning, the host asked me around 2:30 p.m. if I wanted to work more.

I’m also concerned about food and hygiene. Meals are often very late or uncertain, and sometimes the hosts are out without telling me whether dinner will be provided. The kitchen is frequently unhygienic, with food scraps and dirty dishes left out, jars left open, refrigerated condiments unrefrigerated, and spoiled dairy products. I have seen yogurt with what looked like pink mold and cream that had turned green.

I was asked to cook there from my first day, without being shown where things were or how the kitchen worked. There have also been some disrespectful comments from the hosts.

I understand Workaway is not a hotel, but this feels beyond normal cultural differences. Would you report this to Workaway and leave? I have somewhere safe I can go if needed, and I’m documenting the listing, messages, work hours, and food conditions.

The attached photo was generated by AI based on an actual photo. It's actually much dirtier...

I’m looking for advice from people who have experience with Workaway, especially if you have ever had a serious problem with a host.

I had a very bad experience with a Workaway host in spring 2025. I feel that the host’s profile did not accurately represent what the situation would actually be like, and I feel that I was essentially lured there under false pretenses. I had to leave after a conflict escalated and I feared for my personal safety. I lost a significant amount of money because of the experience.

I have already contacted Workaway by email and explained what happened. I’m hoping they will investigate the host and, if appropriate, take action so that other people don’t have the same experience. I would really like to know if there is anything else I can do to make sure this is properly looked into or to warn other Workawayers.

I can’t write a review because been so long and my account is deactivated. Also, the reason I didn’t leave a public review at the time is that I’m genuinely scared of the host. When I raised concerns with her in person, I felt that I was gaslighted and manipulated, and that I was treated in a very disrespectful and unreasonable way. She still has my full name, phone number and other personal information. I’m worried that if she found out that I had reported her or written about my experience, she might contact me or try to discredit me. I really don’t want to relive that situation again.

There is also a lot of shame and grief attached to this for me. I feel embarrassed that I was so trusting and naive, and I have blamed myself a lot for what happened. I had planned this trip for a long time and had put a lot of money and hope into it, so it has been difficult to simply accept the loss and move on. Even now, I feel like the experience has affected my ability to trust people.

I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar with a Workaway host. What did you do? Is there a way to report something like this confidentially and still warn future Workawayers? And also, how did you move on from it? I kinda liked the idea of workaway but now I don’t want to take a risk again (it was my first stay ever).

Hi, it is my first experience on workaway and it looks like I found a host ! What do you feel about this discussion ? Do you think everything is clear ? I think yes but I don't know 🤷🏻

Let me just preface this by saying it's not a typical workaway I'm doing.

For context, I worked in a corporate job last year and had to take a few months off with burnout. I'm from Germany and my friend (who I met a few years ago while travelling) offered me a few months on her farm in New Zealand if I ever wanted to change things up.

The arrangement would be that I'd live rent free (but pay my power bills) in an unoccupied house they have on the farm in exchange for a few hours of help a week and I'd have a meal with her and her partner every three days or so. The rest of my time would be to slow down and reset in a peaceful environment, after my difficult year last year.

Unfortunately a couple of weeks into my time on the farm I sustained a concussion which has been a long recovery as I'm about 3 months into the recovery now. It is getting better, but I'm still building up capacity with everyday physical and cognitive tasks. I've had help from an OT and a physio which has really helped with returning to everyday life, and I'm back helping out at the farm which is really good for recovery.

However, my friend stopped offering me meals a few weeks back and the helping out expectation has grown (I'd say it's about a weekday a week's work now).

Obviously normally this workload wouldn't be such a big deal but whilst I'm still recovering from my concussion, it would be nice if I didn't have to worry about cooking a meal every few days and to keep the work at a sustainable level. As I'm also using up savings whilst I'm here and it's not paid. It sort of feels now like I'm working for free and I'm not enjoying my time here as much as I did at the start.

As much as a conversation with her would be good, it feels like it would be an uncomfortable conversation with her to talk about the arrangement, as I am really grateful for having a place to stay, it's just I don't feel like I'm being accommodated very well here. I'm considering trying to find house-sitting opportunities in the next month or so. And then I'm hoping I'll be recovery ready to find some paid work here by then.

It still feels like the best arrangement I could ask for in my current scenario but I am feeling a little isolated here and wanting a change soon.

Keen to just hear any opinions. Am I overreacting?

I'm about to quit my job, sell my house and car, and get rid of most of my possessions so I can travel the world for 2 years. The long term plan is to figure out where I want to settle (not America) and what I want to do for work after those 2 years, so the goal is to spend a good chunk of time in multiple countries of interest, including some countries in Europe where I plan on doing workaway.

I'll be traveling with a partner most of the time.

Besides the basic clothing, dry ingredients, medicine, and toiletries, I'm trying to make a list of what else to bring. So far I have:

A good chef's knife

A set of portable camping utensils (fork spoon chopsticks)

Bug spray and thermacell (I'm a mosquito magnet)

House slippers

E-reader

Laptop

Noise cancelling headphones

Portable speaker

Personal blender (maybe?)

We will mostly be traveling in warmer climates. I love to cook, which is why I was considering the blender (as a more space efficient food processor).

What do you wish you'd brought with you on your travels? What were you glad to have brought? What ended up being a waste of space that you should have left behind?

Hi, I'm 43 yo male in france, and have started hosting workawayers this summer for help in my farm, I live alone.

I hosted a guy last month, and now a VERY young woman has contacted me to stay for about a month.

This is only the second time I will host someone.

I thought it a bit strange that such a young woman, alone, would want to stay with a man double her age.

But I thought ok, I do need the help, she's travelling europe for a while and wants to experience life in the countryside.

We agreed on the dates, and exchanged numbers to talk on WhatsApp.

I helped her with some information on how to get to mine.

She has taken a while to reply to my messages, the last one took almost two days to get a reply.

She was thankful for the information, but says she has problems with WhatsApp, and can we chat on the Signal app. She even sent the link to download the app.

I find this a bit suspicious to be honest.

Has something like this occurred to anyone?

Any advice?

I never used it, but I know it's supposed to be a safer encrypted messaging app, and I heard it can be used for scams etc..

What should I do?

She's supposed to arrive in a couple of days.

Me and a friend are creating a duo workaway account, in the description and skills do we write them individually and have a section for each person, or do we write the description as "we", any other tips and information about creating a duo workaway account would be extremely helpful, Thank you.

ignoring things like travel fees and costs, which youd sort out beforehand how do you make enough money to survive? i am aware that its more pocket money, and not career money. does anyone have any rough figures, tips of saving, items to buy to save money in the long run? thank you. im not entirely sure how legal a side gig would be

Is there something I’m not aware of? I’ll have hosts contact me for last minute workers. Everything seems fine when planning, then I’m ghosted all of a sudden. It’s a little inconsiderate because if they lost interest, they could’ve just said so. I start preparing for travel since it’s last minute and give my hopes up for no reason.

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!

If I volunteer in Estonia or Latvia from Germany through Workaway.info, will I receive any certificate of participation or a Youthpass that I can use for my CV?

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.

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?

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.

Winner July 2026

Congratulations to Workawayers Sandrine & Felix from Germany

https://www.workaway.info/en/community/travel-photos/2026-07

Give it a try for next month! You can upload up to 6 photos each month, and there are cash prizes for the top 3 entries. The winning photo receives €100, with prizes also awarded for 2nd and 3rd place.

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?

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