A Couple Abroad

Have you ever wished you could travel for free? Well with Worldpackers you can get pretty damn close. Worldpackers is a volunteering service that connects travellers with hosts around the world who need help, this can be teaching English, housekeeping, admin work, and so much more. 

In exchange for this work, the hosts offer different things, some offer just accommodation, some offer accommodation and 3 meals a day, and some request a small fee of around £5 a day for all of the above (way less cost than if you were just travelling and paying for hostels and meals yourself). Many hosts also offer free trips, and discounted adventures and will show you secret spots around the city that locals know about, allowing you to venture away from the tourist spots and truly experience the country. 

This means that all you have to pay for is to get to the volunteering opportunity, and you can spend weeks or months, exploring for basically nothing.

What exactly is Worldpackers?

Worldpacker is a work-exchange platform that enables you to find opportunities around the world where you can volunteer in exchange for accommodation, meals, and sometimes trips. The Worldpackers platform gives you the ability to contact hosts, and apply to volunteer and gives you insurance in case anything goes wrong with the volunteering. For example, you can get a few night’s accommodation paid for by Worldpackers if a host cancels on you, ensuring you won’t be out of pocket. It is a great way to find volunteering opportunities while knowing each host has been vetted and reviewed by Worldpackers to ensure a great experience.

How Does Worldpackers Work

Worldpackers is incredibly easy to use, you begin by picking an area of the world that you want to visit, and a bunch of hosts will then pop up with different ‘job titles’ of what they need help with. You then get the Worldpackers membership to be able to contact the hosts, this may seem annoying at first having to pay to volunteer, and we were a bit wary at first, however, we made that yearly membership back with just one volunteering opportunity so it’s so worth it. 

You then create a profile, fill in your details, add a picture, and continue exploring opportunities. Worldpackers has an academy that allows you to follow videos to gain ‘certificates’ these then come up on your profile and make you seem better to potential hosts (as they will likely have a few applications to pick from).

You then apply for opportunities, chat with hosts, and head to their location to begin volunteering, spending the next few weeks or months in a unique and fulfilling way.

Worldpackers Membership

As previously mentioned, Worldpackers requires membership to contact hosts and apply for opportunities. You can get membership as a Solo traveller, or as a Couple, allowing you to volunteer together with a partner/friend. Each option has two brackets, a basic membership, or a ‘membership pack’ that gives better insurance and various deals with other companies.

The basic Solo Membership is $49 per year, or if you use our link and apply our discount code ACOUPLEABROAD it’s only $39. The Solo Pack Membership with better insurance and extra features is $99 per year, or if you use our link and apply our discount code ACOUPLEABROAD it’s only $89.
The Couples/Friends Membership is $59 per year, far cheaper than getting two separate Solo Memberships, or again if you use our link and apply our discount code ACOUPLEABROAD it’s only $49. The Couples/Friends Pack Membership with the extra features is $119 per year or if you use our link and apply our discount code ACOUPLEABROAD it’s only $109.

Our Experience Volunteering

Our first volunteering experience with a Worldpackers host was in Vang Vieng, Laos with a company called Sae Lao Project. The project helps Lao students to learn English as they don’t have the opportunity in their own schools, so students head the project every evening to be taught and helped by volunteers. The project is located in Nathong Village, just outside of Vang Vieng, so we got to experience the local life, not being in the main city like most backpackers would be.

At Sae Lao, all volunteers divided daily tasks, gardening, cleaning, building, and then also cooking breakfast and dinner for all other volunteers. These were fun little tasks that keep you busy throughout the morning, then in the afternoon, we had free time to go to the local cafe, visit blue lagoons, and basically do whatever we wanted. Then at 5pm the English classes started, finishing at 7pm. For us, the English teaching and the students were the highlight of our experience, we loved helping the students and generally just communicating with them. We were basically living and eating on about £5 per day while volunteering, a crumb of what we would have been spending if we were just staying and exploring Vang Vieng ourselves.

Worldpackers Discount Code

If you’re interested in signing up for Worldpackers, We have a discount code that will give you 10$ off any of the membership options. Just use our link or enter the code ACOUPLEABROAD.

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