Budget Travel - wwoofing-World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms

I am going to give wwoofing a try next summer. You get to work on a farm, and the family who owns the farm pays for your food and housing. So living is essentially free. You only have to work a few hours each day. However, the working sounds like fun. You can choose to work wherever you want, France, Italy, Egypt... And you can work on vineyards or whatever field you have a passion.



I will be sure to give an update after I do the program.

have you read the beersandbeansdotcom travel blog about their wwoofing experiences? http://beersandbeans.com/category/wwoofing/

Also, I met some women on Vancouver Island (BC, Canada) that were wwoofing at a winery and their take on their host was that they were being taken advantage of.... very low quality housing, they were in the middle of nowhere with minimal ability to get to town so "stuck on the farm", and worked very hard. They were glad they had the other wwoofer's to commiserate with!

I do think it sounds interesting though. Good luck.

they had a blast. Worked hard, very rustic conditions but had a great time, great food and lived with locals who were every appreciative of their help.

Except you don't necessarily work just a few hours a day - you may well work all day for several days and then have a few days off, and start again.

Interesting. Quite the contrast in experiences. Sounds like I will just have to give it a shot for myself! Thanks for the website. I am going to give a vineyard in France a shot. Worse comes to worse there is always a ritz in Paris!

Oh, I'm sure it's a windup. Working on a farm is not fun if you're doing it right. Slave (unpaid) labor is so un-fun that whole wars were fought about it in days gone by. Why do this to yourself? If you are willing to work unpaid, do it at home where it isn't costing you precious vacation and travel experience. And where you can see if your volunteer effort is going to something where a volunteer is needed...a for profit winery needs to pay their laborers or the person using slave labor needs to go to jail in my humble view. Yes, squeakr we've all heard the stories about how the slaves had such a great life and so much fun but...you know? Slavery (unpaid work) is not fun and it's wrong and just because the victim now feels obliged to put a good face on it, because they're ashamed of being scammed, it doesn't magically become right.

have you read the beersandbeansdotcom travel blog about their wwoofing experiences? http://beersandbeans.com/category/wwoofing/

Also, I met some women on Vancouver Island (BC, Canada) that were wwoofing at a winery and their take on their host was that they were being taken advantage of.... very low quality housing, they were in the middle of nowhere with minimal ability to get to town so "stuck on the farm", and worked very hard. They were glad they had the other wwoofer's to commiserate with!

I do think it sounds interesting though. Good luck.

If you are willing to work unpaid, do it at home where it isn't costing you precious vacation and travel experience.

Methinks this isn't so much a vacation, as a way to stay in a place and work legally without having to go through the hassle of trying to get a work permit @:-)

I'm a little old for this, but might have been up for it if I were younger and between jobs :)

EmailKid, not as young as the handle might suggest (had it for a long time)

Methinks this isn't so much a vacation, as a way to stay in a place and work legally without having to go through the hassle of trying to get a work permit @:-)
In many countries even unpaid work requires a work visa.

WWOOFing has been around for 40 years. It's an alternative style that's probably outside the realm of FT business traveler types, but that doesn't mean it's a scam.

I've known several people who've had great experiences WWOOFing. They've learned more about organic farming methods and had good times with their hosts and fellow WWOOFers. They usually think it's a good thing for the world to promote organics, and, believe it or not, some people actually enjoy that kind of work. After all, some people even pay a lot of money for "working farm vacations" or even more money to work on volunteer development projects. It's usually short term, and you can read reviews of the hosts--and yes, some people have had bad experiences--and correspond with them, before committing.

I haven't WOOFed, but as part of an international homestay exchange, I've stayed in people's homes and helped out by washing up, gardening, etc. I can't believe that I've really need working papers to do that!

For ex my friends who did it - worked on an organic farm in rural Turkey where they had time to go bike riding and hiking, worked with locals to create some bike trails and got to stay in a lovely farmhouse with 3 very healthy meals a day.

In New Zealand where I am more familiar with WWOOF deals, it's often not super strenuous work and you do have time to explore. Some places even give you pocket money.
How is this different for the typical college or grad school "internship?" Talk about slave labor.....

I think it might be a little bit of a stretch to call relate it to slave labor... I think it will be a unique experience for a few weeks to learn about the wine making process.

I think it might be a little bit of a stretch to call relate it to slave labor... I think it will be a unique experience for a few weeks to learn about the wine making process.

Learning about wine making process... they were hacking down weeds that were taller than they were (itchy!!!) and working very long hours. But - they learned the reality of running a farm is HARD work with lots of tedious labor intensive jobs.

I remember reading about a "vacation" where you could "volunteer" to help run a pub for a week in Ireland - sounded fun to me.... but again, would be long hours of pulling a pint and breathing smoke!