Over the course of my sabbatical year, my goal was to travel as much as I could. However, constant travel can be exhausting for many reasons, so I wanted to find ways to avoid getting burnt out too quickly. Additionally, travel can be expensive, so I needed to think about how to make a whole year of travel affordable.  But more importantly, when I think about why I travel, my core reason is to experience the world – culture, nature, lifestyle.

For all of these reasons and more, I sought out workstays to filter into my year of travel.  And, I’m so happy I did.  For most of my workstays, I used the website HelpX. While there are several platforms out there, I found that HelpX was more grounded in individual households, which was what I was interested in. 

Before getting into a workstay, you have to think about what you’re looking for because there are tons of options out there. For me, I knew that I wanted to work with my hands, interact with the hosts more than other helpers, have access to public transportation (unless I had my own car), and stay for about 1-2 weeks.  

Here are some of the things that workstays allowed me to do

Connect:

I think no matter what type of workstay you participate in, this is one of the best things.  During my different experiences, I met people from all walks of life. My hosts were musicians, farmers, military, flight attendants, teachers, artists, hospitality owners. They were retired, in the middle of their lives, young families, other helpers. But it wasn’t just my hosts that I got to know; they welcomed me into their communities. They invited other family members and friends over for dinners. They brought me with them to weekly social groups or to their favorite restaurants. They included me in their day to day lives. 

Through the hosts, but also with my own downtime, I also got to really delve into local life.  I spent afternoons walking around the neighborhood and nature trails, visiting neighboring towns, shopping at local markets, hanging with the resident pets, curling up with a good book, and checking out smaller museums and tourist sights that I wouldn’t normally put into my itinerary.  I got to know the flora and fauna of the place. I could find my way around the town without my phone and could even help others out with directions (I love it when I get mistaken as a local). 

Slow down:

This all meant slowing down. While sometimes this means that I was bored, I wanted to be bored. I think boredom is an essential part of life. With boredom comes creativity, relaxation, thought.  With boredom, my body can reset and recharge. With boredom, I can process all of the experiences I have had so far in my travels and will have in the future. I’m actually writing this post during my current workstay where I had time to think and process the year.  If I was in the middle of my normal travel mode, my brain would be all about what is next.  

But also, the workstays gave me time to figure out what was next. All of my trips were over 2 months; the longest leg was 3 ½ months.  While I usually had the first month planned when I left home, I didn’t have a set itinerary for the rest.  Figuring out destinations, lodgings, and transportation can be exhausting; and at the end of a tourist day, I never had the energy to concentrate on anything but the next day.  So the workstays allowed me to enjoy the tourist parts of my trip without stressing about the planning for the future.  

Learn:

While I learned about the larger cultural elements of the people and places I stayed, it was actually the smaller day to day lifestyles that I enjoyed getting to know.  What does a daily schedule look like, what do meals consist of, what do people focus on, how does free time get spent?  It’s not until I learned about others’ day to day routines that I thought about my own.  

Here are some of the things I got to think about while living in someone else’s home.

• Americans use a lot of plastic. We know that plastic isn’t good, but still most of our groceries come packaged in it.  Guess what, it doesn’t need to. 
• Americans attempt to recycle, but we do a pretty bad job of it.  Why can’t people be bothered to wash, separate, and recycle properly?  Why can’t we have compost programs set up in communities?
• If we could create systems that instantly provide hot water, we could save so much water.
• Imagine every person being no more than a 15 minute walk from public transportation, grocery stores, and other community assets.  Imagine how this would change community and transportation infrastructure. And this isn’t just in cities – this also includes the countryside.  
• What if lunch was the big meal of the day? What if people got to take a break in the middle of the day (from school & work) to go home and have lunch with their families? 
• What happens when everything is closed on a Sunday? How would you spend your day?
• What does it mean to really live off the land? How much of your food can you produce through your own hard work or connections with neighbors? How hard is it to make your own cheese, bread, dressing? 
• What does it mean to have animals? Indoor or outdoor? Life of work or leisure? 
• How much space does a family need to be comfortable? 

Enjoy travel: 

Travel is great, but it can be expensive, exhausting, disheartening, and monotonous. I found that workstays helped with all of these factors.  

Expensive: The concept is that you will work a certain amount of hours (usually 3-5 a day/5 days a week) for free lodging (and sometimes food).  If you think about where the money gets spent while traveling, lodging & food are the two biggest drains.  While I wouldn’t do a workstay just for the cost benefit – realize that the lodging and amenities will not be as nice as a hotel – it did help me balance out my spending – especially when I participated in workstays in expensive countries like New Zealand and Switzerland. And I have to say I really loved the meals I got to share with my hosts. 

Exhausting: I know that some people are good at relaxation travel (beach vacations). I am not one of those people.  If I’m only in a place for a few days, I feel the need to try to do as much as I can every day. However, when I think about my regular life, I don’t operate this way. I have downtime, hobbies, and hometime. But when I’m traveling, I feel guilty spending time just sitting in a hotel room. 

Disheartening: Seeing the culture and local life sucked out of popular tourist destinations really makes me hate tourists – and yes, I’m including myself here.  I hate walking down a main street in a city and seeing carbon copy tourist restaurants or souvenir shops. And while I also can see why the destination is popular – beautiful architecture, nature, history – I have a hard time feeling okay about being there. I know that some places rely on tourism for their economic infrastructure, but it still doesn’t make me feel good about it.  Participating in workstays make me feel like I’m helping locals out instead of taking away from their communities. I feel like it balances out my tourism footprint just a little.

Monotonous: There are only so many beautiful churches I can see in one day and still appreciate. Taking a break from day to day tourism lets me refresh my “oohs” and “aahs” quota.  

Most hosts would love to have more helpers than they currently do, so if you’ve been thinking about trying it, you should. However, just remember that you are there to help. Follow through with tasks. Bring appropriate clothing. Be honest with what you feel comfortable doing or not doing.  Ask questions if you’re unsure. 

Also, remember that you are there to be part of the household, not a guest. This means that the accommodations might not be new and fancy. This means you will be in charge of cleaning your own room/bathroom. This means that sometimes things will go wrong and schedules can change. This means that they have their own schedules and responsibilities to worry about. Be ready to be flexible and open minded. 

Overall, I’ve enjoyed each of my workstays and hope you do too.