7 real ways to make money while travelling (with no experience)

I’m sick and tired of seeing smug instagram comments under fun travel videos along the likes of “just another trust fund baby”. Nah, mate. That could have been you if you’d known these tricks I’m about to share. 

This is what allowed me to travel around Europe as a broke teen with no degree and almost no work experience! 

Honestly, there is no secret formula to travelling and working at the same time. Just be open to any weird opportunities that come your way, and talk to people!

From easiest to hardest:

1. Working in hostels

This is the EASIEST and best way to start travelling when you have no money and no experience. Hostels are always in need of staff & volunteers, especially during their busy season.

You don’t need experience, but being personable will get you far. I worked as an event organiser for a hostel in Lisbon where I lived, ate and drank for free + got paid commission every week for anyone I signed up to activities such as pub crawls or surf lessons.  

If your visa doesn’t allow you to work you can usually still volunteer at hostels and have all your base expenses paid for.

I’ll do a separate post on how to find this kind of work, but looking for hostels on workaway.com and worldpackers.com is a great start. They charge a membership fee every year, but those 49€ are well spent if it lands you a stay or a job.
(PS. you can get 1 month free on your workaway membership is you use my little referral link right here!

2. Becoming an Au-Pair

Becoming an au pair is a great way to fully immerse yourself in a different culture, learn a language and get paid at the same time. You don’t necessarily need a lot of experience, but you do need to be a reliable and trustworthy person.

Most likely you’ll be working with small children. Like with the hostels you can find work on workaway.com or worldpackers.com, or find sites designated to aupairing like aupair.com.

Be careful that the site you’re using is legitimate, have a video chat with the family before you go, and gather as much info as you can before going. Don’t pay an “application fee” if the family is charging one. Stay safe!

3. Take on seasonal work

This is how a lot of “vagabonds” I’ve met around find work. 

There are seasonal jobs around everywhere. Do they all pay well? Absolutely not. But the accessibility and short contracts allow you to work hard for a couple of months - then hop countries. Some places even offer accommodation!

Seasonal work vary from jobs in hospitality to agriculture to construction. Working in a café in Berlin for a summer is a seasonal job. Picking seaweed in Lofoten in spring is a seasonal job. Working as a snowboarding instructor is a seasonal job.

I know some people that have found seasonal jobs they return to year after year. For example, you might do the grape picking season in France, then spend your winters in a ski resort in Switzerland, then have the spring and summers off. 

How to find seasonal work in Europe?

• Check facebook groups dedicated to the subject/or place you want to go

• Local job boards - use Chrome & translate if you have to

• Contacting farms / businesses directly in the area you want to go to. (this worked for me!)

• Showing up to your preferred destination & asking around (this is what seasonal workers have recommended to me!)
  

To ensure you’re paid well enough, I would aim for countries with a relatively high minimum wage like: Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and Sweden. New Zealand and Australia are also good alternatives and do a “working holiday visa”.

4. Promoter / Ticket seller

This one is for the party animals! In party-destinations around Europe you can make a killing selling promoting events and parties to tourists. This seasonal gig is commission-based: your income is usually determined by how many tickets you sell. 

It’s intense work, and you might be wandering streets approaching groups of tourists or playing drinking games with hostel/hotel guests. I’ve seen travel agencies you can apply to to get signed on as an event promoter - just google search “ party promoter + your destination “ and see what pops up.

Just make sure not to party away all your earnings!

5. Language Tutor

If English is you native language (or if you’re very proficient) - you’re in luck! Everyone and their grandma wants to improve their English. You can work as a language tutor with a school, or online. There are apps and websites online you can sign up with to get paid to teach online, or get paid to be a talking buddy.

Don’t fret if your english isn’t great, there are opportunities for everyone online. For example, a friend of mine makes his living teaching Turkish remotely online.

6. Go freelance!

My favourite option, and what I’m doing right now. I’m a graphic designer and content producer for businesses and I work my own hours for clients around the world. As a freelancer you need to have certain marketable skills - but that’s nothing dedication and youtube can’t fix.

The pros are great: your earning potential is uncapped, you can work your own hours and get to specialize in your field. There are some major drawbacks as well: competition is fierce for beginners and its hard to get your first clients.

Freelancing is also unpredictable. Ideally you should have some money saved up to tie you over for when customers are few and far between.

Interested in going freelance as a creative/designer? I’d recommend checking out The Futur and Abi Connick on Youtube.

7. Run your own online biz

I said it would run from easiest to hardest, didn’t I? Running your own online business is not easy, but it’s possible. Long term I think this is the best way to fund your travels. Just this week I heard about a friend of a friend running a suitcase dropshipping business. I think at this point you have to think really niche.

I’ll make another blog post about this in the future with different ideas on digital online businesses!

Final thoughts

Working while travelling might mean travelling slow. Even if you’re working remotely, it’s nice to stay for longer than a month to make sure you have a comfortable work set-up. Realistically you’ll spend several months in each place.

But this way you get to fully immerse yourself in the culture, learn a bit of the language and make friends all over the world. I hope this post inspired you and gave you some new ideas on how to travel around the world even if you’re broke. The possibilites are literally endless!