“WWOOF”ing - sweat paying for accommodations
WWOOF’ing is a new travel idea that I just ran across recently. It allows travelers to obtain free accommodations, and also food sometimes, in thousands of destinations accross the world. No, this isn’t a scam, because you do pay for your stay in ways other than the local currency.
WWOOF stands for World Wide Oppurtunities on Organic Farms or Willing Workers on Organic Farms. The name is pretty self explanatory, but in a short description, travelers are expected to work in exchange for room and board.
WWOOF.org is the official site online for people who may be interested. They have links to 24 national WWOOFing organizations, and to independent hosts in 50 other countries. The national WWOOFing organizations require its members to pay a membership fee, but the independent hosts do not.
A picture of a WWOOF farm in New Zealand, from WWOOOF New Zealand
After browsing through several of the farms listed independently, I found that most places require their workers to work anywhere from 4 to 8 hours, 5 days a week, in exchange for a room. Other activities on site may include yoga and other reflection type stuff.
WWOOFing is definitely an interesting idea to save money while traveling, however I think that someone who would enjoy this would be required to have a passion for the spiritual, pure, organic lifestlye. Another potential negative is that the time commitment to the farm would damper your ability to explore the sites and cities your destination has to offer.
So although free accommodations may be a tempting offer, I don’t think working only for the monetary savings is a good idea. Someone that would enjoy this working vacation needs to have a passion for this type of lifestyle.
[tags]WWOOF, travel, organic [/tags]