Traveling itself leads us to an amazing self discovery path. But sometimes it's not easy to join the travelling part and our little backpacker economies, right? And sometimes we think about staying for a while and getting a job there, but... how to find a job in a hostel, par exemple, that offers a little salary and not only accomodation and meals? I'm sure that's all questions we, travelers, have been thinking for a while.

Recently I discovered a great opportunity that almost all countries can provide: The Au Pair work. It consists of you going to live with a local family, helping to take care of their children. Sometimes they ask for a little help with the pets and house cleaning, but nothing too much far from the main point. They provide accomodation (most of the time you have a bedroom of your own), all the meals, and also provide generous pocket money. The salary depends on the country actually, but the places that pay the highest value use to be Australia, New Zealand, USA, France, China, Canada, amongst many others. Plus, living with a local family, you will completely understand the way of the locals life, learn their language much faster, eat their food and make friends and connections that will endure a lifetime!! You can choose between going only for 1 month, up to 1 or 2 years, so it can suit almost any occasion, and you have the weekends off most of the time to explore the surroundings. In the Aupair.com website, you can choose to see a family that lives in a village or in a big town, a great plus because there's no way you can fail your match ahah! Also, for us, travelers by blood, this is a difficult time. We cannot travel, and have to be extremely careful about the Covid situation. But with Au Pair, you can travel to a country that has almost no cases for months without having to worry too much about the pandemic situation, and then you just have to wait for this to get better, and explore the countries around it, so it maybe be your best option for travelling abroad in 2020.

Actually I also want to talk with you about security. Travelling to the other point of the world is not easy, cause you never know who the people are on the other side of the screen. But using the aupair.com website is the best and safest choice for sure! Now... I know, working with children is not for everyone. But for me, it's one of the most fulfilling experiences actually! Children see the true beauty of the world. They don't think about hate, wars, hunger. They live each moment with kindness and compassion, they believe in love, they adore nature and are curious and kind to animals. But, most important of all, they are capable of dreaming. Something we, adults, totally forget, when we focus on our 9 to 5 job, settling down every plan we had for the future and always thought they were impossible to achieve. Children help me to see a better world. And make me believe again, a thing we all need!

The best thing about the au pair philosophy is that you are supposed to be treated like a big sister. You work for a family and they become your family. You don't see that in every job! And it can be quite important when you're planning to leave your country, into the unknown, leaving everything behind for a while. Homesick is really tricky, but I assure you, with this kind of work, you will not regret your choice.

But why exactly is Au Pair such a great option to fund your travels? There's a lot of Gap Year choices to choose from. Let's take a look on the monetary value:

1) Traveling the world with almost no money.
Besides the Visa and travel ensurance cost, yes, it's possible to travel the world staying at hostels/couchsurfing, eating by cooking food from the supermarket and travelling by lifts. Here, you would maybe spend around 7000€ per 1 year of travelling in 2-3 continents, with airplane tickets. But you have to know it's totally not the safest and most comfortable way. I know stories of friends that did this and many times ended up sleeping on the streets. You could get robbed or worse, and still ending up loosing money and not beinmg able to continue your travels.

2) Trying to find backpacker jobs when you're already in the country.
This actually works if you're lucky. There's some countries it's really easy to find a job in a farm/a bar/ hotels, and be well paid for it, like Australia, Canada or New Zealand. But not many countries have this easy option and you can end up with option 1.

3) Volunteering with trusty organizations.
Great choice for the ones that want to actually take part on something big and still have fear of travelling and adventuring on their own. You have a lot of volunteer programs that have to do with desadvantage children or animal care, where you have the food and accomodation covered. But you end up paying a weekly cost you have to pay the organization (the cheapest ones are usually 130€/week) plus the airplane tickets.

4) Volunteering with WWOOF and Workaway
On the other hand, you can find your host on your own and volunteer in individual/local houses instead of organizations. This is a better option if you're on a budget, cause you don't pay for volunteering, you work like 5 hours/day and have food and accomodation covered too. There's so many options of jobs here, between child care to animal care or carpintery and farm work. In Workaway you can actually get some pocket money deppending on the host but not too extraordinary. But... you still have to pay your flight tickets, and the airport-place transport.

5) Working with Au Pair

With Au Pair, you can easily find a family, so the uncertainty gets out of the question. And you will get a job, not a volunteer program, so you will get paid a weekly pocket money to work for 5-7 hours a day. Plus, many families buy you the return flight ticket, so you don't have to worry about getting there. Also, since you're in a family buble and you become part of the family, if they travel inside or outside the country, there's a lot of chances you will go too and don't have to pay for it, since you go to take care of their children. You work on average between 25 and 30 hours per week and your weekends are free, so you have plenty time to explore. Also, in some countries like China, the families usually give you a language/cultural course for free or even free museum passes/transportation passes for you to take the most of the experience in your time there.

So, what the program can provide you and why is the best way to fund your travels:

• Free accomodation and all the food covered;
• Generous pocket money you don't find in many other jobs - to help you continue your travels;
• Sometimes free return flight tickets or even help with the Visas;
• Free time to explore the place;
• Comfort;
• Safety;
• Traveling for a cause;
• Having someone there to support you cause you're gonna be part of the family;
• Truly learning the culture of the country since you're gonna live with locals.

Now is the part that you ask me... But how do I find a family? Easy ahah! Just register on the website www.aupair.com and start your search today! I'm sure there will be a perfect family for you!! There is always one perfect family to the right person, with the same lifestyle, thoughts, and a bunch of love to give :)

Happy and safe travels!

Pic by Jasmin Bauer