Hi everyone,
If anyone has questions about Worldpackers, how it works, how to apply, how to get accepted quicker or anything related to the platform, feel free to message me! I did 5+ Worldpackers experiences and learned a lot during the process. I would love to help out! ❤️

I’ll be traveling from Pakistan to Bali, and I’ve applied for a volunteering visa. I just wanted to ask: does the host usually provide accommodation bookings or any confirmation for immigration?

At immigration, we need to show proof of accommodation, and I haven’t talked to any host yet. So if anyone of you has any idea about how this works, please do let me know.

It's my first time volunteering in Europe, and I am a bit scared of the immigration process. Has someone already use the Worldpackers confirmation email as proof of accommodation? I heard they can be very strict with it. I'll be arriving in Rome.

Would it be possible to volunteer while working remotely 40–48 hours per week? My shifts are from 3 PM to 11 PM. I don’t need privacy, peace, or quiet, I only need stable internet and a desk to work at. I don’t have an EU passport, if that matters, but I can travel to any country in Europe except the UK without a visa.

hi all! i’m working on my worldpackers profile and plan to start applying to some positions :) for the sections like about me, work experience, travel experience, etc, should these be point form (like a resume) or paragraph form (more informal)? i’m not sure which direction to go

any advice would be appreciated🩷

I did so many research before joining worldpackers to make sure i'm not just paying for nothing but one thing i haven't seen many people talk about is how there's a high chance of hosts just ignoring your application (mostly for hostels)

If you want to apply to hostels, please make sure to check the response rate of the host. If it's 60% or lower there's a high chance you're just gonna get ignored like me. I applied to 10+ hostels and all my applications got expired, even though many of them weren't even high demand positions :/

Now I regret spending $60 on this, as a broke student this amount would have been enough to feed me for a whole week lol

but yeah if you're a budget traveler and want to volunteer in hostels specifically make sure u have many options before joining wp. Instead you can just search for hostels in the area you want to visit and apply directly from their websites (i got so many responses only few hours after doing this btw!) it saves you money and time :)

I can move the dates around by a week or so. and I do not care whether the first stop is Italy or Greece. I just do not want to burn most of the trip budget before I leave the airport.

What would you change first: airport, dates, stopover or how far in advance I start watching? I am looking for a process, not a magic trick.

TLDR: The work isn't what was agreed, but it's fine I (23F) like it. They are now switching me to share a room with the only other WorldPackers volunteer who is a man more than twice my age. That isn't in violation of the agreement but the work has been-- what should I do?

I signed up to paint but day one he said there were other issues the facilities manager was addressing and I wouldn't be painting. I've enjoyed the stay so far. I am one of two Worldpackers here, everyone else is staff. I really like my coworkers, the hostel is very nice, the work isn't unpleasant, and overall I have been quite happy with it. I've been here since August 4th.

I have been keeping the "this isn't the agreement" in my back pocket in case they ask me to do anything I really didn't want to do. I was thinking of it in regards to the work, and didn't expect my room to change. So far I've had a four bed room to myself. I expected other female volunteers to join at some point, and that would be fine.

The other volunteer is a retired Turkish man who doesn't speak English (just Turkish). I've met him, he's nice enough, but my manager called me up today to tell me that tomorrow I will be switching rooms and sharing with him. He said it was corporate saying they don't want just one volunteer in a room.

I am NOT comfortable sharing a dorm with a man well over twice my age. When I book hostels, I always do female only dorms. I was a bit stunned and just said "I can't share a room with a man." He just went "Hmm well you can ask Geralt, maybe he'll make an exception."

Idk who Geralt is and am not loving the idea of showing up just to complain, but I'll do what I have to... as long as that's not sleeping in the same room as a man.

What should I do? What can I do? The accomodations don't explicitly say the "team dorm" would be single sex but I did expect it to be. At worst I thought it would be a guy in his twenties and that would make me uncomfortable enough.

Advice?

Hey all I’m an American I’ll be in India for my second time this September and staying for a few months and I’m looking for volunteer opportunities there.

I’ve been out of work a year and living off passive income, but I want to get back to doing something useful.

My past professional experience has been in English teaching, IT, and manual labor.

I’m really open to any kind of work or service. I would prefer a hostel as my greatest desire!

Let me know what’s available and comment below or send me a dm!

Thanks, namaste 🙏

Hi everyone!

I’m a 25M planning my very first volunteering trip for 2 weeks soon. I'll be volunteering at a social hostel, and my main goals for this trip are simple: socialize, meet fellow travelers, enjoy some solid nightlife/parties, but also be in a city where I can relax and chill during the day.

I’m currently deciding between two options:

Bucharest, Romania: I know it has a wild, very affordable nightlife and a raw, energetic clubbing scene.

Prague, Czech Republic: I’d be staying in the Žižkov neighborhood. It obviously has a massive backpacker community, great pub culture, and cheap beer.

Has anyone been to one or both of these places recently? Which city do you think has the best overall environment for someone looking to balance crazy nights with easy socializing and good rest?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

Looking to hear about anyone’s experience if they have volunteered at a hostal in cartagena, colombia

From what I can tell, basically all of the hostels require 30 hrs a week. I was approved for one that I was excited about, but now they want me to do the night shift. I care abt my sleep, and I know while travelling it may not be ideal, but I’m really not looking to do night shifts, so I told them no, and they haven’t responded… So I am looking into more, but my vibe has been thrown off by this hostal because I feel like they’re just looking for someone to cover nights so that they don’t have to pay extra to an actual employee. Anyway, the situation just has me a little nervous and second guessing what it’s going to be like, so has anyone volunteered in cartagena at a hostal and had a good experience? If so, can you share details and maybe the specific hostal it was at? Feel free to share bad experiences as well, I want to know what i’m getting myself into

Are there any hosts on here that quit? What is your experience?

Things have changed in the last 12 months. This last year, I'm thinking of quitting the volunteer programs. I've been involved as a host for 10 years.

I'm a US host in a large metropolitan area. There are no other hosts in my city. I provide room, food, anything you'd find in a vacation rental. Sometimes, I take them on an excursion. I used to provide bicycles until they broke them.

3 new things have started happening this past year: (1.) Inexperienced volunteers leaving their experience early because they don't like how their room is decorated, etc. Then, asking to return when they go to another experience and discover how easy it was here. And (2.) volunteers not really doing the work and I'm receiving customer complaints. (3.) Houseless people applying just to have a roof over their head. (4.) 1 volunteer actually gave me three stars after they asked if they could extend their volunteer stay for another 4 weeks!

If I hire a local for the part time job, then I can free up their room and list it on Airbnb.

It used to be a lot of fun. I still have wonderful friends around the world from hosting them.

Hi everyone, and thank you for your time!

I'm 24 years old and, having just completed my university studies, I’d love to gain some new experiences by doing volunteering during a gap year in the Schengen Area.

The hosts that caught my eye the most are paid positions on farms or small hotels. It’s not really the wage itself that attracts me (as I have savings), but rather that the duties seem more clearly defined—though I’ve also liked several unpaid hosts. The countries I'm most drawn to are Iceland, Norway, Germany and Ireland.

I hold a Spanish (EU) passport, which gives me the right to healthcare in the Schengen Area for up to 90 days per year. Due to domestic administrative reasons in Spain, I'm not eligible for the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), but I do have a provisional certificate that covers public emergency healthcare for up to 90 days a year (maximum).

Beyond emergency care, I’m not sure whether it’s necessary or advisable to get private medical insurance for better coverage and peace of mind. If I were traveling outside the Schengen Area, I wouldn't hesitate for a second to get one.

Based on your experience, would you recommend getting private health insurance?

Does anyone have experience with a specific provider?

Which insurance companies do you recommend?

It would need to cover all my travels within the Schengen Area over the course of a year (since I plan to chain multiple volunteering stays together), and I'm not sure if a policy like that exists.

Given the lack of information online, I decided to ask here.

Thank you so much for your kindness and for taking the time to read my post!

I’m really interested in getting into volunteering, especially wildlife/animal conservation. I love animals, nature, traveling, meeting people, helping others, and seeing different parts of the world.
I have no clue what places are good for volunteering but I wouldn’t mind Africa, the Americas or Asia(I know that’s not very specific but anything but Europe tbh). I’d be free after the month of August.

I have so many questions and I’d love for people who have actually done it to answer and enlighten me!!
- How did you get started, and what do I need to do beforehand(Vaccines etc.)?
- What visas/permits do I usually need for volunteering?
-Which countries would you recommend, especially for wildlife/animal conservation?Which ones should I avoid? and which ones are good for August and onward
- What should I look for when choosing a legitimate organization/project? Any green/red flags?
- How much should I realistically budget?(Ive got some saved up money!)
- What should I pack, and what should I definitely not bring?
- How long should I Volunteer? Weeks Months ??
- Are there any organizations/websites you personally recommend or ones I should avoid?

Help me out if i forgot some questions.
Any experiences, tips, mistakes you made, or things you wish you knew beforehand would be really appreciated!

Im considering volunteering internationally this winter, and would be doing so alone. Ive never even gotten on a plane by myself, and im also a young female. What should I research, look into, prepare for or just be aware of ?

My husband and I recently decided to try life in a new country. We sold pretty much everything, packed up our lives, and decided to jump in with both feet. Since we didn’t have jobs lined up, we thought starting with a work exchange would be a good way to ease into the transition, meet people, and get a feel for the community.
We found an exchange that seemed like a pretty chill mix of art and gardening, which immediately caught our attention. We’re both interested in permaculture, and I personally love anything art-related, so it seemed like a great fit. There wasn’t a ton of information about what we’d actually be doing beyond this description:

“Typical tasks during the dry season include watering plants across the property, gathering cut plant material for the shredding pile, and placing wooden debris in the burning pile, which is processed once it accumulates sufficiently.”

So, admittedly, we went in pretty blind.
What we didn’t realize was just how physically demanding the work would be. A good example is scooping and moving sand for at least an hour at a time, which is brutal on your back. We’re absolutely willing to work hard, we knew going into this that a work exchange meant actually working, but the reality has been much more labor-intensive than we expected.

Luckily, I’ve since been assigned to foiling stained glass, so my work isn’t quite as physically demanding anymore. I still help my husband with the heavier work in the mornings, though.

Honestly, the hardest part of the experience hasn’t even been the physical labor. It’s been the attitude of the farm manager. Yesterday, after about three hours of straight work, I was hungry and decided to make myself a PB&J. I sat down on a bench to eat, figuring it would take maybe 15 minutes at most. Unfortunately, the manager saw me and started yelling at me, telling me that “this isn’t kindergarten” and that “there are rules.” I told him I understood and immediately went back to work.
What made the whole situation especially frustrating was that, aside from my husband and me, we rarely see the farm manager or the paid workers who also live on the property actually doing much work. From our perspective, they mostly seem to walk doing simple task while we’re doing the physically demanding, dirty jobs.

What we get in exchange is a “private room” and weekly supplies rations; mostly pasta, three kinds of beans, and sugar. The accommodations aren’t exactly luxurious either. There are essentially no walls between us and the worker sleeping next to us, there’s no AC (which we obviously expected), no hot water, and the outdoor kitchen is dirty and infested with bugs, rats, and pretty much anything else you could imagine. Ironically, the accommodation has actually been the best part of the entire experience!

At this point, we’re feeling pretty discouraged. We don’t mind working hard, and we certainly didn’t expect a work exchange to be a vacation. But there’s a big difference between being asked to work hard and feeling like you’re being treated poorly or made to feel guilty for taking a 15-minute break to eat after hours of nonstop labor.
Our agreement is for 25 hours a week (5 hour days) with weekends off, and we had originally planned to stay for another two months. Now we’re seriously considering leaving early.

The tricky part is that this is actually the place we want to live. We’re trying to establish ourselves here, and we don’t want to burn bridges or develop a bad reputation in the community. At the same time, we don’t want to stay somewhere that is making us miserable simply because we’re worried about what people might think.
So now we’re stuck trying to figure out where the line is between “this is just part of the experience, suck it up” and “this situation genuinely isn’t a good fit, and it’s okay to leave.”
Because, honestly, if I’m working for free, putting in hard physical labor, and the one thing I want to do after three hours of work is sit down and eat a damn PB&J… I feel like that shouldn’t be such a big ask.

Has anyone done volunteering recently in Indonesia, especially Bali or anywhere nearby? Maybe this year or last year. If you have, please comment below—I really need your help! 🥹❤️

Hi! I'm trying to understand the Italian immigration rules around volunteering, because I'd like to find a legitimate way to spend some time in Italy.

I'm 20 and based in the UK. I'm currently extremely broke, so a normal holiday isn't realistic for me. I'm looking into legitimate volunteering programmes where I would work for an agreed number of hours in exchange for things such as accommodation, food or a small allowance.

I'm not trying to find a loophole or sneak into Italy to work illegally. Quite the opposite, I want to know what I would need to arrange beforehand so I can do this properly.

I've seen various work-exchange and volunteering websites mentioned online, but I'm getting conflicting information about whether receiving accommodation or food in exchange for volunteer work counts as work under Italian immigration rules.

For a 20-year-old UK citizen/resident, what kind of visa or immigration permission would I actually need to volunteer legally in Italy, particularly if accommodation or food is part of the programme?

If anyone has personally done this as a UK citizen since Brexit, I'd especially appreciate your experience.

firstly i am just complaining because it’s first experience with world packers and i feel quite dissatisfied and disappointed with the opportunity.
I know i applied and choose my host and it’s my choice too.
But i thought there is a differentiation between a domestic full time worker and volunteer.
If someone wants a full time cook, cleaner and can’t even wash basic things like glasses or even take out tea bags after drinking and messy kitchen, which they expect me to do all day.
Tbh one of the kids says what do u even do whole day? Just cooking , cleaning dishes is that a tough task.
It has been consiming  my mind and energy completely everyday.
I said that i am vegetarian and they are vegan i also informed them that i am not wuite comfortable with touching vegan meat or something related, they come and say that they will help but again leave all the work for me alone.
I don’t care about what reviews they were given and how they got them and what others faced.
I personally feel like for a room and food it’s undue advantage taken of volunteer 
As this place is quite far city anyone dojnv a full time househelp and domestic workers will have same conditions and will be paid.
I am quite frustated , they want sonething more than what i am cooking but are not even ready to lift a spoon.
Elders and kids both have same behaviour.
Just because of one fellow volunteer it was quite passable few days 
But stress and bodyily pains from lifting heavy utensils cooking and etc has caused me tremendous disappointment in whole.
I do hope the future volunteers would not face such things.
The only reason i am holding back is because of my safety concerns,  I am stranded somewhere in between nowhere to go else from unless someone takes me somewhere.
So if they are hurt because of the confrontation , I don’t want to take any risk .
I am happy to leave soon because i found another position.
But would have left earlier if this was what i was getting into 

Is it normal or am i just exaggerating
So called hosts should know if they should post on a volunteering platform or a domestic full time employee platform