I am very interested in developing WWOOF options as part of my low cost travel/vacation options. I have seen it mentioned here a few times. I would be curious to hear about anyone's experience with WWOOF.
Is it easy to arrange? Is there enough free time to see local sights?
Any insight from fellow ERE'ers would be most appreciated!
WWOOF experiences?
I posted about the wwoofing I did last fall: viewtopic.php?t=1549 The experience will vary a lot based on who you stay with.
I've had great experiences, but I've mostly come upon them through friends of friends or a travelling network I'm part of.
I've generally only stayed for two weeks and worked anywhere from 4-16 hours a day building a straw house, doing maple syrup, and harvesting plants. It's good for networking, and people are usually friendly about showing you around if they have time.
I've generally only stayed for two weeks and worked anywhere from 4-16 hours a day building a straw house, doing maple syrup, and harvesting plants. It's good for networking, and people are usually friendly about showing you around if they have time.
@ JoeShmoe
I think it just depends on whether the location has a climate for year round farming or not. If not, it would have to be a farm that specifically produces winter veggies, or dairy or something.
The thing about WWOOFing is that the experience and the opportunities really vary, as S said. You might mesh really well with a farmer, and after a while you might both agree you'll stay more long term. No way to know that in advance.
If it doesn't work out long term at one place, then you'll be needing to bounce from farm to farm. There's a risk of having periods where you have no farm to live on, so you'd need to be prepared to spend money to cover those in-between times.
I guess you'd want to pick an area with a lot of WWOOF participating farms. Hawaii fits the bill for that, and farming is year round there. You still have to be prepared for anything though - some farms there take WWOOFers, but only offer an area where you can pitch your tent, rather than a room with a bed. Of course that's the type of thing you'd work out in advance, but my point is that just because an area has a lot of farms advertising on WWOOF doesn't mean those are all comfortable places to live.
I think it just depends on whether the location has a climate for year round farming or not. If not, it would have to be a farm that specifically produces winter veggies, or dairy or something.
The thing about WWOOFing is that the experience and the opportunities really vary, as S said. You might mesh really well with a farmer, and after a while you might both agree you'll stay more long term. No way to know that in advance.
If it doesn't work out long term at one place, then you'll be needing to bounce from farm to farm. There's a risk of having periods where you have no farm to live on, so you'd need to be prepared to spend money to cover those in-between times.
I guess you'd want to pick an area with a lot of WWOOF participating farms. Hawaii fits the bill for that, and farming is year round there. You still have to be prepared for anything though - some farms there take WWOOFers, but only offer an area where you can pitch your tent, rather than a room with a bed. Of course that's the type of thing you'd work out in advance, but my point is that just because an area has a lot of farms advertising on WWOOF doesn't mean those are all comfortable places to live.
I think this idea generally of finding something to do for a few years while investments accumulate is a powerful idea. Finding something that doesn't necessarily add to the nest egg, but allows you to not have to take any withdrawals either, allowing compounding interest to do its thing.
I just threw together a page for the wiki on it with a quick list I just brainstormed. There must be tons more options I haven't thought of.
I just threw together a page for the wiki on it with a quick list I just brainstormed. There must be tons more options I haven't thought of.
I WWOOFED in Italy. Had a great time at a guy named Marino's. We mostly helped him build an addition to his house. We (another WWOOFer and I) ate and drank well, we were near a national park so in the afternoon I'd go for a walk in the hills. Really memorable. If I had one word of advice, it would be to be very near to something you know you'll enjoy (park/beach/city) and be willing to push back if your boarder is not accommodating the usual 6 hours/day of work rules.