How to travel for free as a student – isn’t that what everyone wants to know?
We definitely did, back when we were just two kids living off of pasta and frozen pizza and doing shots on a Tuesday night because yolo. Why not, when your lectures don’t start till 10 am, right?
Good old times. If you are living them right now, enjoy them. Adulthood creeps up fast and the next thing you know, it’s like you have fallen into a game of Jumanji.
But we are not here to freak you out. Taxes will do that job for us in the near future. 😭
We are here to tell you the truth about travelling for free as a student. Oh, and help you with it too, of course!
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Here’s a little bit about our journey, if you are new here! If you know us, feel free to skip this part.
After leaving our old life in Scotland in March 2022 (it rains too much there), we travelled full-time for almost 2 years. Sounds fancy, doesn’t it? Well, it was. If you think that carrying overpacked backpacks in 45°C heat around streets that aren’t even on Google Maps is fancy. And that’s just 1% of all the fun we had! 😆
During the 2 years we volunteered in Italy and Bulgaria (free travel while learning new skills, anyone?), explored other amazing European countries and backpacked Southeast Asia. Even our secret wedding was more of an expedition than a wedding. 😅
And, of course, we researched and planned everything ourselves, because you gotta keep the budget low, right? If you are like us, you’ve come to the right place, because we want to share all the useful tips and info with you!
Excited? Good. Let’s get into it so you can go on your own adventures too!
How to travel for free as a student
We’ll start with a truth.
It’s a harsh one, so maybe get a cup of tea first.
Actually, get a cup of hot chocolate. This needs something sweet.
Do you have it?
Okay.
Here is the truth:
There is no such thing as free travel.
Everything costs money. And the few programmes that exist that will cover your expenses and let you travel? They still cost something. Usually a lot of effort, skills and luck (for being picked).
Hear us out, though.
You can get pretty close to free travel, especially as a student.
And we’ll tell you all about it.
How to save money to travel as a student
First, though, you should know that we already have a post that talks about travelling as a student.
So we won’t repeat ourselves here – it would be a waste of your time to read the same stuff twice.
If you want to know how to save money to travel as a student, make sure to check it out.
If you want to get as close to travelling for free as you can, though, keep reading.
Sharing economy platforms
This is just a fancy way of saying “getting stuff for free and giving something back in exchange”.
If you think you don’t know about anything like that, we are sure you do.
For example, Couchsurfing.
Except, Couchsurfing, as in the actual platform, is no longer free. Now, you have to pay a subscription fee to be able to use it.
You could argue it’s all in the name of safety – which btw, should also be something you think about when planning your travels; not just how to travel for free as a student, but how to stay safe too. Especially if you aren’t an experienced traveller (although, if anything, we are a proof that 💩 happens even to people who have been travelling for years. 😬 Follow us on our Insta where we share these, ehm, misadventures).
And you could also argue that a subscription fee to any of these platforms is nothing next to how much money you will save on, for example, accommodation. Which is a fair and valid point. Except, it does mean that no travel is truly free.
But, back to these platforms.
Other sharing economy platforms
While Couchsurfing is one that everyone knows about, there are many other platforms based on a similar principle – offering or getting something for free.
Some platforms you might want to check out:
- Warmshowers – Perfect if you are a cyclist, because you can find free stays (and a shower) with fellow bikers through the platform.
- BeWelcome – A free hospitality exchange platform. Hospitality here means anything, from being hosted in the home of another member, to meeting up for a drink.
- Hitchwiki – If you want to get around hitchhiking, you can find all the tips, country-specific info and a hitchhiking community on the Hitchwiki site.
- Meetup – A platform where people publish in-person and virtual events they are hosting – you can find people who are as weird as you there! (Anyone up for a 5 am run on a beach in Barcelona??)
- Tandem – A great platform if you are looking to learn a foreign language before you go travelling. Here you can practise with native speakers, while helping them learn your language!
- Facebook groups – If you are from a younger generation, this might seem to you like a suggestion straight out of the Stone Age, but we keep hearing travellers say they get all their local tips, info and help in Facebook groups. More on this below.
Facebook groups
It’s funny, but Facebook is still a good platform for grouping people together without a lot of effort. That means there are MANY groups related to travel and you can probably find quite niche ones that cover exactly what you need.
While we don’t actively participate in Facebook groups, we passively snoop around a few of them, to get all the useful tips and tricks.
The great thing? You can get current info from other travellers who are in the place you are heading to soon. So if you are going on a skiing holiday and you are not sure about the condition of the roads or slopes, you can just ask in a Facebook group, and travellers who are in that area right now can give you an update!
Similarly, travellers often sell their gear in the groups following a holiday. For example, people who buy a lot of winter gear to go to Lapland are then selling it to other travellers in a Lapland travel group on Facebook.
Give it a go – look up groups in the places you are travelling to to see if this throwback might be for you.
Note on sharing economy services
Keep in mind that none of these options were designed for you to have a free holiday.
Many of the platforms are looking to make money – whether via sponsorship or membership fees.
And the people offering their homes, food, time or skills on these platforms?
They are also looking for something. Whether it’s to make new friends, to practise a foreign language or to learn about other cultures.
What we are trying to say is, don’t treat it as free stuff.
Your couchsurfing host isn’t expecting you to show up at 10 pm, after a full day of sightseeing the town, use their shower and plop yourself on their sofa to sleep, without a word.
This is actually why we haven’t done anything like this yet. Not that we know we are a**holes, but we do like our own space and to be 100% in charge of our time when travelling. And often, we don’t feel like chatting to strangers by the end of the day.
So, think about this too, because while a free bed (or a sofa) might sound like a great deal, it might not be the right thing for you. Maybe a bed in a shared dormitory in a hostel can be a better alternative that is still cheap.
(Pictured: Hostel in Chiang Rai, Thailand)
Volunteering
Volunteering is a fantastic way to travel for almost free.
This is how it works:
The cost: You pay with your time and effort, by working 4-5 hours a day
The reward: In exchange, you get food and accommodation
That’s the basic idea.
There is, of course, a lot more to it, but we won’t take up your time here.
If you are interested in volunteering, we have a full guide that explains everything.
From how it works, to where you can find opportunities, to how to find the right host.
So make sure to check it out.
House sitting
An alternative to volunteering, if you are too lazy to work, is house sitting.
Juust kidding! We get it. You don’t always want to be weeding a garden just so you have somewhere to sleep at night.
We don’t have personal experience with house sitting (yet), but, basically, here are the 4 things you need to know:
- While you don’t have to do work, like when volunteering, you still have to take care of the house and usually pets as well. And you only get a place to stay at, no meals, in exchange.
- Because house sitting, more often than not, is actually pet sitting, being okay with animals and knowing how to take care of them is crucial.
- Getting a great house sit is like getting a great job. It’s competitive, and you better have a good bio, send a personalised message and provide references if you want to be picked. Very much like when volunteering, so you can use the tips from our guide here too.
- There are many platforms out there offering house sitting opportunities, so shop around. Don’t just go for TrustedHousesitters because everyone is pushing their promo code for it (we’ll add our promo code here once we get started with house sitting 😜).
Study abroad
As a student or a young person (who isn’t necessarily a student), you have the amazing advantage of being able to take part in study abroad and youth programmes. It’s one of the top ways for figuring out how to travel for free as a student.
We wrote about this in our other post, so again, we won’t go into a lot of detail here, but basically, take advantage of this while you can.
The great thing about these programmes?
They often cover all your basic costs: accommodation, food, and sometimes even transport.
Of course, you do still need money to cover your own personal expenses.
And you have to actually put in the work – you can’t just show up to a sustainable living project, say hi to the team leader and bugger off sightseeing the town.
Again, consider the trade off – free travel vs not having a lot of time to actually explore.
Disclaimer
Before anyone else points it out, you could, technically, travel for free.
Technically.
You could walk or cycle or hitchhike to get around.
You could couchsurf instead of paying for accommodation.
You could rely on the kindness of strangers to get food.
And you could visit just free sights and do free activities.
There are people who travel and live like that.
But that’s an extreme example and not what most people have in mind when they talk about travelling.
So that’s why we said there is no such a thing as free travel.
Because, even with the scenario above, you do need some money.
To repair your bike if it breaks. Or to get new shoes if you totally destroy your soles from walking everywhere.
And if there are no strangers to gift you food? You will have to buy it.
And what if you get ill? First, you better have travel insurance (btw this is who we use) And second, you better have some money to cover at least your basic medication.
Again, no such thing as free travel.
But you can get pretty close if you follow the tips from this post.
If you want to see how some people do this, our good friend Milo (below) travels on an extremely low budget with her husband. They cycle, with almost no possessions, and sleep in places that make us never want to travel with them! 😆 But it makes them so happy – we wish we could be wild (and free) like they are.
What you should do now that you’ve read this post is, first, check out our travel tips section, because you might learn tricks and hacks there you didn’t know about.
And then? Start saving money and make a battle plan for how you will travel for free as a student.
If you still feel lost and like screaming into your bowl of canned soup, because you are a poor student and you just want to see the world and why is life so unfair, give us a shout in the comments, and we’ll do our best to help.
Or DM us on our Instagram if you’d rather share your travel-induced meltdown privately (we get that).
