I Traveled Three Months Around Europe With No Income, Here is How

I traveled three months in Europe and only spent 2,000 dollars. Here is how I made it happen.

St. Mark's Square in Venice

First, I want to start this off that I have been traveling full time for just under three months now. In those months I spent 2,000 dollars including airfare to my first destination, London. Now 2,000 dollars, depending on who you are, may sound like a lot or a little but I was spending one thousand JUST on rent in Orlando every month which didn't even include car payments, groceries, fun, etc. Here is every place I have visited on this budget that includes any type of transportation to and from, lodging, and food. I do not purchase souvenirs EXCEPT a post card in every city I visit. 

A list of all the cities I’ve visited this trip as follows:

London, UK

Disneyland Paris, France

Paris, France

Lyon, France

Montefiascone, Italy

Viterbo, Italy 

Rome, Italy 

Florence, Italy

Athens, Greece

Santorini, Greece

Venice, Italy

Sorrento, Italy

Positano, Italy

Amalfi, Italy

Bagnoregio, Italy

These last four are paid for but will happen in the next two weeks:

Pisa, Italy 

Interlaken, Switzerland

Amsterdam, Netherlands 

Milan, Italy 

The Colosseum in Rome

The Initial Idea:

A friend of mine mentioned that she was going to Italy for a three week trip through a program called WWOOF (more on this later). I had been searching for months on what I wanted my next step in life to be since navigating "adulthood" after college can be incredibly overwhelming and quite frankly not so fun a lot of the time. I have always wanted to backpack/travel on a long term basis but never thought I could possibly do it until she mentioned this program. Now I am not saying that as a "the only way to travel the world is through an organized program" type of way but more so in the, "all these ideas I had in my head of traveling, working remotely, etc. clicked together" type of way. Finally I knew that it was now or never to see if an alternative way of life was possible than just waking up and going to my 9-5 everyday. I'll check back in with everyone in a few months but so far I think I am headed down the right path! 

Okay so back to how I made this happen.

Along the river in Florence

The Preparation:

To prepare for my trip I started saving about eight months before I knew I wanted to leave. While I was in Orlando I had two jobs and often worked sixty hours a week. I set a goal for how much I wanted to have saved before I left and for those months I worked hard, saved and creatively found ways to still enjoy my time in Florida. For example, I worked at Disney to get in to the parks for free instead of buying an annual pass worth one thousand dollars. I then gave up my apartment, resigned from both of my jobs and sold some of my furniture. I guess my methods worked because by the time I left Orlando I had paid to move all of my stuff back to my parents house and still had three thousand over what I planned to start with when leaving.

Side Note/Pet Peeve: So many times I was asked "do you even work or do you just play in the Disney parks all day?" Well let me ask you this... On social media (Instagram, FB, Snapchat) do you post pictures more when you are having fun or when you are at the office? Same applies for me, it just happens that my fun was in the largest theme park in the world. 

Also, for those of you who called me cheap over the years, well.. you are reading this post from your couch while I’m crossing my 10th country off my bucket list so.. 😉

Enjoying the beach in Positano

WWOOFItalia

While there are many ways to save money traveling, you have to look at your biggest expenses first. Flight and/or transportation, lodging and food. While the first one can sometimes be awful (you are either paying a lot to travel nicely or paying little to travel not so comfortably), the last two are what we are going to talk about.

Enter the sweetest Italian family you will ever meet.

Pietro - he speaks the least amount of English of everyone so our daily conversations are an English-Italian-Spanish mash up of confusing proportions but he is such a kind, hard working dad, coach and businessman/farmer. He loves me just as much as he loves taking pictures...

Laura - these kids are so lucky to call this woman their mother. Not unlike my own mom, she seems to do it all and then some. On top of all of that she makes sure I’m never hungry and well taken care of since living in a foreign country can be difficult at times.

Matteo - the oldest and shyest of the bunch. Puts up with waaaay too much of my nonsense. 

Flavia- the middle child and only girl. She’s the sweetest girl with the strongest ambition. I see a lot of my 18 year old self in her.

Michele - being a teenager is tough so I’ll excuse his extreme sarcasm and sassy attitude. Teenage boys never did like me so maybe in a few years we can be friends 😂 (notice he is the only one who refuses to take a picture with me or a picture at all)

Carlo - the cutest little grandpa nugget. He and Maria do not speak English so it’s basically just the same 3 questions I’ve memorized in Italian and lots of hand gestures. Instead we sing and dance and he always wants his picture taken... no really...

Maria - more commonly referred to as Nonna (grandma) but she is basically superwoman to me. She’s in her late 70's and every day she is up at 5 am cleaning and cooking for ten people and then works circles around all of us picking grapes. She never stops. On top of all of that, her homemade lasagna is 😍

How did I get so lucky to meet these wonderful people? Through WWOOF or World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. It is essentially a website that allows you to connect with farmers world wide that run organic farms. They house and feed you in exchange for help, completely on a volunteer basis. Every opportunity is different and can vary from country to country but I was blessed with these wonderful people who do so much for me to make sure I have a great time while visiting.

The family owns a vineyard an hour and a half north of Rome in the Italian country side. So my normal week days involve helping around the garden and/or picking grapes from their multiple fields scattered around Montefiascone. I'm not going to lie the work is physically demanding at times but every Friday through Sunday I get to explore the next city of choice and enjoy all the amazing sites. I also get to learn about Italian culture (see my blog 15 Things I Learned Living in Italy as an American), eat delicious home cooked food from my host mom and grandma and just get to know how they live here in Italy. 

Picking grapes on my first day

If any of this sounds interesting to you or you just want to know more about my travels for future reference do not hesitate to reach out to me! Also, follow my Instagram account @kaseymeetsworld to see more travel related pictures of my trip!

A few things to know:

• Flights to and from the country are not paid for by the host family. That is completely your responsibility.
• There is a 40 euro registration fee that lasts one year and will allow you to WWOOF as many times as you want in that year in that country.
• Some countries require visas for long term stay in the country so it is worth looking into before signing up.
• Length of stay is determined between the host and yourself upon initial contact with them.