12 Great Ways to Get Paid to Travel

Do you dream of traveling the world?

Although world travel is a top life goal for many, the outrageous cost of traveling holds us back. 

But what if you could get paid to travel instead of spending thousands on an international trip?

Many companies and brands pay people to travel the world. Discover all the ways you can make money traveling. 

How Do I Get Paid to Travel?

If you want to make money traveling, you have two paths: a career that includes travel, or a side hustle that provides traveling opportunities. 

Careers that Pay You to Travel

Some career fields will pay you to travel. They’ll spring for airfare, lodging, and often even reimburse meals. 

The downside of traveling for a company is that your main priority must be work. You might not have time to explore, and there’s no guarantee these companies will send you to your top bucket list destinations. 

However, traveling on a company’s dime is a great option. Discover the top careers allowing you to do that. 

Military

Military personnel dressed in fancy dress blues with their hands on their ceremonial swords.
Photo Credit: bibiphoto via Shutterstock.com.

Many people balk at joining the military, especially as a means to travel. However, if you can meet their requirements,  it’s one of the easiest ways to get paid to travel. 

The military offers training opportunities all over the United States. If you join, you’ll go to a school in Georgia one year, a special class in Wisconsin the next, and a training exercise in Nevada in between. 

With the military, you’ll probably travel as soon as you sign up. The Army bases that conduct basic training are scattered across the country. If you join the Navy, you will most likely get sent to Great Lakes Naval Station and be able to explore Chicago, or the Naval Station in San Diego and have the opportunity to explore California on the weekends.

If you crave international travel, the military has you covered. There are bases all over the world, from Europe to Asia. Service members stationed there get paid to live in these foreign lands. 

Clearly, there are downsides. The United States has been at war for over twenty years, and you may end up traveling to war-torn countries. However, if you are adventurous and feel a calling to serve your country, this might be one of the only ways to see ancient sites in Mesopotamia, like the Ziggurat at Ur.

Remember, though, that with the military, there are no guarantees about where you will go. You go where you get sent or why. It could be an epic experience, or you could face the worst horrors known to man. You must take the good with the bad if you decide to join. 

Diplomat

If you don’t want to fight, consider joining the State Department as a diplomat, serving in a US embassy abroad. The newest diplomats often get stationed in the least desirable areas, so this might be a great fit for you if you always wanted to live in an undeveloped country.  You’ll have to work your way up to get better assignments. 

To become a diplomat, you must complete a rigorous selection process including a written essay, a role-playing exam, and a written test. 

For an easier path with the State Department, consider a support position in IT, medicine, or general administration. Although the selection process for these career fields is also challenging, they’re easier to obtain than diplomatic positions. 

Flight Attendant or Pilot

Flight taking off on a runway.
Photo Credit: motive56 via Shutterstock.com.

If literally want to get paid to travel, consider joining the aviation industry. Become a pilot or flight attendant. 

Before diving in, remember these jobs aren’t as glamorous as they seem. Society respects pilots, but it takes years of training to get behind the wheel of an airplane. You need a minimum of 1500 hours of flight experience to earn an airline transport pilot certificate, the minimum requirement for becoming a commercial pilot. Gaining this experience is not cheap. It can cost upwards of a hundred thousand dollars.

Becoming a flight attendant is much easier (and cheaper), but you’ll have to navigate long hours and low wages. Some flight attendants only earn money while in the air, though they’re expected to help board passengers and prep the flight. 

Neither pilots nor flight attendants get a lot of free time during their journeys. With the quick turnaround times, they barely have time to rest before returning to work. 

However, if you plan your work hours with your vacation days and off days correctly, you should be able to find time to explore!

Ship Crew Member

Instead of getting paid to fly, get paid to sail. Both cruise and cargo ships need people to complete their journeys across the seas.

The cruise ship industry is easier to break into, as it constantly needs workers to clean rooms, run the many stores and restaurants onboard, and assist guests. The downside is that you’ll likely have to work while the ship is docked in cool places. 

If you don’t want to work in the service industry, consider becoming a deckhand on a cargo ship. It’s harder to find work in this industry, especially since many ships sail under foreign flags and don’t hire US workers, but it’s still possible.

Cargo ships need cooks, janitors, engineers, and officers. Many offer shore leave when the ship is docked in various locales, depending on the immigration policies of the country. 

Journalism

Journalists get sent on assignment all over the world. It’s one of the few career fields where you get a little say in where you go and what you cover. Become a fashion journalist to cover Fashion Week in Paris, a food journalist to get the scoop on emerging food trends, or a political correspondent to go where the action is. 

Some journalists venture deep into rain forests to learn about the people or animals who call it home, while others stay safe in Hollywood interviewing up-and-coming stars. The industry bursts with people in thousands of different niches, all reporting on the things that they truly care about.

If you’re entering journalism to travel, consider becoming a travel writer. However, keep in mind that with advances in AI and the highly competitive nature of the niche, it’s getting harder and harder to land a full-time position at a travel magazine. 

Teaching Abroad

If you have a college degree, consider finding a position as an English teacher abroad. Native English speakers are in high demand overseas. 

Before applying, be sure to get your TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate, which you can obtain at a variety of online schools. 

A lot of younger people teach abroad to fund their European or Asian travel. It gives them a home base and plenty of free time to explore. 

Although there are opportunities around the world, the more desirable locations (like Western Europe) are much harder to find, especially as a new teacher. 

If you dream of living in Europe, try an Eastern city like Prague or Budapest. If you are in love with Asia, look into teaching in Cambodia or Thailand. The competition isn’t as fierce in these countries, and there might be more opportunities available.

Find Companies that Pay You to Travel

Although the jobs listed above are the ones that traditionally have travel opportunities, they aren’t the only ones. With globalism, more and more companies are becoming multi-national. You may find work at a software company in Seattle that sends you to conferences in Germany or at a supply chain company in California that sends you to China to meet your shipping counterparts. You may be an engineer sent to South America to quality control the production of a certain product.

If you want to find a career traveling the world, find skills that are in demand globally. Use job search boards like Indeed to determine which career fields require employees to travel and become essential in one of those fields.

Get Paid to Travel with Your Side Hustle

A tourist holding a map while exploring the square of a pretty city.
Photo Contributor
phM2019 via Shutterstock.com.

If you don’t want to go where the company sends you and would rather blaze your own trail, consider starting a side hustle that pays you to travel. 

Consider these side businesses that could lead to paid travel opportunities. You must put in a lot of work up-front to score paid travel with any of these ideas, but if you’re willing to put in the time, you’ll be able to find opportunities. 

Start a Travel Blog

Travel bloggers earn money by writing about their adventures. It’s often the first thing that pops into most people’s minds when they want to get paid to travel on their own terms. 

Those with successful travel blogs often get sponsored trips to interesting places, which they review for their audience. It’s the dream. 

The dream doesn’t manifest out of nowhere. Creating a successful travel blog takes a lot of time and effort. You’ll spend years funding your own trips, developing content, creating a brand, and building an audience. 

Once you have a heft following and decent leadership, you’ll be able to earn money via ads and affiliates, then through sponsorships and paid travel deals. 

Be an Influencer

A woman films herself while traveling in a scenic natural area with a large lake behind her and moutains in the difference. The photo represents travel videography.
Photo Credit: EugeneEdge via Shutterstock.com.

If you don’t want to go through the hassle of creating a blog, you can try becoming a social media influencer or content creator. 

Influencers are the new rockstars, and becoming one is not as easy as it seems. It takes a lot of content creation, curation, and knowledge of social media. 

If you are successful, you can earn a living by posting to social media. Some influencers get paid to post. Others get sponsorship deals with tourism companies, hotels, or destinations. 

Some influencers work with travel gear companies, getting paid to show off the latest trends in luggage or travel jackets. 

Creative influencers find ways to get paid to do what they love. 

Become a Photographer

Being a photographer ranks up there with journalism as a great way to get paid to travel, but with the advent of smartphones and easy access to editing tools, anyone can be a great photographer.

It’s harder than ever to make a living off your photos, but it’s still possible. You could become a freelance photographer for a travel magazine and earn money when they accept one of your impressive shots. You could set up a photography website, selling prints of your best work. 

Because epic photos of interesting places are always in demand, you could try selling photos on stock photo websites. Upload your best shots to sites like Shutterstock to earn a commission whenever someone uses your photo, or upload them to print-on-demand websites so customers can add them to t-shirts, mugs, and blankets.

Use Artpal to sell art prints, or Tee Public to sell merchandise with print-on-demand. 

House Sitting

If you can’t get paid for a full trip, cut your costs with housesitting. Apps like Home Exchange to find opportunities for house sitting and house swapping. 

If you don’t want others living in your home, consider an app like Trusted House Sitter, which lets you swap services like pet-sitting in exchange for free lodging. Trusted House Sitter matches pet lovers who want to travel with people who need a trusted pet sitter. 

Most of these apps have service or membership fees, but if you use them often, the cost will be much lower than the cost of lodging. 

Become a Digital Nomad

A man works as a digital nomad. He's laying in a hammock on a boat, working on his laptop.
Photo Contributor
Marina April via Shutterstock.com.

Getting paid to travel is the dream, but they don’t always have to go hand in hand. You could opt to work remotely instead. You’re not technically getting paid to travel, but because you can work from anywhere, you can keep your job while you travel. 

Opportunities abound for digital nomad work. You could become a freelance writer, offering articles for a variety of outlets, or land a few virtual assistant jobs to help others manage their schedules. These digital positions allow you to work on your own schedule and travel whenever you want. 

Another option is starting your own business, like a blog or YouTube channel. Your content doesn’t have to relate to travel at all. You could start a wellness blog from Paris, or a finance YouTube channel from South America. 

Volunteer Work that Pays for Your Travel

Volunteer work is traditionally unpaid, of course, but some volunteer organizations will pay for your airfare, and even provide a stipend while you are in a foreign country working for them. 

Volunteer with organizations like the Peace Corps or Volunteer Service Overseas to do good in the world and get your travel paid for.

However, if you go this route, don’t expect to visit fancy luxurious cities like Paris and Rome. If you are doing volunteer work, you will more than likely be heading to countries that need the help. Expect harsh weather and poverty conditions.

Getting Paid to Travel

Getting paid to travel is the ultimate dream, but the ideas on this list can help you transform those dreams into reality. 

What are you waiting for? Your dream of traveling the world could start now. 

This post originally appeared on Savoteur.

Author: Melanie Allen

Title: Journalist

Expertise: Pursuing Your Passions, Travel, Wellness, Hobbies, Finance, Gaming, Happiness

Melanie Allen is an American journalist and happiness expert. She has bylines on MSN, the AP News Wire, Wealth of Geeks, Media Decision, and numerous media outlets across the nation and is a certified happiness life coach. She covers a wide range of topics centered around self-actualization and the quest for a fulfilling life.