How to Make Money While Traveling

Written by C. James on October 7, 2019 updated November 15, 2024

Traveling is always a pleasurable experience. In fact, studies show that we need to go on a trip that going on vacations, visiting new and experiencing new cultures can help you fight stress and anxiety and be more productive upon your return to work.

On the other hand, traveling can be expensive. From plane tickets, accommodation, and food, you need to have the funds before you can even start packing your bags. It can take a major budget adjustment to book a great trip.

But you don’t need to toss your passport away and give up your dream of traveling across Europe just because money is tight. You also don’t need to work yourself to death or even postpone your plans. Here are several ways of earning money while you are on vacation to pay for that special trip.

Below are some of the ways to make money while traveling.

Teach English

Teaching English abroad is one of the most popular ways of making money while traveling. English is a universal language and a lot of non-native English speakers are willing to spend money to improve on their English skills. If you are fluent in English, you can use it to your advantage.

How do you get started?

You need to get a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification first before you can teach English abroad. Find an affordable yet reputable company that offers online TEFL courses. Teaching English abroad without certifications is still possible though. However, your credibility as an English teacher is higher if you have TEFL certification. This can get you more gigs, in better locations and higher pay. Online English teachers are paid between $10-$30 per hour.

Teaching English online offers not just a sustainable income while traveling but it also provides flexibility. You’re in total control of your schedule since you can choose how many hours would you like to work in a day and when. It’s also convenient, you can conduct a class as long as you have your laptop and a stable internet connection. It doesn’t matter even if you’re in your hotel room or having a break from your tour.

A Bachelor’s degree can be an advantage but not necessary as well. You can teach in these countries without holding a bachelor’s degree:

Cambodia
Brazil
Costa Rica
Spain
Greece
Mexico
Romania
Russia
India
Nicaragua
Poland
Slovakia

Become a Tour Guide

This gig is perfect for you if you are well-traveled and have a way with people.

As a tour guide, your main job is to offer guided tours to tourists. The job also requires that you are knowledgeable about the history of the location. You should also provide interesting trivia and information on historic sites, natural attractions, museums, and other travel destinations.

Here are some of the characteristics that you must possess to become an excellent tour guide.

Good communicator – Since you are working with groups of people, it’s important that you know how to communicate well and effectively. Tours should not be one-way communication. Instead of just pointing out historic places you should pus the group to interact with you. Be as engaging and entertaining as you can.

Knowledgeable – A tour guide should be an expert of that place. This means that you know every facts and figure about the places that you are presenting. You will get your audience hooked to the tour if you give them relevant and interesting information.

Charismatic – A tour group can be as small as 2 people or as big as 20 or more. Regardless of the number of your crowd, these tourists don’t just look for information. More importantly, they want their tours to be as entertaining as possible. You will stand out if you know how to charm your audience. While there are some people that are naturally charismatic, charm can be learned. Find every opportunity to connect with your group and hook them with your charisma.

Work in Restaurant/Coffee Shop/Bar

The foodservice industry offers great opportunity not just to save money for travel but also to make money while traveling.

If you have experience working in this industry, then you can work as a waitress in a restaurant or bars. This should provide you with the money that you need to sustain your trip. Pay may not be huge enough, but it can definitely help with your daily expenses.

It is to your advantage if you have restaurant server skills since every country and town that you will be visiting has bars and restaurants. These establishments need servers to assist their customers.

Though most countries abroad would require you to have a working holiday visa, there are some cafes and restaurants that can hire you without any necessary papers. This gigs can be quite challenging though since they don’t usually advertise paying under the table.

Ask your fellow travelers or your hostel managers if they know a small cafe or restaurant that is willing to pay under the table. This kind of gig is only good for a few weeks just so you can have enough money to sustain your travel.

Become a Personal Trainer

Traveling around the world would require a serious amount of money unless you find ways of making money while traveling. Being a personal trainer is one of the most enjoyable ways of earning income while on a vacation and allows you to stay fit.

You must get your qualifications first in Personal Training before you can get the job. Once you have your certification, you will find tons of opportunities to work as a personal trainer while traveling abroad.

Here are some of the available jobs that you can look out for:

Hotel or Resort Fitness Class Instructor

Most of the hotels or resorts all over the world want to attract Western and English speaking travelers. They offer fitness services like strength training, spinning, yoga classes or aerobics to their guests.

In line with this, they are always on the lookout for personal trainers who can facilitate these services for the guests. Since most of the personal trainers are backpackers too, the job opens up frequently.

Gym Instructor

Most luxury hotels or resorts offer a gym or personal training to their guests. Search for hotels or resorts that are looking for a gym instructor or personal trainer. You can even strike your luck and land a job at a big resort or hotelier chains. It’s more likely that you get to jump between their branches and travel all over the world.

The salary for a personal trainer may vary depending on your experience and client, but it can range from $10 to $50 per hour.

Work as a Virtual Assistant

Gone are the days when your job confines you to the four walls of your office. Thanks to technology, you can pretty much work anywhere you want, even when you’re backpacking from one city to another.

The life of a digital nomad has attracted so many travelers. It’s a convenient way of making money while you are on your trip. A virtual assistant is one of the most common roles of digital nomads.

So what exactly are virtual assistants and what do they do?

Just like by its name, they offer aids and assistants without being physically in the office. There are a lot of roles that come after the job title. Below are the most common tasks of a virtual assistant:

Social media management – manage a client’s social media page and increase brand awareness by creating engaging social media posts.
Research – Conducts several types of research such as data mining, market research, and content sourcing.
Administrative work – Administrative tasks vary according to the business nature of your client. Admin works may include email and calendar management, booking appointments, file management, answering support tickets and producing reports or graphs.
Customer service – This includes answering the queries of the customers and providing solutions to their concerns.

Most virtual assistants make between $15 and $30 per hour while there are some who got paid $40-$75 per hour for more advanced tasks such as financial or higher level of marketing.

Create a Travel Blog

What better way of turning traveling into an opportunity to make money than creating a travel blog?

If you have a way with words, create your own travel blog and share your experiences with your reader. A travel blog is a perfect way of earning money while practicing your passion for writing.

You just need to be patient with this kind of side hustle though as earning money does not happen overnight. Some blogs take at least 6 months to establish loyal followers and start earning money. Established blogs can earn $3,000 – $5,000 per month. What’s good about travel blogs is that the sky is the limit when it comes to your earning. You just need to maximize every opportunity to make money.

How Can You Make Money with Travel Blogs?

Here are some ways on how you can earn money with your travel blog:

Affiliate Sales – Choose products or services that you can link and promote on your blog. You get a commission every time a customer purchases the item through your link.
Sponsored Content – Contact companies or brands and offer to write a review about their product. These companies pay between $200-$750 for each review.
Advertising – Search for companies who want to place their ads on your blog. You get paid when someone clicks the ads or purchases the product. Most travel bloggers advertise Mediavine in their blogs.

Grow Your YouTube Channel

Another way of using your travel adventures to earn money is by making your own YouTube channel.

YouTube offers a promising opportunity for making money online. Top YouTubers such as Ray William Johnson and EpicMealTime earn in millions.

How many subscribers do you need to start earning money?

Once you hit 1 million subscribers, your earnings become bigger and come easier. It does not mean that you can’t monetize your channel if you only have smaller subscriptions though.

Here are several ways on how you can make money on your YouTube channel:

Work as an affiliate or influencer.
Sell merchandise or your own products.
Make money from ads by becoming a YouTube Partner.
Ask your subscribers to support your next travel adventure through “fan funding”.
Organize channel memberships where subscribers need to pay the membership fee to get access to special perks or content.
Be a part of YouTube Premium Revenue. You get a portion of the subscription fee when audiences watch your content.
Get sponsored by a corporation

Nobody gets to be a YouTube sensation overnight unless you’re Justin Beiber. You have to consistently share unique and entertaining video content to gain more subscribers.

Offer Coaching Service

Clients are constantly seeking guidance for self-improvement, business or career transition, relationships and a lot more. It’s no wonder personal and life coaching has become widely popular over the past few years.

If you’ve been traveling for a few years, you can use your experience and offer a travel coaching service. As a travel coach, it is your responsibility to help your clients achieve their personal goals from these travels. In line with this, you need to create a travel plan or arrangement that suits the personality and needs of your clients.

You can also help your clients on how to get a Visa for certain country destinations. You can offer suggestions on affordable hotels to stay or places to eat. Regardless of how tedious your travel plans or suggestions are, remember that the final say will have to come from your clients.

Conclusion

Nothing is more enjoyable than traveling the whole world while earning money at the same time. We live in a beautiful world that offers tons of opportunities to increase not just our personal experience but also our savings account. So it’s time to book that plane ticket, pack your bags and hop around the world. After all, life is too short to constrain yourself in the four walls of your office.

There are plenty of ways on how you can make money while traveling. You just have to be creative enough to use your resources and turn it into a steady source of income enough to sustain your trip.