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Volunteer For Activity Based Help Exchange Projects

Get onto lakes, mountain trails or river rapids barely spending a cent. Sporty and active travellers can save their travel budget for something pretty by swapping their skills and muscle for food, accommodation and equipment hire.

Applications to the projects below are made through a help exchange network, for which a small membership fee may be required.

Learn to paraglide, help with restoration and creative projects in Gabrje, Slovenia

After travelling the world, Andrew, from Scotland, has found his place in Slovenia and has been focused on turning a couple of old houses into a meditation and yoga space, as well as suitable accommodation for his young family. A number of paragliding pilots will be helping fix the house up. They can offer help, advice, and ground handling tips that will start you off on a career flying. This year work will mostly be outside in the garden and building a crazy golf course driveway combo. Website and video editing skills will be useful too.

Assistant canyoning guide and admin assistant in Amman, Jordan

This outdoor and adventure company provides activities, including diving and other sea sports, hiking and rock climbing, to groups and individuals looking to discover the beautiful nature of Jordan. You’ll help as an assistant guide on their canyoning adventures and also in the office, organising the trips and with an NGO that helps young people in Jordan.

Help us with our camps in Andalucia, Spain, and learn about health, training and outdoor activities

By helping this business run their physical training camps you will be able to improve your own fitness levels by joining the training sessions. These are mostly outdoors and include hiking, running, Kettlebell work, parkour, boxing, yoga and surfing. The work will mainly be centred around preparing food, dishwashing and cleaning. Payment is provided with accommodation and healthy food.

Get trained to Workaway as an outdoor activity instructor in Northern Ireland

The activities you will learn here include archery, bouldering, canoeing, climbing, abseiling, laser tag, mountain walking, raft building, outdoor cooking and ziplining. This is a year long programme, starting in March or October, training to be an outdoor activity instructor. A small weekly wage is provided along with self catering accommodation. Learn more about YMCA Greenhill here.

Join me for a road trip across Canada

It’s the host doing all the activity on this one. He is planning to cycle 6,000 kilometres across Canada next year, from Victoria to Halifax, and has need of a support team. This is a great chance to see the county over three or four months with all your accommodation and food paid for. The role entails driving support vehicles, setting up camp each night and preparing meals. This will suit two friends, a couple, possibly even a small family, or two strangers if necessary.

Image courtesy Razvan Orendovici