General Gap Year Websites
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Top Sites
HelpStay – Give a little help and stay for free with some of the thousand plus projects in over a hundred countries listed here.
Springboard – A well established organisation for UK students aged 16 to 18 looking for careers, job vacancies, education or gap year information and advice.
Links for Taking a Gap Year
Best Gap Year – Provides gap year courses, work placements and travel opportunities abroad.
Gapwork – A stylish site particularly strong on working in Australia and Europe. Alongside the free online resources, Gapwork sell gap packs designed specifically for working travellers.
HelpStay – Give a little help and stay for free with some of the thousand plus projects in over a hundred countries listed here.
HelpX – An online listing of host organic farms, non-organic farms, farmstays, homestays, ranches, lodges, B&Bs, backpackers hostels and even sailing boats who invite volunteer helpers to stay with them short-term in exchange for food and accommodation.
Hippohelp – Wanting some backpackers to drop by and help him develop a piece of land he owned in China, Leopold Huber started his own work exchange website. Use the map based interface to find hosts who you wish to join.
Hovos – This general purpose help exchange network’s unique selling point is a chance to use the site without paying until a deal has been struck with a host. A quick seach in Thailand found five hosts, where we switched over to the map to get a handy overview where the projects are located.
Springboard – A well established organisation for UK students aged 16 to 18 looking for careers, job vacancies, education or gap year information and advice.
Staydu – On Staydu locals from all over the world offer their accommodation for work, for money or for free.
Volunteers Base – VB promotes itself as a free alternative to HelpX, WWOOF, WorkAway and similar websites, and, in the couple of years since it begun, seems to be ticking along quite nicely as an easy to use website with a good number of hosts and volunteers.
Workaway – A website set up to facilitate contact between travellers and host families who are prepared to offer food and accommodation in return for a few light hours work per day. Work can be anything from gardening or maintenance through to child care or shopping.
Working Traveller – A work exchange network with the same name (but otherwise no connection) as our blog, Working Traveller matches thousands of work placements around the world with travellers looking for work experience. There’s a noticeable career ethos present, with the great, good and no good – on both sides of the table – filtered by a handshake reference system similar to that used by ebay.
Worldpackers – Click on a pin on a map and details of volunteering for hostels worldwide are given. It is also possible to narrow down hosts by selecting your best skill: cleaning, nightshift, tour guide, social media, etc.
WWOOF – The international website of the reknowned WWOOF network of organic farms. Volunteers looking to exchange their labour for bed and board in countries without a national organisation may be able to find host farms here.
The Year Out Group – An association of leading year out organisations offers information and guidance for young people and their parents and advisers.
Yoga Trade – Yoga Trade links yoga instructors, students, and wellness professionals with work trade and job opportunities around the world. A handful of roles are listed every day, but considering the niche we wouldn’t expect too many more though the site seems busy rather than neglected.