Traveling around Australia was amazing! 11 months of fun… Meeting amazing people, seeing extraordinary things and doing some things I never thought I would ever have done! I learned a lot working while traveling around Australia and I would love to share them with you, especially if you want to go there yourself too.
There are some things I wish I knew before I came to the country that I wish I knew before I got there and will remember for the next trip.
Hostels, Hotels or Getting a Set Of Wheels…
When I got to Australia I had enough money to stay in hostels for a few months or purchase a campervan which I could travel and sleep in. Both have their advantages, but next time I’d do it differently.
Hostels are a lot of fun! I’ve met some many awesome people, especially in Cairns, that you’ll make friends for life. I met people from all over the world and many of them from Europe who I plan on seeing again in the near future. I met people who I traveled around Australia with and had some amazing times with, people who I would never have met if I bought a van.
However…
With a campervan you can easily travel all over Australia and stop off wherever you wanted, something you couldn’t do with the hop on hop off buses like Greyhound or Premier Buses.
You’d still meet people traveling in a campervan as you can stay in hostels with your van and I even met loads of people traveling with vans. The campervan route is what I would do next as it turns out cheaper in the long run as a lot of people sell their vans almost at the price they bought it for.
Getting a Job In Australia… What Could You Do?
Paid work… Non-paid work… What could you do!?
A lot of people I met traveling around get jobs in hospitality or on farms. If you wanted to go down the hospitality route, you better get some experience before you go to the “Land Down Under” because unless you want to work in the middle of nowhere, they are going to want experience.
Farm work, you don’t need experience with but be prepared to work hard. You can get work that pays by the hour or piece-rate. If you can find work that pays by the hour, it’s better, you’ll end up earning more money.
The best thing about farm work though is that if you’re on the 12 month working holiday visa, doing 3 months work on a farm will get you a second year visa! Another option is to WOOF’ing (Working on Organic Farms) in which the farms that hire you will pay for your food and accommodation. You’ll work less hours, but won’t earn any money. You have no expenses so does it really matter?
I ended up doing a scuba diving internship. Didn’t earn any money, but I got all my certifications up to open water instructor for nothing and did over 500 dives in return. Was a fantastic experience and now I can even teach people to dive… Want to learn?
When Are You Going To Australia?
Australia is an amazing place!
There are still so many places to see out there. I didn’t even get to see Uluru! So I will definitely be heading back down there and this time I’m going to be getting that campervan. Plenty of diving to do there too with my newly earned certifications too so I will be abusing that.
If you’re not sure about what to do about money. It’s pretty easy to find work out there if you’re not picky. If you want to keep your expenses low you can even work for accommodation in virtually every hostel. A couple of hours per day cleaning or working on reception and all your rent is covered. So your expenses could be as low as $15 per week if you aren’t picky on food.
Farm work or fruit picking is the most common. If your aim is to get to a second year visa then this is the route most people take and is the easiest way to get it granted.
Another option is to start your own business like we teach here. You don’t have to work out there if you didn’t want to then. You just need to have fun, get some amazing pictures and even make some new friends for life. Definitely the best option… Only have to work for the fun of it, not because you need the money!
If you’re planning a trip for the near future then there are certain things I’d recommend you do before you leave.
So if your planning on going to Australia or there right now, tell me what your plans are! Is there one place in particular you wish to go to? If there one thing you really want to do? Share this with your friends with the Twitter and Facebook buttons below and we can come up with the best things to do here in Australia together.
