Useful websites for travelers

The following are websites and other travel info that I have heard or read about. I find these to be very useful to people who want to explore the world in all different ways. A tour, working while traveling, house sitting and so on. If you think I'm missing something please feel free to let me know! 

Let's start with the most important! Airfare! This is a list of discount websites I have either used myself or read about in other travel blogs. 

Student universe (you need to be either a teacher or a student to get discounts on this site)

Skyscanner

momondo 

cheapoair (USA,Canada,UK)

Tripadvisor

Googleflights 

Jetradar (searches budget airlines too)

Azair (Europe, Middle East)

Webjet (only use this site to search, then book directly through the airline because this site will add on a booking fee)

Look for airline deals with budget airlines. The United Kingdom is famous for tickets often priced just higher then the taxes charged for the ticket. 

ryanair.com, easyjet.com, flymonarch.com and in Australia virginaustralia.com has happy hour rates for one hour a day and jetstar.com

For a long layover check out: 

layoverguide.com

Contiki European tour - a tour company that "covers the world from all angles" they have an age range of 18 to 35 year old travelers. They offer 8 different ways of travel options for you to choose from. They range from budget to accommodation in style. They have large groups from 18 to 35 people for the Europe, Australia, North America and New Zealand trips and small groups w/no more than 25 people for Asia and Latin America. 50% of the travelers on these trips are solo while the other half have brought along a friend or significant other. It's a great way to do a tour or somewhere in the world and make new friends. 

Coolworks.com - seasonal jobs all over the world! A company trying to connect adventurous job seekers with employers and one another. Many are located at national parks. Here's an example of a few jobs that are on the site right now.

El Capitan Lodge, Alaska

Denali park resorts

Historic Tapoco Lodge, Colorado 

And many more... 

alaskatourjobs.com

House sitting options:

posting in many countries-

housecarers.com

List your house for free if you are looking for a house sitter, pay $50 a year to be a house sitter and have full access to homeowners requests for a sitter. The money you pay is said to be going back into the maintance of the website. 

mindmyhouse.com 

This site is also around the glide opportunities and free for homeowners and only $20 a year for someone interested in house sitting. Dual memberships are respectable. 

Australia based:

housesitworld.com.au, happyhousesitters.com.au, aussiehousesitters.com.au

The maybe not so obvious helpful sites:

Craigslist.com

Best used when traveling in the USA. You could possibly find housing, a vehicle if you want to buy a car to road trip in and then sell it and many other options for traviling. 

An Australia/NZ based website (similar to Craig's list in the USA)

Gumtree.com  

You can buy or sell a vehicle and find ride shares with other travelers here. 

Facebook.com

Post a message regarding where you are going and ask if anyone in your FB community knows anyone in these upcoming countries of yours. I paid very little for accommodations in NZ, Australia, and Thailand because of my FB community and now I have friends in even more places. 

House swap websites similar to the movie The Holiday:

homeexchange.com, homexchangevacation.com, homebasehols.com

Teach English in another country is another way/idea to travel with a purpose, if you find you need that. 

Interexchange: international exchange programs, teach English abroad, internships abroad, match with seasonal employees.

Travelers advertising on travel forums for anything helpful, really:

thorn tree.lonelyplanet.com

Ride sharing:

erideshare.com

hitchhikers.org- 

Cuba and New Zealand are common places for hitchhiking to happen

Crew a boat

UK-based crew-seekers international - crewseekers.net (a member ship fee applies) 

Lists info on paid positions, shared contribution voyages and working passage trips. 

Or try findacrew.net to live in board and eat for free in trade for your 

Post your own add in harbor or port towns or look for adds already posted looking for help or just start asking locals if they know of any work.

Flight attendant - travel for free

Join the Peace corps and make a huge impact on other human beings around the world. 

Yoga instructor 

Travel photographer and sell your photos to stock photo websites. 

Work on a cruise ship

carnival.com, royalcaribbean.com

Best option for short term contracts is to offer an area of expertise for education or entertainment of the passengers. 

These jobs aren't as great as crew members work long hours, stay below deck and are  allowed off the ship only about every other stop. 

Transport other people's vehicles:

Helping a person move their car when they have moved from one place to another. To start this process connect with car rental or relocation companies. Some of these companies will be looking for drivers to relocate a car in a limited amount of days. You could also advertise yourself for this service in your own city and the city where you want to travel, if you wanted. 

A few Australian based rental companies are blitz.com.au and maui.com.au and they are sometimes in need of drivers to re locate. At the end of a season they often need to move many vehicles to one location that's higher in demand. You normally need to be 21 for this job and you should have some flexibility in your travels to be able to work with the companies who need you. 

WWOOF 

World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms

An international network of organic farmers who offer opportunities for volunteers to help. A membership fee is required to gain access to the farm info in the country you want to visit. 

wwoof.org

Trade work at a hostel for your stay

You can ask the front desk upon arrival if you can trade your night(s) stay for work or you can call in advance to ask. Usually they want you to stay more than one night for work/stay trades. You could also try looking for jobs off sites such as hostelworld.com (the message board), backpack.co.nz (jobs within NZ) 

You can look for random everyday type work over seas

You could nanny with greataupair.com or aupair.com but there is an age limit cut off for this 25 or 30 years old is the max age you can be for this, I believe. 

Something outdoors might be more fitting: anyworkanywhere.com for listings of fruit picking working visas are also a way to go but also have age cut off of 25 or 30 years old so check this out before you get to old. 

goworkabout.com is an Australian based seasonal jobs site that are pre arranged. 

Organize a group tour

Some travel companies might offer you a discount or free travel if you organize a large(ish) group for said tour. You'd be known as a "group leader". You are just the person you gathers the people to go along with you in the adventure the company does the rest. 

adventuresincorporated.com or adventure-abroad.com or look into a tour that interests you. 

globaladventurechallenges.com, acrossthedivide.com, and charitytreks.ca are all sites where you can take on a challenge in the name of a charity. 

You can always enter into contests, even if you are someone who never wins anything. If you have the time to invest (think of it like a hobby) then it could pay off with a free trip somewhere. Google: travel contests 

And see what comes up! 

Volunteering on a project in another country - 

This may allow you the opportunity to fundraiser to support the work that you are going to do. (Vergemagazine.com)

Some of these projects may provide you with food and housing and occasionally flights but that's usually asking a lot. 

Lions club (.org) and rotary club (.org) will usually support you as well as family, friends, the church you might go to and other social groups. 

This can be a very rewarding experience and a chance to experience the culture of that country better! 

Giving credit to my findings:

Posts seen on FB

Advice from friends

Andrea Gourgy with verge magazine  

Buzzfeed.com

Nomad travelers 

Sculptures by the sea

Friday, the day after I went to the blue Mountains, Tegan, Cory and I met back up for a trip to Bondi beach. Each year they do a show along the Oceanwalk called sculptures by the sea. When I heard it was going on this year I vaguely remembered a girl I met in 2013 from Australia telling me about the show. It happens once a year and it's a really big deal! She told me that it was something I should definitely see so how great is it that I just so happen to do when the show is on this time!?

The Seattle Seahawks I had a game that day and Cory was more interested in the game and then where we were and what we are about to do. So he found himself a pub that had the game on and made himself comfortable. 

Teagan and I started the Bondi Coogee walk that has hosted this event since 1997. It began as a one day event and since has grown to a 3 week event. The show spans from the cliffs of Bondi beach to the cliffs ofTamarama (the next beach over).

The start of the walk. Sculptures are just past these buildings ahead. 

This is a heavily populated path with locals and tourists alike. Lots of people run this path when sculptures by the sea isn't in progress. 

The Bondi beach pool. 

But before we begin... Some fun street art that I saw before the sculptures started. Who doesn't love a bright yellow "Tonka Truck"!? 

The coastline is literally transformed into an outdoor art gallery with both local and international artists showing. There are over 100 sculptures exhibited this year! 

Millions of visitors come to this event each year and this year they expect over half a million to attend. It has become the world's largest free outdoor sculpture exhibition. 

I don't have a ton of words to lay out here for you but I do have a lot of pictures! Teagan and I had fun getting creative with a few different sculptures. 

Picture time!!!!!

 A tornado like peice to the right of me and up, look up! 

At a closer look which I don't have for you, they are people made out of brightly painted timber. 

I took several shots to get a wave passing thru at the perfect time! 

A hand holding a fish or a dolphin? It looks like it's made out of mesh but I believe it was actually chain. I think of it as the ocean holding the fish. 

Not one of my favorites but here's an idea of ones I didn't absolutely love. 

So, I have done this walk several times and I've never seen this rock here before. As I passed at this time I thought that's weird I've never noticed that rock before. I said to Teagan, that can't be our right? Have you ever noticed that rock before? She replied, no I don't think so and as we got closer to it we saw a plaque with an artist name on it! So it was definitely brought in and messed with the scenery incredibly well, wouldn't you say? 

I believe this one was called, "troubled youth"

This looks like it was made out of a paper similar to a egg carton's are made out of. Upon closer investigation I'm convinced that they also could be drink carriers.

Looking back from where I had walked so far. 

Now for a break in art to enjoy some more true Australian scenery photos: 

I managed to catch this Lil guy, frozen on the rusty pole. These lizards are everywhere in Sydney! They are harmless.

I just really enjoyed the colors and textures happening here. 

Back to the art...

The ocean rocket! 

I think I had the most fun with this sculpture. 

Tegan photo bombing me.

The weather was cloudy and then sunny and then windy and just all over the place! The wind closing thru the hair of these guys though... Man you'd think they were real! 

Kind of creepy but they were very well done. Even the one in the middle! 

The flyin' shiny budah! 

Not sure what these were made of but they made me think of enamel. 

This was a BEAUTIFUL wooden bell! The colors in the timber and the intreqet carvings of the trees. Sorry for the lack of a detail shot. 

The ocean thinker? I loved how the rust had already set in.

The photo doesn't show the little puppy behind the boys head very well. This sculpture made a lot of people happy as they tried to do handstands next to him. 

The naked red Asian man by the sea.

This peice drew in a large crowd. 

More fun with reflections! 

I had to edit this photo a bit to get the texture in the black to pop. 

And then we reached Tamarama beach park. This is the end of the walk. You turn around from here and on the walk back you cut into a grassy park above the path to see more sculptures! 

I had to run off a young couple in order to get this picture. They had decided to hang out and make out against it and my patience grew tired waiting for them. Pretty sure I embarrassed them! Ha!

Interactive art! 

As in giant squirt bottles! 

My favorite metal sculpture. 

A colorful tide pool of glass blown treasures! 

This was a challenge to line up correctly and as you can see I still didn't get it perfect. 

Sounds of the ocean echoed from this peice just like a large sea shell does when you hold it to your ear. Several people were confused about where the sounds were coming from because the wind carried the noise in all different directions. 

Pdx airport, anybody? I think this artist should meet the Oregon Pdx horse art creator. 

The skeleton of a leaf - beautiful and organic 

Close up to show the droplets of dew.

And this reminds me of Lee Kelly, an artist from Oregon city, Oregon. 

I'm certain that if you look back at a post from my Canadian trip you will find similar sculptures in red! 

Venus fly traps

Cory and I checking them out for further detail. 

This reminded me of my grandma Ruth. Trips to the playground with her, the big old (original) style slide, the black and white photos of a girl from another 

We only paid for 3 hours of parking (Have I told you how $$$ parking is ALL over Sydney!?), we had a handful of sculptures left when we noticed there was 10 minutes left on our meter! So we unfortunately rushed thru the end and even skipped a few and missed an artist talk that I saw in progress. 

Overall id say the show was amazing! There were a few sculptures that I didn't care for as much but that's the way all art showings are, right!? You can't love them all. 

We made it back to the car 8 min or so late but that was mostly because we couldn't resist some more great Kodak moments! 

In the parking lot we were in there was a wall with all these murals on them. Great murals! This one says:

"Don't ask me, I don't get it either."

And the person is reading a book that says "ART" on the front 

Getting a photo of some art in progress. 

True this! Everything about this!!! 

I'm starting to get back into those jumping pictures again! Look out! 

For those who love birds OR better yet, those who are freaked out by them! 

Incase this is hard to read on your device, it says,

"Wind in my beard, sun on my face, the ocean for me is a magical place."

Until next time...