Seasonal Adventure Jobs Are a Simple Way to Get Paid to Travel
A little known (but much loved) method of long-term travel is seasonal work. While the term “seasonal work” is pretty broad, there is a specific subcategory of seasonal work that includes room and board as benefits. For anyone who doesn’t have a luxury budget, getting a seasonal job is a fantastically straightforward way to live and work in beautiful places that tourists pay through the nose to visit.
What sort of places provide housing for seasonal employees?
The “seasonal” part of seasonal adventure jobs is usually determined by when the tourists flood in. For resorts and wilderness lodges, this may mean a lush green summer season on a lake and into the cozy colors of fall. For ski resorts, it of course means the snowy days of winter.
Most types of companies in the tourism industry are fair game. Job opportunities run the gamut from standard hotel and resort operations (housekeeping, food and beverage, front desk, retail) to adventure guide jobs (white water rafting, ski and snowboard instructors, zipline guides, backcountry camping, etc.) and everything in between.
Meal plans are less common than housing options, though when they are offered they can be quite tasty and often healthy and varied. Many companies will serve their employees three hot meals per day, and many more have staff discounts on dining options. When these aren’t available, there are usually individual or shared kitchens where staff can prepare their own meals.
Search Travel Job Board Sites for Adventure Jobs with Housing
There are a few sites to find seasonal adventure jobs with room and board.
- 1. WanderJobs
This travel job board only allows companies to post if
A. They pay their employees (many “jobs” on similar sites are unpaid volunteer positions, work-exchange, or even pay-to-work)
B. Provide staff housing - 2. BackdoorJobs
This site specifically posts adventure jobs, though the selection is a bit more limited. - 3. Find more resources for seasonal work in the post: How to Travel for Free: Resources for Seasonal Jobs with Housing
Find Adventure Jobs that Job Boards Don’t Advertise
Not all seasonal jobs will be posted on one of the listed job boards. In fact, most of them won’t be. After years of searching, living, and traveling in the seasonal work community, I’ve come up with a few pro tips to find these hidden job opportunities.
- 4. Choose a location first.
Your online search will be much more effective if you use a specific place name. For example, “summer jobs in Alaska with housing” is already a much stronger search term than “summer jobs with housing”. - 5. Choose the type of adventure job.
Keywords like “ski resort”, “retreat center”, “summer camp”, etc., will improve your search dramatically. “Wilderness lodge” is a particularly good search term, because these lodges are remote and far from towns, so they usually offer employee housing. - 6. Use varied versions of the term room and board.
Try “staff housing”, “employee housing”, etc., to get different search results. - 7. Find out if a company owns other properties.
Often times larger companies in the tourism industry own operations in multiple locations, sometimes even worldwide. If a company website is extremely professional and expensive looking, click around to see if they are part of a larger operation. For example, Forever Resorts operates Signal Mountain Lodge, a consistent staff favorite in Grand Teton National Park, but also has properties in the Grand Canyon, Lake Mead, Big Bend, Bryce Canyon, and a handful of other locations.
Enjoy the Adventure
Working a seasonal adventure job and living in a tight-knit employee community is an incredible way to have new experiences and grow as a person. It’s a bit like a college, but with an older age group and more nature-oriented activities. You’ll find yourself having hiking adventures, beach days, and fireside chats with other colorful people who will be your lifelong friends.
Check out current adventure job opportunities on WanderJobs!
Please let us know if you have any more insider tips, and good luck on your adventure job search!
