would you like to know how i got to spend a week here completely for free and how you could do the
same if you would then keep watching i'm gonna go inside to talk to you more about
it because i am getting rained on i thought that might get your attention let me briefly
talk you through what world packers is it's an online platform that matches volunteers with
projects seeking volunteers all over the world and when i say all over the world i mean it because
they currently have projects in 140 countries and there are more than 5 000 projects in total so
it doesn't matter how picky you are you're quite likely to find something you like now this year i
was limiting myself to projects in the uk because i didn't feel ready to travel internationally
with everything that's happening with covet and um as it turns out there are tons in the uk now in
bigger cities because of higher demand sometimes the time commitments required are a little bit
higher from two to say four weeks eventually i found several that were fine with me coming just
for a week and the one i chose is of course the one here in the highlands as i already mentioned
i am recording this in my lovely lovely private room that i have been guaranteed in exchange for
my work and the work that you do through world packers varies quite a lot personally i helped
out by working as a waitress i did the breakfast service where i served the guests i took the
orders and then i helped tidy everything i helped up the tables and later on i did the check-ins at
reception all of it was very well explained by the host because of stuff that i've never done before
and i actually really enjoyed it i'd never worked as a waitress before and i have mad
respect for people that do but i did enjoy it for this like limited time period it was really
lovely meeting the guests so even the work for me personally was really enjoyable but this is just
one aspect of what you can do through world packers there are a lot of places that want
people to help with farming and gardening and like animal care um which sounds really exciting that
might be something i look into next time there's also places that want help with their websites and
seo photography video services so it is a really broad spectrum of what you can do there are no
prerequisites in terms of skills you have to have to be able to volunteer through world packers the
only requirement is that you're above the age of 18 other than that there's no maximum age
you are all good to go if you're interested now let me give you a brief overview of what
the past week has looked like for me my first ever world packers experience and by the way this isn't
just my last day here this is literally like my last hour i thought i'd wait till i've finished
the entire experience and processed it all to um give you my feedback so yeah this is pretty fresh
and i am very very sad to be leaving genuinely um so when i first got here the first two days
i wasn't asked to work at all and then on the third day i was working at breakfast so i woke
up fairly early to help out with the guests and then i did check-ins and that's how i spent some
of my day but then i still had the entire evening to myself and i went for another walk and then
the next day i just did breakfast and then i was free that's that was my work week um and
i ended up doing some really incredible stuff i went swimming in the river nearby that was
an amazing experience i walked the west highland way that was an absolutely incredible hike it
was about 15 miles so um a bit of a workout i'm pretty tired today because i did that yesterday
and by the way i am making a whole separate video about kinlochleven the town that i've been staying
in and that west highland way hike so if you'd like to check that out you should subscribe
because i will be putting that video up after i've posted this one now let me quickly explain
how world packers works in practical terms you can browse the website without a membership but
if you want to apply for these opportunities you do need to buy one i do have a discount link right
here and i've also left it in the description below which gets you 10 off um and i have to
say the membership is extremely inexpensive especially considering what you get through
it which as i mentioned is 5 000 projects all over the world there are so many here in the uk i also
looked at spain and portugal because i was like considering doing a little trip um there is a huge
huge concentration of projects in south america because world packers is a brazilian company
but really doesn't matter where you're going you are almost guaranteed to find something that
should be of interest to you now once you get your membership and you identify some projects that
sound interesting to you you just start applying you can apply to as many projects as you'd like
and once you've agreed with the host you just accept it on the website and then you are ready
to go every single project has slightly different requirements in terms of what they're looking
for and what they're offering now one thing that is always guaranteed is accommodation
i got this lovely huge private room with a bathroom and a kitchen and a living room which
is a pretty sweet deal some other places might be offering shared accommodation or camping in tents
it really depends on the host and all of this will be communicated to you before you get there
so that is all good you're in safe hands another thing that might be provided is food and some
places you will get breakfast lunch even dinner i had a kitchen where i cooked for myself but luis
the host actually invited me to make fish tacos with him in the hotel kitchen after we discovered
our shared love of mexican food i can't overstate how safe and welcome i felt during my whole stay
and if you're a solo female traveler like me and are apprehensive i can confidently say don't be
not just because the hosts are great and thoroughly vetted which they are but also
because of the world packers insurance if something doesn't go as agreed you can get
help from their support team to find a new host you can also get reimbursed for up to three nights
in a shared hostel dorm if you don't feel safe at your stay not that that's likely to happen
you do have a review section on the website uh where past volunteers are able to leave feedback
which is how i felt really confident coming here because there were so many five-star glowing
reviews so i was like well what the hell it should be fun if you're interested in volunteering here
in kinla cleveland specifically i am leaving all the information down in the description box um
and yeah i definitely thoroughly thoroughly recommend this project
the only thing to bear in mind is that it is a tiny bit remote um coming here from london was
not super easy but also not as difficult as i guess i'd imagined in my head before making
the journey so you need to first get to either glasgow or edinburgh and from either of those
cities you can take a bus that takes about five hours it's a citylink bus so a local scottish bus
and um that will get you to a place called glencoe and then from glencoe you can take a short route
bus called the n44 to kenlofleven and that takes like less than half an hour so yes it is a bit
of a long journey if you do live in london but overall is it worth it absolutely it's it's more
than worth it like let let me just quickly flip this around and show you the view from my room
yep now i was feeling a little nosey earlier and so i asked my contact at world packers
about how many people had made applications this year in the uk because i figured well
it's pandemic is it weird that i'm applying right now you know i was just having all these
questions coursing through my head and the number that she got back to me with i thought was really
really high the number of applications made to uk hosts through the platform this year 2021 is 789
and yeah i was very impressed by that number so it's really nice to see that people are still
taking advantage of these projects internally within the countries that they reside in
everything in terms of covert precautions and stuff like that was very well handled and
i mean i just had the best time one other really cool feature i want to mention is
the world packers academy they offer a series of short courses through their website that teach you
how to make the most use out of the platform but also generally on how to travel the world
and spend as little money as possible and as i was going through these i just kept thinking i really
wish i'd known about world packers earlier you know when i was a bit younger and traveling the
world and genuinely had so little money to devote to it because not only does world packers help you
cut down on your spending by essentially offering free accommodation wherever you go in exchange
for a little bit of help it also enables you to meet locals because they're usually the owners of
the places or the services or the hotels that you are working for so you are already embedding
yourself into the local community and number three you get to learn so many new skills like i
had never done waitressing before i'd never worked in a hotel and i loved the experience i loved the
ability to you know take off from my regular life for a week and learn something new you know try
out a new path something that i hadn't experienced before so for me those three benefits alone
are not only well worth the membership fee but like they're a bit mind-blowing so yeah quick
recap before my bus gets here roll packers is amazing the membership discount code is
in the description below and also right here and you should just do it you can travel the world
for free this is mind-blowing the only thing that isn't covered by the way is transport you need to
make your way to each place by yourself but um i would say that's a pretty small price to pay
especially if you're traveling slowly you know over a longer period of time across different
regions this is an incredibly invaluable resource um yeah if you guys have any questions whatsoever
about world packers and my experience here in the scottish highlands then please do drop them below
and i will get back to you as soon as possible um yeah i mean a i'm speechless and b i really
have to go so i'm gonna grab this backpack i really hope you enjoyed this review and i
will speak to you next friday which is when i put out new videos thanks for watching and bye
so sad genuinely so sad it's been fun