Volunteering costs – two weeks in Brazil
Volunteering costs? “I thought it’s for free?” Well, it is not but definetly a very affortable and sustainable way to travel the world!
When people hear “volunteering,” the first thing that often comes to mind – helping out in exchange for food and a place to sleep, right? Influencers carry the message that you can actually travel for FREE if volunteering. But here’s the thing: volunteering abroad isn’t free. There are plenty of costs involved, from flights, food, transportation and the fun stuff you’ll want to do on your days off. To help you budget for your own adventure, we’ve broken down exactly what we spent and where. Spoiler: it wasn’t for free but every cent was totally worth it.
Accommodation
One of the biggest costs of a trip are the costs for accommodation. And this is the biggest cost advantage for travellers because you typically pay 0 € for that. You offer your help and abilities to have a place to sleep in return. This is the most basic volunteer exchange you can get (although there are some programs where you still have to pay extra). We travelled with Workaway and had 0 costs for that. If we would have stayed in an avarage hostel for 2 people it probably would have cost us about 308€ – if one night per person costs 11€, which is very basic. So, we saved a lot of money and we had such a nice and tidy place to sleep. We had a private room with private bathroom and a magnificant view on the river and the forest.
You have to be flexible for the type of room they offer you. We are open to shared and private rooms but wouldnt consider a volunteer job who only offers camping. But everyone has their own personal preferences.
We did have costs for our Workaway membership, which we have to renew every year. It costs us as a couple together about 66 € and for a single person it would be around 56 €. But we don’t count that membership as a accommodation cost because if you take that amount in a year, you will pay 5,50 € per month. This is less than a Netflix Membership…😉
FOOD
Some volunteering jobs offer you food three times a day, some dont offer food at all and you are responsible for your stomach. Food is the second major part of a trip, so you are very lucky if you have a place to volunteer and which offers you all meals and a place to sleep. But this should not be the reason to take that job. It is more important that you find something which makes you happy to take part of or where you can help the best with your abilities.
Our volunteer job in Brazil included one meal which was breakfast – they always had enough bread, coffee, tea, cheese and ham and ALWAYS fresh and tasty Mangoes. But after some days we got into the routine to eat always together and share our food and cook also together (the host couple and us two). Since this part of Brazil was very affortable, our weekly groceries were too. We definitely treated ourselves a few times. The local restaurants served amazing local cuisine which we couldnt miss!
If you’re budgeting, groceries will always be cheaper, but eating out is worth it once in a while. Especially, when the food is this good.
We payed 60 € for groceries, for two weeks.
And we payed 70 € for restaurant visits or snacks, drinks and Acai bowls at our free time.
So in total we payed 130 € for keeping our stomach happy.
Transportation
Before we talk about this cost factor, our advise for you choosing the right volunteer job is…
…Check the Location and surroundings first in Google Maps, especially if you want to see places.
In Brazil (and probably many more countries) the infrastructure is not that efficient and the routes by bus are much longer than by car. You think you are one hour from the beach away? This could actually be 3 hours instead because of the bus routes and it comes with more costs if you have longer ways.
We stayed 3 weeks in Brazil, which 2 of them were volunteering and the last week was only for travelling around. But we decided that on spot cause we found out very quickly that if would cost us a lot more time and money to travel on weekends than to do one entire trip after the volunteering.
Our transportation costs include: Uber rides, one long distance bus ride, local buses and unfortunately also two taxi rides.
We payed 59 € for 2 weeks transport during our volunteer job.
Activities & Free Time
Our volunteer job included a 1,5 h hike to a 4 days trip (part of the work) to a Ranch to the mountains. So for us this was already a fun nature activity where we got to know the area, therefore our weekends looked very chilled. We swam in the river nearby (no crocodiles), head to local restaurants and took a 1 day trip to the beach. We had no entry fees to museums or similar and we were also not close enough to a touristy city like Rio de Janeiro. So, we really had no big costs in that point.
We spent only 22 € in things we needed like simcards, mosquito reppelents or shampoo.
total volunteering costs
211 € for two persons!
Nice, right?
Our arrival at the volunteering place was not as planned though! You can read more about it at this blogpost.
