Getting Paid to Travel?

Steve, Being paid to travel is likely something a lot of people would like to try, however I suspect the reality is different than the anticipation. Working as a Guide or whatever would likely be a lot of work, some long hours and somewhat "limited pay". Hopefully Frank II will spot this Thread, as I'm sure he would be able to provide some great comments on the pros & cons of working in the travel industry. Cheers!

Thanks, Ken, I found it. I used to be a tour director meaning I led group sightseeing tours that lasted between 3 and 23 days. I could go on and on about it...but I suggest you go to the following website which is the one major school that trains tour directors. They can answer many of your questions. Then either come back here or PM me and I'll try to answer any of your more specific questions. http://www.itmitourtraining.com/ A few comments from reading your "question." This is one job you don't do for the money because you won't make a lot. In fact, many jobs in the travel industry pay terribly because there is such a big demand for those jobs. There is a demand for "older" tour directors so you age is actually a plus. Don't expect to start doing tours around the world. Most of your work will be in North America.

Steve, you might enjoy searching this site: transitionsabroad.com

Probably share the dream of most people here...what I have done to help supplement my travel is take my own business (photographer) and try to expand on that. I don't know if there is anything you do (hobby or work) that you could possibly take to a new level. What I have done is let all my portrait clients know that I might be available to do their portrait in Europe... I have had about 15 families take me up on this so far, and I have a senior portrait to do in Istanbul this summer. I meet up with them for a day or two and do images, then off to my own travels. I pay my own way and sell the portraits the same as I woud if it were in my own town. I have also managed to find 2 companies that purchase and sell my European images that are used as wall decor, and sold in high end stores as well as big box stores (Home Goods, Marshalls, etc) Another friend and I have also done photo workshops in Central America and European locations. Maybe you have some expertise that would warrant a particular group to travel with you... I have seen trips for groups of knitters, where they must hang out with the sheep and then sit somewhere and knit....anyway, all of this only helps supplement my income and my trips. I don 't get paid to travel directly, but without all of this I could not afford to travel. Since I am self employed I am able to travel whenever I want....good luck, because at the end of it all I don't want to have too many regrets...is this easy? No... worth it? Yes

I do not have a suggestion about transitioning into the travel field as a new career, but I will present this idea: Have you considered applying for a position with the US government overseas? I don't know what your career field is, but the government hires a great variety, either through direct employment or by contract, including all kinds of administrative, medical, and "bean-counting" type jobs. Many private companies have overseas offices as well. This would get you to Europe where you would be able to do a lot of traveling from your home base. Perhaps this doesn't meet your needs or seem like a likely course of action, but it's something to consider.

DD beat me to it. Suggest you either try to get a job with the government, with a multinational, or find a job that requires frequent business meetings overseas.

Depending on what kind of work that you do, you could possibly get a job with an airline with flight benefits. I married a guy who gets 'em, so that's how I manage to fly on the cheap to Europe. Airlines are more than pilots and flight attendants -- they need accountants, sales people, IT, HR, all the stuff that any major company would need. And all those people get the same flight benefits as any other airline employee would.

The funny thing is a lot of the part-time tour directors I knew, who usually worked mid June through the end of August were teachers supplementing their income and getting paid to travel. I used to also get a lot of teachers as passengers. Teaching is not a "travel" job and when you do travel, you have to pay for it. Most jobs in the "travel" industry are not really traveling jobs. Sure, you can get some benefits during your vacation time, but most of the work is done in one place. So, Steve, are you looking for a job in the travel industry or one in which you travel a great deal? I know a lot of business people who travel all over the world. Buyers, sales people, independent contractors, accountants, financial consultants, computer troubleshooters....and the list goes on. And with these, someone else is picking up the dime. Remember, travel for vacation is fun. When it becomes a major part of your work, it's exactly that......work. If you don't want to take a big cut in pay, you might want to think how your current skills can be transferred to a job that includes travel. BTW, in travelspeak, except for Rick Steves, a "guide" is someone who takes you on a city tour, or museum tour, and is only with you for a few hours. They do not travel with you.
A tour director/tour manager is someone who travels over the road with a group of people. There is a big difference in responsibility and pay.

Probably your best bet is to amass a significant amount of $$ in investments and live (simply) off the returns as you travel. That would be my best-case scenareo.

Agree w/ the posts above. I, too, have thought about, and looked into, travel-related jobs. I work in media ad sales (Director of Marketing for a very well-known brand in the print/online media/journalism world), and for years, have thought about ways to combine my experience, education (MBA here) AND my life-long passion for travel, particularly European travel. I still haven't entirely given up on that (I now have a "4" in front of my b-days!), but my search experience into this is corroborated in many of the posts above. As correctly stated above, many jobs in "travel" don't involve much/if any actual travel. And those that do are often not "well-paying" (relative term, I know) positions. That's why I agree w/ post above re: you have to do it for love of travel, not money. I know many people in fields such as finance (living/working in NYC, know many folks in finance), accounting, ad sales, media, etc. who often travel internationally for work, and they all always say same thing; when doing it for work, it's work!, not the fun some of us may picture. Someone I know who used to go to Scandinavia a lot for business told me that, while he often would have good/fun expreinces in the evenning (dinner, drinks out, etc.), during the day he'd typically be hauled up in a hotel conference room. The hospitality/hotel industry is another avenue to explore, although in my experience, networking w/ people in this space, they look for years of experience, and salaries are often (again, relatively speaking), on low side. Not sure if I've answered your question, Steve, but wanted to share my perspective and experiences looking into the travel space as a career option.

Check out USAjobs.gov. Do a search for places you would like to stay awhile. Your best bet is probably in a wide variety of positions at overseas military bases (from cashier in the exchange to public affairs officer and everything in between) but usajobs will show you all the listings.

Great question Steve, and one I mull time and time again myself. My birthdays also start with a "5", and my trick to being able to travel (from a financial standpoint) is to put money from my regular job every month into a special account earmarked for travel. It doesn't always fully pay for my travel, but at the very least it heavily subsidizes it. Last year it covered two trips to Europe and a couple of local getaways. But like you, I would like to find a way to have travel pay for itself, or largely so, without it being a real "job". Possible? Maybe, maybe not. I've read various articles on this topic, and the advice tends to follow the theme of taking some skill you already have and making it portable. Examples given include travel writing (writing articles to submit to magazines), photography, operating an internet-based business, building an import-export business, looking for an overseas government or corporate job, etc. That last one doesn't really appeal to me since, as others have pointed out, work is work no matter where you are. Travel is something different. I'm sure none of those as are easy as they sound, though some folks are able to make them work out. But I remain ever hopeful. I ran into an old friend of mine the other day (she is older than I), who retired a few years ago. She told me that she discovered not only is retirement affordable, it can be profitable. She spends 2-3 months a year overseas teaching English as a Second Language. Her original profession was teaching, so I'm sure she was fit for the ESL track, but she gave me hope. Maybe if the two of us noodle on this long enough we'll come up with a great idea!

Steve, you need a TEFL certificate in most countries to teach English to non-english speakers. There are several schools that teach you to teach. Also, a lot of foreign companies hire English speakers just to make access to our markets easier.
The foreign service hires people, too, and they spend a year or two in foreign embassies. BTW the market for TEFL seems to be best in south-east Asia and South America.

I find the topic to have much in common with other pursuits, where you identify a passion and try to make it a paying job. Unfortunately, the old axiom of mixing business with pleasure more often than not holds true. As an example, I love food,Wine, and Beer; and like many often thought about having my own restaurant or brewery, basicall make that passion a business. I however realize that those pursuits are hard work, and many I know that took the plunge, end up enjoying their passion less, looking to other things for enjoyment. Travelling is much the same way. I do travel for business a number of times a year, including to Europe, for up to a week at a time, and of course I travel for my own pleasure as well. I find the business travel to be less enjoyable, because so much of my time is spent dealing with priorities other than my own interests. It is even frustrating to be in Rome or Barcelona, and be missing out on great sites due to schedule. A few friends who are pilots go through the same thing, in lots of cities, but never see them. Being directly in the travel industry as a guide may be a bit better, but riding herd on a tour group certainly would detract from the pleasure of travel. In the end, I think that I will try to keep my pleasures as a hobby.

Steve, I think many of us have been or are in a spot like yours. I'm not trying to sway you but here is my opinion. 1) Make sure you have enough money live on while you pursue this dream. I would say at least 2 years worth of expenses in cash. 2) See if there is some way you can give this idea a tryout BEFORE you invest large amounts of time and money. For example, you're close to NYC. Perhaps you can a tour based there? See if you can deal with a group of people? Come up with a subject (food, sports, art or history) and a tour (a walking tour) and practice on family and friends. Hopefully they will give you honest feedback. 3) If you impress them and feel comfortable then try it on strangers. Call a restaurant ahead of time and explain your tour. Request a fixed price menu with just few items from their menu. I think your customers would appreciate a lunch? 4) I went on a tour of Belgium, Netherlands and Germany in 2007. The tour operator basically booked our hotels and transportation. He also arranged for one or two meals a day. For the walking tours he used a local tour guide. When I returned home I checked out some of the sights he took us to. All of them were right out of the guide books you find in the bookstore. 5) I think if you can handle doing this in NYC then you could probably handle it somewhere else?
Questions? Comments? Snide Remarks anyone?

Just be aware that NYC and Washington, DC are the only two places in the USA where you need a sightseeing guide license. (I'm not kidding.) There's also an exam involved.

"Teaching is not a "travel" job and when you do travel, you have to pay for it." That's correct, but consider this. If one is a licensed/credentialed teacher there are many work opportunities overseas in American schools. A two-year contract allows one to plunk down roots, to a degree, and really live like a local as RS advocates. We spent nine years in Latin America early in my career in education and were paid to travel to get there (stop overs were allowed back then) and then had travel opportunities galore on weekends, holidays, and school vacations. For some folks it is a very interesting, exciting, and enriching experience.

Just my 2 cents and a dash of encouragement: I actually made the jump to Europe in mid-career and with a family. I was 45 when we made the jump. I have no magic formula. I paid my dues stateside, then I began applying for every international opening that I could find in my field (finance). The publication "International Career Employment Weekly" was my bible. An embarrassing number of rejections later, I struck gold. Now I am living in Vienna, Austria. At every school holiday I take my wife and kids and we jump on a train (our dime) and explore another corner of Europe. Maybe I was lucky, but it really worked in my case. My wife has a teachers certification, so she was able to get a job at one of the city's English speaking international schools with no problem. It can be done. But there is no single guaranteed path for doing it. However –believe me--I thought it was a long shot until it came through in buckets.
Good luck!

Thomas's experiences are similar to mine, although we are in different career fields and I made the jump at a younger age. Persistance and patience were the keys.

It may or may not suit you since it's not done to make money, but what about volunteering for Peace Corps in Eastern Europe...travel when you have time off. I think your commitment is two years, but there are certainly worse ways to spend two years (like being stuck in a cube). Perhaps the connections you make will lead to something permanent later.

I think Thomas, Tom and I agree that living in Europe, doing whatever type of job it is that you do, and traveling in your off time is a wonderful way to live. There are no jet-lag issues (until we visit the US), and we can take shorter, more frequent trips than if we were coming from the US. And of course, we don't have to pay that initial expensive airline fee to get over here before every vacation. Living abroad may not be for everyone, but there are many advantages if you can make it work for you. Many people have given some good suggestions in answer to Steve's question. I'd really like to hear from Steve again: Have any of these suggestions been useful to you? Are you developing any plans? You've certainly zeroed in on a dream many people have and we're all curious about how you're feeling about it now.

An addition to what Frank II said. There are other cities in the US that require Tour Guides to pass tests and obtain licenses. I hold one for St. Augustine, Florida.

Hi again all, I just wanted to say thank you all for the many suggestions and all the feedback I received. I didn't expect to get as many replies as I did, it seems a lot of those out there can relate to my post. Anyway, to answer the one question about "have these suggestions helped?", yes, they've given me a few options to toss around that I hadn't thought of and provided a bit of encouragement as well. One person mentioned perhaps starting to work locally doing some guide work (local for me being the NYC area). Actually, I have already considered that and have looked into what becoming a licensed New York City guide entails (yes, I DO know there is an exam). I figured I might want to start there ( by studying for an exam and obtaining a license etc.) and then start out perhaps on a part time basis only, just to get my feet wet and see how I like. Baby steps as they say. Anyway, thanks much. Steve

I did a TEFL course in England in 2000. For the next 6 years I travelled around Europe during July and August teaching English at summer schools. Once I had decided that it was something that I wanted to do permanently and that I had enough experience I moved to Germany where I now teach in an Adult Education Centre and supplement my income by tutoring at home on a private basis. There are many jobs advertised on TEFL websites, some do not require any qualifications, except of course the ability to speak English. I admit that it is not particularly well paid, but the cost of living here is a lot less than in the UK.