16 Side Hustles That Pay You to Travel the World

Get paid to do a quick stint in a new location by taking on a temporary gig abroad or in another state.

1. Au pair

Estimated income: $200–$400 per month (in Western Europe)

Spend a few months in the Tuscan countryside, exploring the walled cities of Spain, or sipping wine on a Parisian balcony by being an au pair. This is a popular way for Americans to travel to Europe, but there are au pairing opportunities all around the globe.

As an au pair, you’ll be a live-in babysitter and English tutor to a child or children. Some families hire au pairs to accompany them in their homes, while others hire au pairs to join them on long vacations. You’ll help take care of the kids and possibly help them with their studies—especially when it comes to the English language.

Au pairing doesn’t pay big bucks, but gigs usually come with room and board included, which hugely cuts down the cost of travel; everything you make is essentially spending money that you can dip into while seeing the sights.

Where to get started

• Cultural Care
• Au Pair USA
• Go Overseas

2. Farm and pick crops

Estimated income: $16–$20 per hour

Get your hands dirty on (and in) foreign soil by working a season or two as a farmer or crop picker. Many of these jobs are seasonal, so they last just one to three months, but if you develop a passion for it, you can country-hop, working different growing and picking seasons.

One of the most popular destinations for this work is Australia, where you can work as a farm hand on vineyards and pick grapes between November–April. Australia offers a very popular working holiday visa for people who are between 18 and 30 years old.

You can find work independently or through programs. The benefit of using programs is that they usually include accommodation for the length of your job. However, many of these programs pay solely in accommodation, so look for jobs with an hourly rate or weekly stipend on top of free room and board.

Where to get started

• Go Overseas
• Global Work & Travel
• Transitions Abroad
• Seasonal Jobs Abroad

3. Write a travel blog

Estimated income: $20–$25 per hour (highly dependent on the popularity of your content)

Explore the world and write about your adventures by being a travel blogger. Travel is a leading blog topic and blogging is one of the most popular side hustles out there.

As a travel blogger, you’ll have to pay for all of your travel expenses yourself, like tickets and accommodations. However, you’ll also have complete control over where you go, how much you work, and what you write.

Your blog probably won’t be profitable right away, but as you develop your niche and your audience, you can monetize it through ads and affiliate marketing deals. If you become really popular, you can eventually even publish an ebook with travel tips or stories about your experiences.

Where to get started

• Wix
• GoDaddy
• Squarespace
• WordPress
• Weebly

4. Work on a boat crew

Estimated income: $20–$30 per hour

Does the sea call to you? Maybe it’s time to answer by taking up a gig on a boat crew. There are tons of boat-based travel jobs, most of which only last a few days to a few months. Your options include:

• Working on a fishing boat
• Delivering boats/yachts from one place to another
• Being on staff on a private yacht

What boat job you take depends on your skills and experience. For example, working on a fishing boat requires intensive physical labor but usually doesn’t require you to actually drive the boat. On the other hand, delivering boats from port to port obviously does.

Where to get started

• Find a Crew
• Bluewater Yachting
• Crewfinders

5. Be a photographer

Estimated income: $19–$25 per hour

A photography side hustle (or full-time photography career) is a great way to make money on the go. To take your photography gig on the road, consider taking pictures of:

• Private events
• Company events
• Landscapes
• Famous monuments
• Cruise ship guests and activities*

*Note that working as a cruise ship photographer will take you away from home for longer periods of time, as you’ll need to be traveling on the ship as a full-time employee.

You can also find work traveling with a company or individual as their personal photographer for an event, or you can simply take great photos and sell them online.

Where to get started

• Etsy
• Upwork
• ShootProof
• SmugMug
• Shutterstock

As mentioned, you can also apply for photographer roles that will require a lot of travel. You can look for work on sites like Indeed and LinkedIn.

If you really have the travel bug and want to stay abroad for a year or more, check out these five gigs that can fund your long-term travels.

6. Teach English abroad

Estimated income: $1,500–$2,500 per month (highly dependent on the country you teach in)

If you travel abroad, you’ll find that many of the Americans you meet fall into one of three categories: retirees, digital nomads, or English teachers. If the last option speaks to you, then you’re in luck. Teaching English abroad is one of the easiest and most fulfilling ways to move to another country for a year or more.

To teach abroad, most countries require you to be a native English speaker or have native-level fluency, possess a college degree, and be TEFL-certified. Other qualifications will vary by country, as will pay rates, teaching standards, and whether or not accommodation is provided.

Where to get started

• TEFL
• Cultural Exchange Project
• Go Overseas
• Country-specific English teaching jobs boards

7. Be an instructor

Estimated income: $25–$35 per hour

Share your skills with others and enjoy some time abroad by becoming an international instructor. Two popular routes of instruction for American expats are yoga instruction and diving instruction.

These two fields provide tons of opportunities abroad, especially in Central and South America, Oceania, and Southeast Asia. Keep in mind that you’ll most likely be instructing tourists like yourself, so you’ll spend a lot of time speaking English and interacting with other Americans.

Where to get started

• Institute of Marine Research
• PADI Job Board
• Yoga Trade
• Indeed

8. Work on a cruise ship

Estimated income: $20–$30 per hour

Take to the seas for the better part of a year by working on a cruise ship. As you might imagine, cruise ships require many staff members who work on a very wide variety of jobs. Cruise ships feature opportunities to work in:

• Retail
• Customer service
• Food & beverage
• Management
• Entertainment
• Cleaning
• Technical maintenance

Not only will a cruise job take you out on the ocean and from country to country, but you’ll get food and accommodations provided.

Where to get started

• Carnival Cruises
• Princess Cruises
• Royal Caribbean 
• Disney Careers

9. Be a tour guide

Estimated income: $15–$25 per hour

Share your passion and knowledge with others by being a tour guide.

Are you well-versed in Renaissance art? Have a thing for Singaporean street food? Know the architectural ins and outs of Buenos Aires? Join a tour company or start your own to make money while spending time in your favorite places.

In fact, these days, many people are leading their own tours or experiences (e.g., cooking classes, pub crawls, bike rides, etc.) through Airbnb, making it easier than ever to start your own tour service.

Where to get started

• Airbnb (look up Airbnb Experiences)
• Greenheart Travel
• Indeed
• Anywork Anywhere

10. Apply for a digital nomad visa

Estimated income: N/A (depends on your work)

If you already work online (or in an industry where you can easily find online work), you can keep your job and your paycheck and apply to live abroad on a digital nomad visa. These are increasingly popular, and each country has their own requirements that you have to meet to qualify for one.

Popular destinations that offer digital nomad visas include:

• Croatia
• Portugal
• Greece
• The Bahamas
• Mexico
• Costa Rica
• Dubai
• Taiwan
• Thailand
• Namibia

This is just a sampling of the 40+ countries that currently offer digital nomad visas. Again, the visa depends on the country, but most offer a minimum stay of one year with opportunities to extend.

Subsidize your travels by making money with a side hustle that can be done remotely.

11. Become a freelance writer

Estimated income: $25–$35 per hour

If you’re looking for maximum flexibility, becoming a freelance writer is one of the first side hustles you should consider. The freelance writing field has tons of opportunities for people writing about many different industries (and writers of every experience level).

Freelance writing jobs are abundant and flexible. As long as you can make your writing deadlines, you probably won’t need to overlap your schedule with anyone else’s, meaning you can write from wherever, whenever.

Where to get started

• Upwork
• Fiverr
• Freelancer
• WritersWork
• Contently

12. Be a virtual assistant

Estimated income: $25–$40 per hour

If you’d rather not travel on a shoestring budget and lean towards the luxury travel experience, being a virtual assistant might be one of the best travel-friendly side hustles for you. Why? Because it’s one of the better paying gigs out there—especially if you don’t have experience.

As a virtual assistant (VA), you’ll help manage a company or individual’s goings-on. Some VA gigs require you to work the same hours as your employer, especially if you’re assigned a lot of admin or daily operations management tasks. Other gigs let you set your own schedule (e.g., VA jobs that focus on social media, project management, or data entry).

Where to get started

• Time etc
• Prialto
• Upwork
• Randstad
• Virtual Coworker

13. Provide digital services

Estimated income: $5–$50 per hour

Sell your services online and enjoy total control over your job description, schedule, and pay rate. If you have any special skills that can be performed digitally, you can probably find a paying audience on platforms like Fiverr and Upwork.

Popular digital services include web design, development, SEO, data analysis, consulting, editing, and illustration. However, there’s no end to the types of work you can list online and get paid to do.

Where to get started

• Fiverr
• Upwork
• Flexjobs

14. Be a social media manager

Estimated income: $20–$40 per hour

If you’re going to work while on vacation, you might as well make money right from your phone. One possibility is to work in social media management. Websites and companies are always looking for internet-savvy people to help run their social media campaigns, generate new content ideas, and schedule posts.

Social media doesn’t even need to be your full-time job. There are lots of job postings for part-time social media managers or freelancers who can work on an hourly or per-project basis.

Where to get started

• Fiverr
• Buffer
• Upwork
• FlexJobs

15. Teach or tutor online

Average rates: $15–$27 per hour

If you don’t want to commit to moving abroad as an English teacher, you can always teach English online and continue to travel and work on your own schedule. To teach in person, you’ll need a TEFL certificate (in most cases), but you can be an online English tutor without any special certifications.

If teaching English isn’t for you, you can still enjoy the scheduling and location flexibility of online teaching by tutoring people in an academic subject, music, or something else entirely. On platforms like Outschool, you can even design and teach your own course on a subject of your choice.

Where to get started

• Udemy
• Skillshare
• Cambly
• English Hunt
• Outschool

16. Transcription

Estimated income: $12–$22 per hour

This is another very flexible side hustle that works for even the most restless wanderer. Being a transcriptionist is a relatively simple side hustle that doesn’t require previous experience or special education, although it does require you to be a fast typist.

As a transcriptionist, you’ll be given audio or video files to listen to or watch. You’ll play them and carefully transcribe what you hear into a script. Transcription can take on many forms, like transcribing podcasts and tutorials, taking down medical notes, or recording legal proceedings.

Where to get started

• Scribie
• TranscribeMe!
• SpeechPad
• CrowdSurf
• Rev

The hustles above are our top picks for jobs you can do while abroad or on the road, but the possibilities go on and on. If you want to make traveling part of your full-time career, you can explore jobs in hospitality or travel nursing, for instance.

If you just want the flexibility to live and work where you please or up and go when the mood strikes, there are thousands of remote jobs, freelance gigs, and online side hustles you can choose from. Check out our comprehensive list of side hustle ideas for more.

Today more than ever, you can make your travel dreams a reality—and you don’t have to wait until retirement to do so.