7 tips to get you to your next destination.

If you’re a world traveler, you’re likely familiar with the set of responses that come when you tell your friends that you’ve decided to pack a bag, quit your job, and skip town.

“I’m so jealous,” and “Ugh, you’re so lucky,” are often repeat offenders.

It’s a funny response. As if travel is something that chooses only the lucky ones and passes everyone else by. But in reality, long-term travel has nothing to do with luck. It’s a choice that involves involves a bit of planning and sacrifice, a willingness to forgo all things comfortable (especially mattresses), and a hefty amount of guts to just go.

The perception that long term travel is only for the privileged, the rich, or those with dual nationalities is flawed. Consider the fact that between 200,000 and 250,000 young people aged 16-25 do long-term travel (from 3 to 24 months) each year. In Europe, taking a “gap year” is considered by many to be a rite of passage, not an unattainable fantasy that only trust fund kids get to do.

The merits of long-term travel are hard to quantify and even harder to overstate. While saving up enough money beforehand is a much less risky undertaking, it’s also limiting in that your travels will come to an end when the money’s gone, which is usually a much shorter interval than the time you took to earn it.

So in the tradition of all those who have hit the road before us, we bring you the top ways to find low airfare, book a one way ticket and travel the world for free, or at least for as much as you’d be spending at home.

TEFL: If you’re reading this sentence, you have something that a vast majority of the world population really wants: the ability to speak intelligible English. A third of China’s population (roughly 400 million people) are currently learning English and they want people like you to teach it to them. The acronym TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) is a blanket term that refers to teaching English abroad in a general sense; there is no one set way to get certified as a TEFL teacher nor is there a requirement to speak the language of the host country. Once you are certified—which you can do at home or abroad—hiring practices depend on the nation or part of the world you wish to go to, and it’s important to do your research carefully. Passing a TEFL Certification course means you can work a variety of jobs—from private language schools and tutoring to high school and universities—all while living in a foreign country.

Skill Share: Have a skill you can offer or teach to others? Maybe you can teach surfing, diving, or yoga, be an entertainer on a cruise ship or help re-design a resort? Search for resorts and vacation destinations in locations that appeal to you and reach out to to explain your qualifications and offer your services. Oftentimes in developing countries, hotels and resorts will be looking for high level professionals that they cannot find locally. In exchange for working, you may just get accommodation and food, but it’s a good way to start and you can always find more work once you get there.

WOOFing: The growth in interest in organic agriculture worldwide means that there are more opportunities than ever to travel and farm at the same time. Worldwide Opportunities in Organic Farming (WOOF) has networks in roughly 100 countries around the world, from coffee farms in Kona to dairy farms in South Africa. While WOOFing, you’re given food and accommodation (which isn’t necessarily plush), but it’s not for free. You will be expected to get your hands dirty and work hard, though you will hopefully be learning valuable skills and tenets or organic farming and gardening at the same time. There is no international WOOFing site; instead, you can search the various listings by the individual country websites and then make arrangements with a host whose requirements or setup suit you.

Go Off the Books: The biggest hurdle for a lot of people who want to stay away for a long time by working abroad is a getting the correct Visa to do so. While most countries do require a specific visa to get a proper job, it’s often the case that menial, off-the-books work is available if you know where to look. While this certainly depends on the country or city you’re in (big cities in developed countries are more likely to have employers that follow the rules), finding domestic/childcare, construction, promotional or part-time work in a hostel or bar is not an impossibility once you’re on the ground meeting locals and searching classifieds. To get a sense of what’s available before you go, start by searching Gumtree (which is similar to Craigslist, but used much more widely outside of the US). While it may not be a good plan to depend on this from the get-go, it’s certainly a way to extend your trip once you’re already in a country and your funds are running low.

Volunteer: There are countless options to volunteer abroad. However, some of them require that you pay more than just your costs, which while not always a scam, isn’t really necessary. Just be sure that the organization you’re on board with stands for something you actually believe in. Religious organizations aren’t going to be subtle about why they are in a given country, so don’t assume that you’ll be able to ignore religious undertones if that’s not something you really want to promote.

Travel Begets Travel: Perhaps the most beautiful thing you’ll find on the road are random friendships with people from all over the world. If you’ve never done it, you’ll be surprised how easy it is to make friends as a solo traveller—nearly everyone you meet is in the same mindset of possibility and self discovery. The upside of that of course, is that next time you want to hit the road, you’ll realize you have friends in New Zealand, Belgium, and Singapore, all of whom you met while staying in a seedy hostel in Amsterdam. If your new friends have offered a place to crash in the Southern Hemisphere somewhere down the line, don’t be shy about getting in touch—that’s the single most compelling reason to not delete your Facebook account. And just make sure you’re willing to do the same when they contact you.

Couch Surf: To an older generation, it might sound like a internet predators playground, but CouchSurfing is a remarkable community with nearly 4 million members worldwide with the primary motivation of meeting new and interesting people. Using it properly means creating an account (on which you include your mission, philosophy, interests, and skills you can offer) and, over time, acting as both guest and host while providing feedback and building credibility. There are security measures in place, and according to CouchSurfing CEO Daniel Hoffman, “We have had over six million positive experiences, with only a tiny fraction of one per cent negative.”  While it may not be the best way to secure accommodation for months at a time, it’s a great option for shorter trips once you’re already based somewhere for a few months.

There’s one thing you absolutely must have if you want to hit the road for an extended period of time: a willingness to make it work. It’s most definitely not going to be an easy ride and you will have moments where your plan is nonexistent and your funds are lingering in negative territory. But those moments—the ones that cultivate resourcefulness and resilience—are precisely why travel changes you as a person. They also make for the best stories down the line.

Flickr: Katerha

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If you’re new here, we’re on a road trip down the West Coast this summer with our sustainable clothing company, {r}evolution apparel. You can track our journey here!

This summer, we’ve talked a lot about sparking conversations. Our goal, when we set off on this Sustainable Fashion Tour, was to get people talking about fashion, consumption, and the environment.

We’ve met with industry insiders, people on the streets, CouchSurfing hosts, organic farmers, professors – you name it. And from each conversation, we’re learning something new about what it will take to spark change and start a movement.

With six weeks under our belts, this is what we’ve learned:

• People know all about local, organic food – the slow food movement is full speed ahead. But fashion? It’s early in the game. It’ll be awhile until we realize that a t-shirt is no different than a hamburger. You don’t hear people bragging about the $2 quarter-pounder they ordered – eventually, the same will go for a $2 t-shirt.

• It’s important to compromise. Change doesn’t happen overnight, and compromising will get you there quicker. We can’t be perfect in the choices we make, but we can be better. And it has to be a collaborative effort of many companies, organizations and people.

• We are a materialistic culture, but we are also quite detached from our material things. Our culture promotes “buy, buy, buy” without much thought as to where or how something is made. But that’s changing – we can see it. Stories are becoming more important in the way we shop.

• Enthusiasm is great, but action is what matters. To change an industry, we can’t just get excited about a revolution. We have to provide actionable steps for getting there. Conversation is just the first step.

This week’s video is a recap of where we’ve been and who we’ve met. We’ll be sharing more adventures in sustainable fashion next week, so stay tuned!

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Fashion writer Johanna Björk moves West, couchsurfing and eating good food the entire way.

Having lived on the East coast for eleven years, and New York City (NYC) for nearly five, I decided a few months ago that it was time to try out life in the West. Like many before me, I figured the perfect transition (and to get my car over there) would be to do a cross-country road trip. My man and I decided on the Northern route, mainly because it had less wildfires right around this time. To add a bit of a challenge to our trip, we decided that we would not eat in any mainstream chain restaurants or stay in any big-chain motels — only local mom-and-pop eateries (as healthy as we could find) and independent motels, or better yet, couchsurfing.

Day One: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio

We rolled out of the city around 10:30 on Labor Day morning. It was kind of sad to say goodbye to New York, a city that had been my home for such a long time, but by the approach to the Lincoln Tunnel, I was ready to go to greener, less crowded and stressful pastures.

A last look at the NYC skyline, seen from New Jersey.

We hit I-80 West and blazed through New Jersey, with “no stop ’til PA” as our motto, and we stuck to it. After a few hours our stomachs were growling for some lunch, but all we saw were rest stop signs for various fast food chains until Tannersville, where a small sign that said “Tandoor Palace” caught my eye. Tandoor Palaceturned out to be a restaurant, housed in an old train car outside a weathered Days Inn. The interior was part murky banquet hall and part colonial-era first class train car salon.We were lucky it was Labor Day, because there was a special buffet $12.95 for all you can eat Indian food, including naan bread and dessert. For a long-time New Yorker, this is a steal. Adding to our joy of finding Indian food was that besides us, there were about 80 (actual) Indian people there. “Must be really good,” we thought, as we filled our plates to the brim. It was very good, and the manager even gave us two cups of free coffee to take with us as we hit the road.

Eating well on the road is not easy, but sometimes you come across some pretty fantastic places, like Tandoor Palace.

All the way through Pennsylvania (which is a pretty wide state), we had a huge cloud of rainstorms looming above making this part of the trip less than joyful. Thankfully, I have been to Pennsylvania many times for work and have seen a lot of its picturesque countryside.

Rain and dark gloomy skies accompanied us all the way through Pennsylvania.

As we stopped for gas, it was starting to get dark, which meant it was high time to consider where we would spend the night. After some cheap motel searching that turned up nothing but Motel 6’s and expensive motels we decided to try out Couchsurfing. Neither of us had an account, so using my iPhone I signed up for one in the car and we started searching for couches in Cleveland, since that was the nearest major city.

We were both amazed at how many we found, and sent requests to a few of the ones that sounded like our kind of people. We had little hope, since it was fairly last minute (it was about 7:30pm and we needed a place for that same night), but just a short while later one of them called us back. The man on the phone, Steven, said that we were very welcome to come crash at his place, gave us recommendations for what neighborhood to go for some good food and said he and his wife would come join us for a beer.

Cleveland by night.

After a quick loop around downtown Cleveland we drove over a bridge adorned with two gigantic statues — it felt almost like they belonged in Lord of the Rings or that latest Thor movie — and took us to the West Side. This part of town used to be independent and called Ohio City, a name you still see used a lot. We found an open parking spot right next to a place called Market Garden Brewery. They brew beers in-house and grow their own produce in a garden out back. I ordered the wheat beer, which was delicious, and we split a market salad and three shrimp tacos.

The Market Garden Brewery in Ohio City. The large neon sign that says “BEER” may have helped to draw us in.

Dinner: a delicious, locally grown, salad.

Market Garden also brews many different kinds of beer.

Enjoying a delicious, house-made wheat beer. Life is good.

Our couchsurfing hosts showed up right as we had finished our meal, and we shared another beer. On our way back to their house, they took us by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Since we would not have time to go, at least we had seen it from the outside. They lived in a place a few minutes outside town called Cleveland Heights. To our great joy, our bed for the evening was located on a sleeping porch, complete with Japanese ceiling lanterns. As we fell asleep to the soothing sound of crickets right outside the screened doors, I could not help but think that this, although my first, was definitely not my last couchsurfing experience.

Day Two – Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa

We awoke to the smell of coffee, which was being freshly brewed in our hosts’ kitchen. After a cup or two and some good conversation, Steven took us to see the old knitting mill, where Ohio Knitting Mills, the heritage clothing company he is working to revive, was located. Awestruck by all the amazing textiles, we stayed a bit longer than our schedule really allowed, but it was definitely worth it. And I came away with a few great pieces of vintage (but never worn!) knits from the 1960s.

We began the day with a visit to Ohio Knitting Mills, an old heritage clothing brand that our Couchsurfing host is in the midst of reviving.

It was great to see the more industrial parts of Cleveland. It was obvious that this is a town where they like to make things.

Before hitting the highway, we stopped at Aladdin’s Baking Company, a Middle Eastern bakery (recommended by our host), to get some hummus, tabouleh and pitas for the road. Despite executing the utmost carefulness, I managed to spill everything I could possible spill on my tights and tank. That’s just a part of any road trip I guess. We blazed through the remainder of Ohio as well as Indiana, stopping only once for a rest room break and tea/coffee.

On the road again: The Ohio Turnpike, aka I-80/90, toward Indiana.

Indiana farm country.

Midway through Indiana we saw a big truck dousing a field of corn in pesticides — a grim reminder of the (non-organic) reality behind many of these vast fields that surround the highway on both sides.

Beautiful skies on the approach to Iowa City.

Before entering Illinois we passed by the exit for Gary, Indiana, the birth place of Michael Jackson. It was crazy to see the quaint two-lane highway we had been traveling on thus far turn into a full-on five-lane freeway as we got closer to Chicago. Thankfully we did not get stuck in traffic, and continued on through the entire state. We had our sights set on reaching Des Moines, Iowa before finding a room for the night. We only made it to Iowa City and in accordance with my “no chain hotels” policy, got a room at a small mom-and-pop motel. Unfortunately the rooms smelled like someone had been chain-smoking in there for about three decades, so we asked for our money back and checked in at the only other option around, a medieval-themed Best Western. Gargoyles greeted us at the gates and there was a small mote (with gold fish swimming in it) and a draw bridge at the entrance to the lobby. Come on, that’s pretty cool. Even if it happened to be a Best Western, it certainly wasn’t a mainstream one.

The Cantebury Inn, our medieval-themed home for the night.

Day Three – Iowa, Nebraska

After a late start, we again found ourselves driving through endless corn fields. I had a strong desire to stop the car and run through the corn rows to really embrace the being in the middle of America, but I figured the people around here might have guns and it would be best to resist.

Picturesque Iowa corn fields.

The monotonous corn-field driving-meditation was quickly interrupted when we were pulled over by a police car despite driving only about 2 mph over the speed limit (on cruise control). After being separately interrogated about who we are, what we do, where we are going and what’s in all those bags in the bag, we were let go with a warning. Still confused and startled (I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been interrogated by police), we came to the conclusion that we had been culturally profiled — two kind of hippie-looking people in a MINI Cooper with New York State plates, stuffed with suitcases.

Pulled over by the police in Iowa. Driving a MINI Cooper with New York plates and lots of luggage is apparently suspicious here.

After a few more hours we entered Nebraska, and even though I don’t eat steak I felt like a visit to an old school Omaha steak house was warranted. After some Yelp-ing, I found a place called The Drover, that had all kinds of people raving about the steaks and complaining about the decor being dated — perfect. The place turned out to be everything we had hoped for. Located behind some kind of hospital, the space was dark and looked like it had not changed at all since the early 70s — lots of dark wood and brick walls. There were several small rooms with about four tables each and another room that housed the bar. All the patrons seemed to be older locals or business men passing through.

The Drover in Omaha, Nebraska.

Great early 70s decor and whiskey-marinated steaks (if you’re into that kind of thing).

Since I don’t eat meat I decided to go with the mushroom burger but was sort of confused when the waiter asked how I wanted it cooked. “You mean you cook it different ways?” I asked, still not catching on to what was going on here. “Yeah,” he said, with the incredible patience of someone who caters to a lot of tourists, “you can have it well-done or more raw, up to you.” Finally the light went on in my head. This was not a mushroom burger as in veggie burger, but an actual hamburger with mushrooms on it. “Oh, so it’s a MEAT burger?!” I asked, instantly aware of how strange that sounded in an establishment such as this one. How funny it is that after living in New York for so long you just assume that every place like this has a veggie burger option, clearly it is not so in most parts of the country. The waiter kindly agreed to make me a baked potato with sauteed mushrooms on top, which I had with the (very well-stocked) salad bar. It was actually a very satisfying meal. The great thing about steak houses in that they usually have really good red wine, which was true in this case as well, and also meant that we would not drive any further today.

Enjoying a glass of great red wine and a baked potato with mushrooms, after realizing that a mushroom burger in these parts of the country is not what I think it is.

Tired and stuffed we used the Kayak app to find a (non-mainstream) hotel for the night and came across one called Carol Hotel that was in our price range (cheap as possible) and closeby. Something about the type looked strangely familiar and when we got there I realized that this used to be a Clarion Hotel and that the (very clever) new owners had chosen the name based on how they could scramble and reuse the letters in the neon sign on the facade. Very creative recycling.

The Carol Hotel in Omaha, Nebraska displayed some pretty creative reuse of neon signage.

As always when in hotel rooms, I fell asleep watching TV, happy that we were only halfway through our cross-country journey. 1,246 miles down, 1,626 to go.

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