January 3, 2025, 7:08 pm | Read time: 12 minutes

Many travel enthusiasts dream of being on the road for longer than their vacation days allow. During her travels, TRAVELBOOK author Anna Wengel (now Chiodo) has come across several work models that make permanent travel possible. Which work types and jobs are suitable.

Model 1: Taking Your Job With You When Traveling

The sea crashes in waves, my feet feel warm sand under my soles, someone brings a coconut or a plate with local delicacies on it. All I can hear is the sea and the rhythmic tapping of my fingers on the laptop keyboard, dancing across the keys, inspired by the surroundings. This is roughly how I had imagined my life as a traveling author. And it was often similar. I often found the setting in a similar form (and quickly realized that sand and laptop are a stupid combination). Far more frequently than the idyllic beachside hammock or table, my travel office reality takes the form of a car.

Whether coaching or writing, I regularly sit in some four-wheeled vehicle, at best on a huge cliff overlooking the sea, but sometimes also in a gray parking lot on a highway, and work. This entails finding a spot to anchor my recharged phone, repeatedly checking if the mobile router is operational or if the local SIM card has enough data to sustain an hour-long video chat with a client. Or I’m writing texts with my laptop on my lap or somehow balanced between my knees, which I then send to magazines and agencies in Germany. When total silence isn’t a necessity, a bustling café, a cozy restaurant, or even a park bench suffice for my mobile office needs.

The model of working on a laptop while traveling was already spreading rapidly before the coronavirus pandemic. But since then, the concept of working beyond the confines of an office has become more commonplace, even though travel itself has temporarily waned. During the many lockdowns, many people continued to work from the comfort of their couch at home. During the crisis, many became very creative and suddenly created all kinds of learning spaces online. It is, therefore, not surprising that it is now even easier to work while traveling.

Here are a few jobs that you can take with you when you travel:

Freelancers in the Online Sector

Freelancers who work in the online sector and are not necessarily tied to an editorial team, agency, or office basically only need a laptop, a working internet connection, and occasional electricity to do their job.

These are some of the jobs that come into question:

• Journalist and author
• Social Media manager
• Online coach or psychologist
• Translator
• Web developer
• Graphic designer
• Language teacher

Fitness Trainers, Yoga and Pilates Instructors

In addition to classes and individual lessons on site, more and more fitness trainers, yoga and Pilates instructors are also offering their lessons online. Some also combine the two, teaching people in one place while being filmed and sending the results live to people elsewhere in the world. This trend has also increased during the pandemic.

Travel Photographer and Cameraman

Traveling to the most beautiful places in the world to capture them in the best possible light—the photography profession is still one of the absolute dream travel jobs. Of course, freelance work is also an option here, but not too many people can make a living from independent travel photography alone. It is easier for salaried photographers and cameramen who travel abroad for productions together with a team of editors and technicians. Cameramen in particular are likely to be well booked for the many expatriate programs on German TV. Those who are good with a photo drone are also in good hands.

Travel Bloggers and Influencers

Many people do it alongside their normal job or only when they are traveling: writing a travel blog. But you can also do it professionally and earn money with it. Travel bloggers generate income by recommending products and services that they themselves use on their travels, known as affiliate marketing.

Model 2: Working on Location

This is the model that I have always had in mind, especially living in Portugal, and which is completely normal, especially in popular vacation destinations. Many travel enthusiasts go somewhere and look for a job that earns them the necessary travel money. Several friends of mine, for example, regularly live in different places and work as yoga teachers in studios, spas, or guesthouses.

Basically, you can do just about any job you do at home, anywhere else in the world. It may require a little retraining or creativity, but it is feasible with most professions. Depending on the scope, duration, and location, you may need a work permit.

These jobs work well abroad:

Surf, Yoga and Ski Instructor

If you love sports such as surfing or skiing, you can turn your passion into a career. You can be in the waves or mountains all the time, but sometimes have to change location depending on the season. As a yoga teacher, it’s even easier, as you can work anywhere off- and online.

Doctors and Nurses

Doctors and nurses, particularly those with a solid education, are in demand globally. If you have already completed this training and would like to work abroad, you can apply directly to hospitals and medical stations, or contact organizations such as “Doctors without Borders“.

Au Pair

Want to go to another country after school before starting university? A classic option is to work as an au pair. For most people, this means moving in with another family and looking after the children and the household. But even those who are a few years older can work as an au pair.

Harvest Helpers

Another classic gap year job is picking fruit in exciting countries such as Australia and New Zealand. This is called “work and travel” and often includes accommodation during working hours, for example on a farm.

Archaeologist

If you love history and traveling, and enjoy searching for treasures, you could become an archaeologist. Of course, there are also excavation sites in Germany. But ancient sites in Greece or Italy or the Mayan ruins in South America are probably much more exciting.

Geologist

If you are more interested in the formation of the earth, volcanoes, and plate tectonics, you might find the profession of geologist exciting. Even during their studies, budding geologists travel the world to get to the bottom of all kinds of rock-related mysteries.

Travel Guide

Live in your favorite city abroad, get to know every corner of it, and pass on your (insider) knowledge to holidaymakers from home: For communicative people, the job of travel or city guide may be just the thing. Or you can work for a tour operator as a tour guide and regularly accompany tourists abroad. You have a good chance if you know the destination country well and speak the language.

Working in Hotels, Hostels and the Like

Tourist accommodation such as hotels and hostels are always looking for people to help keep things running. They work at the reception, make beds, clean, cook, wash dishes, and so on.

Working in Restaurants and Cafés

The situation in restaurants is similar to that in accommodation: There’s always a need for new people to bring or prepare food and drinks for guests or wash the dishes.

Beach Tester

Traveling the world and testing beaches—the best job in the world? The online portal Beach-Inspector.com is regularly looking for freelance beach testers and interns for various countries and regions. Simply visit the website from time to time to see if there are any vacancies, and maybe you’ll be lucky enough to become a beach tester soon.

Hotel Tester

Checking how much quality a hotel and its staff offer is the job of a hotel tester. How do you become one? There is no traditional training route. In most cases, it is management consultancies that are commissioned by first-class hotels to carry out tests. A degree in hotel management or training in the hotel sector is certainly helpful for applicants. In the broadest sense, the term hotel tester can also be applied to editors and authors of travel guides, travel magazines, or online travel portals who test hotels and then write reviews or recommendations.

Restaurant Tester

The job of a restaurant tester is similar to that of a hotel tester. They try out various restaurants, taste different dishes, but also check how the service is, and sometimes how the hygiene is. Restaurant testers also often work together with magazines. Some combine their passion for food with their own food blog and/or Instagram account.

Language Teachers

Language courses are in demand in many countries. English teachers are particularly sought after, for example, in Spain and Italy, but also in Africa and some Asian countries. To teach a language (or music, or IT, for example), you don’t necessarily have to be a qualified teacher or have studied. Information and offers can be obtained from Projects Abroad or the Central Agency for Schools Abroad (ZfA) of the Federal Office of Administration, for example. By the way: The profession of online tutor is similar and even more independent.

House Sitter

Jet-setting across the globe to care for stunning luxury homes and adorable pets is the delightful duty of a house sitter. You can register with “House Carers“, “Trusted Housesitters“, or “Mind my House“, for example. You can then apply for the relevant job advertisements and offer yourself as a house sitter. Since house sitting lets you live rent-free in others’ homes without earning an income, it’s better suited as a side gig. Or for freelancers who only need a laptop to work.

Model 3: Travel for the Job

Whether you’re a freelancer or a permanent employee, there are various jobs that sometimes require you to travel. These can be regular business trips, for example, to meet up with cooperation partners in other countries or to set up a new company location somewhere else. They can also be temporary jobs, such as retreats where you work as a teacher/trainer, coach, or masseur and are flown in. Or it may be the journey itself that is the job, such as these:

Pilot and Flight Attendant

Flying around the world in an airplane and traveling to foreign countries is a dream for many, which they fulfill in the professions of pilot or flight attendant.

Working on a Cruise Ship

Dozens of people work on large cruise ships in all kinds of areas: as technicians, in the service area, in the kitchen, or as entertainers. There are hairdressers, doctors, masseurs, lifeguards, and so on … Maybe there’s the right job for you, and you can transfer your profession from land to water.

Model 4: Sabbatical

I experienced the Sabbatical model with my mother a few years ago. She works as a medical assistant in a doctor’s office and really wanted to spend some time in Nepal. She didn’t just want to travel, she also wanted to work. That’s how she did it: for half a year she only received about half of her monthly salary at home; the other half of the year she was in Nepal and continued to be paid—with the other half of her salary. In Nepal, she then worked as a volunteer in a medical station.

Sabbaticals have become increasingly popular for some time now. There are various models. You can do as described or take unpaid leave if you have enough money. Or you can look for another job in the desired location. A colleague of mine is taking a classic sabbatical with split income. She travels a little and, above all, takes time to build up her own coaching business so that she can then work completely independently (of location).

More on the topic

Experience report You Want To Earn Money While Traveling? Here Are 11 Tips To Realize Your Dream

Experience report Travel Author Explains: ‘This Is How I Earn Money on Vacation’

How do I find a car, where can I park, … ? New Zealand in a Van: 5 Tips for a Perfect Road Trip

Model 5: Save Beforehand

Another friend of mine does it like this: First, he works at home in New Zealand for a whole year and lives a reasonably frugal life during this time. Then he takes all the money he has saved up and flies to Europe, South America, Southeast Asia, or wherever he wants to go, and stays where he wants to be. Because he keeps coming back and apparently does a good job, his boss allows him to do this again and again and now even pays huge bonuses, flights, and so on when he occasionally commits to longer periods. This also seems to work as a model.

This article is the third part in our series “Working while Traveling”. In the first part, our author Anna Wengel (now Chiodo) reports on her own experience as a traveling author (read part 1 here: Travel Author Explains: ‘This Is How I Earn Money on Vacation’). In the second part, Anna offers insights on turning the dream of traveling and working on the road into reality (Part 2: You Want To Earn Money While Traveling? Here Are 11 Tips To Realize Your Dream). Enjoy the dream—and the reality—of working on the road.