9 Travel Jobs That Will Enrich Your Life

9 Best Traveling Jobs That You Will Actually Enjoy

Since the invention of airplanes, you no longer had to drive or voyage for weeks just to travel to a different country or continent.

But only the tiniest sliver of the population had both the finances and the time to do any meaningful travel on even a semi-regular bases.

However, the internet has set off the 2nd great revolution in travel.

Not only can you seek out thousands of remote jobs outside your area that primarily involve travel, but you can also launch and grow a small, location-independent business from your laptop!

What this means is that more people than ever can adopt a nomadic lifestyle and travel the world without going broke.

Interested in seeing the world but want to afford a comfortable lifestyle while doing so?

In this article, we’ll look at a ton of ways to make a living while traveling; we’ll look at both traditional employment (such as working for an airline) and online, location-independent businesses (like freelancing).

So if you have a case of “wanderlust” but want to be able to fund that “wanderlust”, take a look at all these gigs that’ll give you the freedom to travel and the funds to afford to do so.

1. Travel Blogger

Yes, you can make money blogging about anything if you put in the work.

If you’re frugal with your finances, on a fitness journey, or consider yourself a foodie, you can make money writing about any of those while traveling.

But what better topic to blog about while traveling the world than, well, travel?

There are two routes you can take to become a travel blogger:

Each route has it’s pros and cons.

Blog For A Company

The greatest benefit of travel blogging for an established business is the guaranteed income.

Since it’s a job, it comes with a paycheck and your travel is usually paid for (since it’s part of the job).

No need to worry about managing your income and expenses nearly as much as running your own travel blog; that’s all taken care of by the company.

This is good because you don’t need to bank a ton of savings and work for months/years building an audience before you can travel extensively.

But there’s one obvious downside to this route

The income limit;

Whether you’re an employee or a freelancer writing for an established travel blog, your pay is generally set in stone.

Which leads us to the next form of traveling blogging…

Start Your Own Blog

For the more free-spirited “digital nomads”, you can quite quickly set up your own travel blog.

Be warned, though: these take a lot of time and effort before you start making a real living from them.

First of all, you have to identify your target audience. Early 20’s young professionals with lots of energy tend to have a different idea of travel than retirees who just want to relax.

From there, you need to build your blog up.

Other types of blogs might take a few months before gaining traction, but travel blogs might take much longer if you aren’t able to travel full-time just yet.

Speed up the process by banking/investing every possible cent so you can quit your current gig without going broke 2 months into travel blogging.

Then once it’s growing, you need to monetize the blog so you can fund your travels:

No matter what you do, it’s critical that you provide extremely value-heavy information.

Travel blogs are everywhere; you most likely won’t beat out massive company blogs, so try to niche down if you’re especially interested in a specific type of travel.

Although the prospect of blogging for yourself sounds a lot scarier, the upsides are enormous if you put in the work.

For one, your earning potential is almost unlimited.

After working at your blog for a long time and gaining a dedicated fan base, you’ll start making a regular income that increases as more readers begin following your blog.

And as your popularity grows, you can raise prices on your own products as well.

All this can lead to a significant income.

Thousands of travel blogs make at least $3,000 per month (or about $36,000/year), which is enough to comfortably get by in most countries.

But as we said, the earnings can really skyrocket.

In fact, some of the leading travel blogs (all started by individuals such as yourself) regularly pull in multiple six figures!

Just be sure you’re truly passionate about travel. Not only is it hard to stay dedicated to a blog you don’t enjoy, but people don’t want to follow a faker. You need to actually enjoy travelling and writing about travelling for people to become rabid fans.

Either Route Will Lead To A Great Lifestyle

No matter if you write or freelance for an established blog or you start your own, you’ll gain access to quite the lifestyle.

You’ll get to experience new cultures, see beautiful sights, try exotic foods, and get paid (quite handsomely after months of consistent work) to do it all!

And really, if you’re truly an avid traveler, you could easily be putting away six figures just blogging about your life if you go the “create your own blog” route.

It’ll almost feel like a permanent vacation if you do it right.

2. Virtual Assistant

Businesses exists to maximize profits for their owners/shareholders, not to spend countless hours doing administrative work like data entry and scheduling.

And so, an entire industry exists for administrative assistants.

But the internet made that industry much more accessible to people interested in making money performing essential but low-ROI tasks for businesses.

Someone who does this over the net is called a virtual assistant, or VA for short.

Virtual assisting is one of the best ways to make money while traveling for a few reasons.

First of all, VA work is by definition done remotely.

You don’t need to show up to the office every morning to handle your client’s administrative tasks; rather, just crack open your laptop and get to work from the beach, your favorite coffee shop, or even you own bed!

And because you don’t need to be in an office for a set number of hours every week, you can take on multiple clients if you’re a fast worker.

This flexibility allows you to strike the balance between workload and free time that fits you individual desires.

That also means you get to control your income.

Got extra free time in between trips? Pick up some extra work to save money for your next adventure.

But the best thing about being a VA is the predictability of traditional employment is still built in to the job.

It does take more self-discipline to get your work done when you’re traveling the world vs. having a boss peer over your shoulder every day, but the workflow tends to be more steady and predictable than other forms of self-employment or online business.

If you’re looking for a gig that gives you the financial and temporal freedom to travel while still providing some level of traditional employment predictability, working as a VA just might strike your fancy.

3. Course Creator

Online courses are a fantastic way to monetize your unique knowledge and perspective on a subject.

They take a bunch of up front time, energy, and sometimes a little cash; but once it’s made, you set it and mostly forget it.

Your course doesn’t need to be travel-related, nor do you need a bunch of fancy certifications to create an online course.

All you need is some coveted knowledge and willingness to do the work.

Similar to every other business model, a successful online course business requires sufficient market research.

You could be the world’s leading expert on underwater basket-weaving, but you won’t make any money if you’re the only underwater basket-weaving enthusiast on the planet!

If your idea is viable, you should outline your course; it’s never a good idea to start creating the course with no outline as it’ll take much longer with constant revision and editing of the course materials.

An outline makes creating the actual content very straightforward.

Now, you could make a text course if you hate your voice on video.

But trust us, you’re course will do best if your audience can at hear and see you (or see your slides) AND you include some text-based worksheets.

Again, you don’t need a PhD to make money from your knowledge.

Are good at Excel? Programming? Writing? Cooking?

If it’s a hobby of your’s and there’s a market of hungry customers that want to know how to do it, then there’s money to be made.

Once you’ve finished making your course, you can either set up your own website and attempt to drive traffic to it or you could make an account with course platforms and upload your course there.

Some of these platforms include

And many more depending on your needs and preferences.

Believe it or not, there are people out there who make an amazing full-time living from courses (similar to blogging).

But it never hurts to diversity; if you have a bunch of free time during your main gig, a solid online course could pay you a generous second income to hedge you against job loss or financial disaster.

4. Teaching English Abroad

English is the “lingua franca” of the world, meaning that it’s dominant means of communication between people who speak different languages.

Being the dominant global language that it is, there are abundant opportunities to teach English around the globe and get paid for it.

Teaching English abroad gives you many personal AND professional benefits:

Of course, make sure your English skills are razor sharp.

However, you also need to have the qualities of a great teacher.

English in the US and other primarily English-speaking countries comes fairly naturally to most as it’s the language they grow up with. It’s not really a “foreign” language.

But in countries where English isn’t widely-spoken, it sounds almost as foreign to those people as French, Russian, or Chinese would sound to someone who’s never studied a language outside of English.

Therefore, you need to be a very understanding, considerate, and compassionate individual to succeed at teaching English abroad.

Now you might be thinking “don’t I need a teaching or English degree and a bunch of experience to teach English abroad?”

Lucky for you, a teaching degree is not required, nor is an English degree.

Heck, you don’t even need to have teaching experience (although it helps to have some).

All you need is a degree of some sort and to be fluent in English.

So yes, your economics degree is enough to qualify you to teach English abroad.

Assuming you’re decent with the English language, of course.

5. Travel Agent

One of the most direct roles in the travel industry is the role of travel agent.

By the very nature of their job, travel agents need to be fairly well-traveled in their niche if they want to succeed.

If you decide on working as a travel agent, you can seek out employment at a travel agency or you can just start your own.

We’d recommend working for a travel agency first before hanging your own shingle, however.

After all, you’ll want to know the ins and outs of how they work for maximum success on your own.

Now, being a travel agent doesn’t automatically win you tons of paid travel opportunities. Most of the time, it’s up to you to travel and gain knowledge of the places you’ll be recommending to clients.

However, there’s one slight upside: you may be able to write of vacations IF your record-keeping is good enough.

That’s not tax advice, however; consult with a Certified Public Accountant or Enrolled Agent before writing off vacation as a business expense.

The IRS knows people will try to get away with writing off multiple lavish vacations if they’re in the travel industry, and so they keep a very close eye on those individuals.

Either way, if you can launch your own location-independent travel agency, then you can kill 2 birds with 1 stone: travel all over the world and get better at your craft!

6. Cruise Ship Staff

Many gigs that allow you to travel only do so because the remote nature of the job allows you to work from wherever.

But what if you got paid specifically to travel the world and experience tons of different locales and cultures?

That’s all possible if you land a job on a cruise ship.

Admittedly, cruise ship staff don’t make much money.

However, almost everything is paid for:

To put it simply: you might not make more than a modest salary, but you can easily bank almost your entire paycheck since you’ll have virtually no expenses.

Not to mention that many cruise companies will give their employees massive discounts on cruises after you’ve worked there for a significant amount of time.

Take advantage of these if you have a family that loves to travel; these discounts can save you thousands!

Unfortunately, you’ll still have to pay any land-based expenses like car or loan payments when you’re working on a cruise ship; it’s best to get all your land-based financial obligations taken care of before you set sail.

Also, you will have to spend a little money up front for certain basic items like toiletries, clothing, and travel to your ship.

These expenses pale in comparison to the money you save as a cruise ship worker, though.

So what types of jobs can you work on a cruise ship?

Well, there are many; let’s start with the “least” desirable (albeit still good) positions and move up the ladder.

One of the simplest job areas to snag a position in would be hospitality.

If you have any service industry experience (whether that be food service, steward services, or even reception experience) then it shouldn’t be too hard to get one of these jobs.

Cleaning staff positions are especially easy to land, but they aren’t desirable because you might be stuck cleaning guest cabins while they’re exploring whatever port of call you’re docked at.

In other words, you won’t get to head for land and explore the locale.

Anyways…

Some more fun cruise ship jobs include

Of course, those types of positions usually require more advanced/industry-specific experience; but that also means higher pay if you have said experience.

Now, one downside to cruise ship employment is that your job won’t always feel like a vacation.

Cruise ship hours can be quite long (after all, you need to be available A LOT to cater to guests’ every whim); it’s not hard to put in 50+ hours in many cruise ship positions.

But on the bright side, you’ll bank a ton more money that you don’t need to spend for putting in a bit of overtime.

Overall, cruise ship staff have a great gig; decent pay, almost all expenses paid for, discounts for friends/family, and you get to travel the world.

7. Airplane Pilot

Traveling the world by ocean not for you?

Well, the next best thing would be traveling by air.

Being a pilot is one of the greatest gigs if you want to get paid for traveling.

Depending on the type of flying you’d like to do, you can focus on one of the following:

Private pilots are the easiest certifications to get, but you’re not allowed to earn money for your services so we won’t talk about private piloting.

Commercial and airline pilots are the flying gigs that will pay you.

Let’s start with commercial flying.

Commercial Flying

Commercial piloting can be a comfortable gig that offers decent travel opportunities.

As a commercial airline pilot, you could have a variety of duties:

Commercial pilots start out earning a bit over $40,000 on average, which is pretty good for a job that lets you move around so much.

To become a commercial pilot, you’ll need to earn your commercial pilot license. This usually involves having a bachelor’s degree in any field and then completing flight school at an FAA-ceritified institution.

Then once you’re finally in the air, you’ll need to stay on top of your game by maintaining a high level of skill in multiple different maneuvers; in addition, you’ll be subject to ongoing training (kind of like continuous education in other industries) and periodic medical exams.

Airline Pilots

At the pinnacle are airline pilots.

They fly planes for major and minor airlines, meaning they’re responsible for transporting passengers and cargo around the country and around the world.

Any time you’ve flown on a plane to go on vacation, you plane was piloted by an airline pilot.

Most people start out as commercial pilots and move on to an airline position with experience.

If you’re willing to work hard for years to accumulate flight experience to become an airline pilot, the effort is well-worth the reward.

The median pay for airline pilots is almost $130,000 a year!

Compare that to the almost $78,000 (which still isn’t anything to laugh at) median wage that commercial pilots make, and you can see that sticking it out in the industry really does pay off.

8. Flight Attendant

Don’t want to go through the long process of becoming a pilot, but still want to travel by air?

Flight attendant positions require much less education and training than pilot positions.

In fact, you aren’t even trained to be a flight attendant until you’re actually hired by an airline!

The bare minimum requirements for being a flight attendant is a GED from high school.

But most airlines want you to have a college degree in a field like communications or hospitality/tourism, as well as some relevant service-industry experience.

In addition, due to the nature of the job (working on a giant flying piece of metal with human beings on board), flight attendancy comes with some strict on-the-job requirements.

Many of them are physical (being tall enough, being able to lift heavy luggage, being able to stand for extended periods of time).

You also need to pass an extensive background check, pre-employment drug screen, and criminal record check.

Not only that, but your customer service skills must be impeccable since you’ll be interacting with hundreds of passengers (many of them anxious or nervous) on a daily basis.

Only then can you be hired and begin training as a flight attendant.

Now, being a flight attendant is hard work at first.

For anywhere from 1-7 years after starting a flight attendant career, you are essentially on call in case you need to sub in for absent crew members or be available for extra flights.

However, if you can make it through that and move up the ranks, you can start picking which flights you want to serve on.

And of course, your pay will increase as well.

Although the job doesn’t pay as much, flight attendancy is a great way to pay the bills while traveling WITHOUT spending years gaining an extensive education

9. Nanny

Until you read this article, you might not have known that there is a market for travelling nannies.

That’s right; it’s possible to acquire nanny “clients” outside of your neighborhood.

But it gets better: there are actually agencies you can work with to find nannying assignments all over the world! Here’s an example of one.

Your main responsibility as a travel nanny will be tending to the children of vacationing parents WHILE they’re on vacation.

That means if the parents want to relax and tan on the beach but the kids want to go to the hotel arcade, you’d accompany them there so the parents can relax without a bunch of crying children running around.

Landing one of these jobs is harder than you think.

You can’t just be “good with kids”; you’re going to be spending a ton of time in close quarters with strangers, so you have to be an excellent people person.

But beyond that, your personality also has to fit well with the personality of your client.

If you guys struggle to get along, they won’t hire you (and if they do, everyone’s life will not be fun for the duration of the vacation).

Normal nanny jobs are much easier to snag than travel nannying, so we’d suggest start there first and get a little experience that you can use to sell yourself to a prospective travel nanny client.

And of course, work through an agency when you’re just starting out. They’ll help you find clients when you don’t have a large body of previous clients to back up your nanny abilities.

Travel nannies don’t have the same opportunity to pull huge paychecks like less service-oriented businesses, but they easily make above $50,000 with some experience.

With that salary, nannying children while traveling the world is a pretty decent gig, all things considered.

Get Paid To See The World

With increasing globalization, there are more opportunities than ever to travel the world without having to put in years of disciplined money savings.

Although a few gigs on this list require more advanced skills/certifications, most of them don’t require much more than an application and some elbow grease.

This list, albeit quite long, is by no means exhaustive either. There are so many other gigs out there, but we just compiled the ones we thought were the best in terms of pay, freedom, or cultural enrichment.

Of course, these types of jobs are better suited to young single individuals as they tend to have less responsibilities and more of a “travel the world” mindset than those with families to care for.

Also, we recommend doing more thorough research on these before you commit to doing them; we can’t tell you EVERYTHING about every job on here (there’s simply too much to talk about), but now you should know enough of the essentials to pick one that sounds interesting to you.

So if you want to experience the world outside your local area and get paid while doing so, pick one of these gigs and dig deep into it.

Sooner or later, you could be getting paid to sit on a beach and work on your laptop!

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