Gap Year resources

When I was doing my A-Levels my school had lots of leaflets and resources available to us from companies who organise gap year projects.  "Great!" we all thought, and some people signed up for such projects.  Teaching in India, trekking in the Andes, conservation projects in Borneo - awesome experiences.  

I am not trying to suggest getting involved in those companies are a "bad" idea - they are great projects, you get a bit more support and peace of mind knowing that in theory someone is responsible for you, and I would like to think they only take on projects which have decent ethics and sustainability.  

But in reality, a lot of them are far from the cheapest option.  The people I knew who went on organised trips ended up working at least half of their gap year in some dead end boring job here in order to finance it.  To me - you want to be spending as much of your gap year as is humanly possible actually out there having fun!  After all, it might the only chance in your whole life you get to experience that kind of freedom.  

Companies like this seem to charge at least £1000 for a 2 week project, though they do seem to be better value if you go for a lot longer. But there are in fact a lot of far far cheaper, or even free options out there.  Here are some of the resources I have either used, or intend to use on my future travels.

Project options (Im sure there are loads more sites like these out there...get looking!)

Workaway

Se7en

WWOOF

HelpX

Camp America ... read more about my experience here

CCUSA

Accommodation options

Hostel World

Hostel Bookers

Couchsurfing

I spent 7 months travelling on my gap year...and I spent less than £4000 including flights.  And if I had wanted to, I could probably have done just as much fun stuff for half the price if I had chosen cheaper countries and spent more time doing voluntary work.

Camp America...such fun!

So the moral of the story is, dont just blindly trust that the options you are given at school are necessarily the "only" options...or even the "best".  You have the freedom to completely choose your own path, probably for the first time in your life.  Use it wisely!