20 Best Ways to Get Paid to Travel the World in 2023

Can you really get paid to travel? Yes, there are a bunch of jobs that either pay you to travel or allow you to make money while traveling. Technology has opened up more opportunities than ever before so travel no longer has to be a pipe dream.

This post is going to cover the best-paid travel opportunities, remote side hustles, jobs for digital nomads, and how to get started. So pack your bags — we’re about to take off!

1. Proofreading

If you have a natural ability to spot grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes, proofreading is a great way to travel and make money. Proofreading has become a job you can do 100% remotely, and all you need is a laptop and internet connection, making it a great way to get paid while traveling.

Proofreading is an inherently remote skill, and you can take it virtually anywhere. Even now that so many proofreaders work while traveling, you can work anywhere with an internet connection, but there’s also software you can use to proofread offline when necessary.

2. Bookkeeping

Freelance bookkeepers help business owners record and manage daily financial transactions. This can include paying bills, managing payroll, and collecting payments. 

Bookkeepers need to be familiar with popular financial software like Quickbooks and know how to read and create balance sheets. Pay averages $20-$40/hour, and you can work online from wherever you are.

3. Freelance Writer

Freelance writing is a broad field that can encompass a number of different jobs including:

• Marketing campaigns
• Blog posts
• Email newsletters
• Online and print articles
• Catalog descriptions
• Ghostwriting
• Web copy
• Grant writing
• Technical writing
• Content mills
• Resumes

It can take a little time to build your portfolio and business, but freelance writers can realistically make $1,000 to $5,000+/month.

4. Start a Blog

Travel blogging is kind of the dream. Get paid to travel, take beautiful pictures, and look like all you do is sit on the beach with a drink in hand…

But it’s not that simple. Blogging takes a lot of work, and it can take a few years before you’re comfortably earning a living and able to travel wherever you want. For example, it took me about six months to make a dime from this blog, but now I’m running a 7-figure business and can travel anytime I want.

Traveling is full of profitable blog topics, such as budget travel, traveling with kids, RVing, road trips, travel hacking, and more. You aren’t limited to travel niches alone. You can start a blog about parenting, finances, food, fashion, etc., and still be able to travel.

If you’re interested in starting a blog, here are a few blog resources I highly recommend:

• Bluehost: This blog hosting service starts at $2.95/month when you sign up through my link, and it’s the exact service I used to start my WordPress blog.
• How to Start a Blog 2022: The Easy Step-By-Step Guide: Our guide will walk you through every step of starting a WordPress blog.
• Launch That Blog | Free Installation and Set-Up Service: When you sign up for Bluehost through my link, you can take advantage of Launch That Blog, our free installation and set-up service. Our team will install your self-hosted WordPress blog, install 10 essential plug-ins, give you free training resources, and more.

Bloggers make money in a variety of ways: affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, display ads, freelancing, course sales, and more. But the core of blogging is finding a topic that you can write about and use to connect with your audience.

5. TEFL Jobs

TEFL stands for teaching English as a foreign language, and this is a great option for recent college graduates who want to get paid to travel. You don’t need a degree in English, but you will need a bachelor’s degree and TEFL certification.

There are TEFL jobs in countries like:

• Italy
• United Kingdom
• Spain
• Portugal
• Iraq
• Poland
• Mexico

First-time TEFL teachers make $10-$20 USD per hour to start, but you can make up to $40 USD per hour.

6. Social Media Influencer

20 years ago, this job didn’t exist, but now you can get paid to travel as a social media influencer. The way it works is that social media influencers are paid by brands to promote specific services or products, and that can include travel-related ones.

Tourism boards, travel agencies, hotel chains, and more all pay influencers with paid travel and cash. You’ll need to build up your following and reach the kind of numbers that make your account attractive to brands. 

7. Start a YouTube Channel

YouTube is an ideal platform for travel-related content. You can share videos sailing through the Caribbean, hiking in the Rockies, packing videos, and more. YouTubers will a large enough following can get paid to take trips and showcase different brands.

Like blogging and social media influencing, this is a slow business model overall, but you’re in near-total control of your business. You get to choose the companies you partner with, when you work, and what you vlog about. It’s hard work, but making money from YouTube can become pretty lucrative if you work at it. 

Learn more here: How to Create a YouTube Channel & Make Money (7 Strategies for 2023).

8. Work on a Cruise Ship

Cruise ships are like floating cities, so there are a ton of different ways you can get paid to travel on a cruise ship, like:

• Cabin steward
• Waiter
• Bartender
• Performer
• Cook
• Deckhand
• Gift shop attendant
• Seaman

Cruise ship life can be intense. You work long hours and might not have full days off for weeks or months at a time, but the benefits are a major draw for some people. The benefit is that there’s little to no cost of living, you get paid to travel to some of the most beautiful places in the world, and you can take 6 to 8-week breaks between contracts.

9. Deliver Sailboats or Yachts

A friend of mine was paid to crew a sailboat delivery from France to Croatia a couple of years ago. All of his travel expenses were covered, including food and airline tickets, and the crew made stops along the way to explore. The pictures looked incredible!

You can get paid to travel delivering boats because when someone buys a boat or wants it moved, it needs to be delivered by a crew. You can’t ship a boat like you can a car.

This is a great way to get paid to travel the world if you have sailing experience. But if you don’t have experience, you can start with unpaid crew gigs (they still cover travel expenses and provisions) and gain experience that will lead to paid jobs. CrewSeekers.net can help you find related jobs.

10. Run Travel Tours

If there’s a place you know well, pick a niche and run paid tours there. Running small group tours around the world allows you to share your interests and get paid to travel. Kind of a sweet gig!

Here are a few real paid travel tours:

• Food tour of Italy
• Wine tour of Napa Valley
• Knitting tour in the Shetland Isles
• Yoga tour in Bali
• Walking tour of the Scottish Islands

11. Journalism

You’ll need a background in journalism, but there are print and online publications that will pay you to travel the world and research articles. Big publications will literally send you on a job, pay your way, and pay you for your time. 

There are also opportunities for freelance writers to write stories about new resorts or hotels opening, festivals, and so on. Freelance writing doesn’t always require a degree in journalism, but you’ll need to identify a niche and build your portfolio. 

12. Nanny

Most nannies don’t get paid to travel, but some families do travel a lot and want to bring childcare help with them. I have some friends who podcast for a living, and they bring a nanny with them while they’re touring and doing live shows. 

Not only do you get paid to travel, but you’ll also probably get to explore new places and see them through the eyes of a kid. That’s an incredibly unique experience!

I recommend checking out Care.com if you’re interested. You can create a profile that expresses your interest in travel-related childcare, and Care.com will help you connect with families.

13. AuPair

Au pairs are young people between the ages of 18 and 30 who travel to a foreign country, live with a host family, and take care of the family’s young children. You’re paid in free room and board, plus pocket money.

Working as an au pair can provide some great opportunities because travel between countries in Europe, Asia, and South America is relatively cheap. You travel and make money while also saving money on travel expenses.

14. Flight Attendant or Pilot

The pandemic has been a rough time for airlines, but there’s still a lot of demand for flight attendants and pilots. While your job will literally take you across the country or worldwide, one of the main perks is free or deeply discounted travel for you and a companion.

Flights attendants need a high school diploma or GED equivalent, strong communication skills and empathy, complete an airline-provided flight attendant training program, and get a Certificate of Demonstrated Proficiency from the FAA.

Airline pilots are required to have 1,500 hours of training, multiple certifications, and many airlines require a college degree. 

15. Travel Nursing

Travel nursing pays higher than regular nursing and often includes a stipend for living expenses. Most travel nursing jobs run 13 to 16 weeks long, and you’ll be working in doctor’s offices, hospitals, and long-term care facilities. 

What’s cool is that you get to pick where you go, so you get paid to travel to places you’ve always dreamed of visiting. 

16. Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is a broad term used to describe any marketing via the internet. It includes email marketing, SEO, social media marketing, and more. Running Facebook ads is one of my favorite forms of digital marketing because of how I made money while I was growing this blog. 

Running Facebook ads is essentially digital marketing through Facebook. Facebook’s wide reach and easy-to-use ads platform make it a great option for small business owners, both local and online. And you can make $1,000 to $1,500 per month per Facebook ads client.

This is one of my top ideas if you want to get paid while traveling because you can work for clients anywhere in the world, or bring your services to clients you meet on your travels.

17. Virtual Assistant

Virtual assistants are a huge asset to online entrepreneurs like me because they manage day-to-day tasks like inbox management, scheduling, publishing blog posts, bookkeeping, social media management, data entry, and more.

This is an excellent job for digital nomads if you have experience in human resources, operations, administrative assistance, or customer service. The average virtual assistant (or VA) makes $500 to $1,000 per month. Being a full-time traveler will make you an ideal candidate for business owners in the travel industry because you’ll have specific knowledge that not every VA has.

18. Online Surveys

I want to be very clear, online surveys aren’t a high-paying way to get paid to travel. However, they are a very easy way to make a little extra money in your downtime

Market research companies use online surveys to get feedback from consumers that helps companies make better products and services. This is valuable information and why you’re paid to take online surveys.

There are more than a dozen legit online survey companies out there, and here are our top recommendations:

• Survey Junkie: Make $1 to $3 per survey and get paid via PayPal, bank transfer, or gift card.
• Branded Surveys: Earn $0.50 to $3 per survey on average, and Branded Surveys pays with PayPal, bank transfer, check, or gift card.
• Pinecone Research: You can make $0.50 to $3 per survey, and Pinecone Research pays via check, PayPal, or gift card.

19. Create and Sell Digital Printables

Etsy has grown to become one of the most popular places to find all things creative and crafty, and a great way to get paid while traveling is selling digital printables on Etsy. These are items like:

• Stationary and invitations
• Calendars
• Planner pages
• Graduation, wedding, and birth announcements
• Printable home decor
• Sticker sheets
• Party decorations

What’s so great about this job is that you don’t need to store, ship, or create each item you sell individually. There’s a fantastic free ebook called Seasonal Products Secret that will explain the types of digital files that sell well throughout the year and how to capitalize on them. 

20. Photography

You’re going to take some pretty incredible photos while you’re traveling, so why not get paid for them? Here are a few different ways to make money as a photographer:

• Stock photo websites: Platforms like Shutterstock, iStock Photo, SmugMug, and Adobe Stock will pay you commissions when one of your photos sells on their platform.
• Etsy: Turn your travel shots into digital artwork that can be hung around the home. 
• Your own website: Shopify makes it easy to start an eCommerce business dedicated to selling your travel-related photos.
• List your services locally: If you’re going to be staying in one spot for a while, you can do photoshoots for families on vacation, destination weddings, adventure photoshoots, and more. You can also approach local business owners and see if they’d like to update their business photos.

The Final Word - Can You Get Paid to Travel?

Yes! There are jobs that pay you to travel, like blogging or teaching English as a foreign language. But there are also some great job opportunities if you want to travel and make money, like:

• Proofreading
• Virtual assistance
• Selling digital printables
• Online surveys

Travel doesn’t have to be an elusive, long-term goal because there are more ways than ever to make money while traveling the world. Spend some time weighing up your options and then decide which job suits you and your travel goals.