How to take extended vacations without spending a lot of money

As I mentioned in my blog last week, I have just returned home from a four-week vacation and spent less than $600. One of the main reasons I enjoy taking time off is from the benefit of completely removing oneself from their everyday environment and responsibilities. This allows me to reconnect slowly within and be more present to my true self of fun, playfulness, and heart. 

One way I discovered how to enjoy extended periods of time away from home is through work exchange. For this trip, I volunteered to work in the kitchen for 3 weeks at the Living Light Culinary Institute located up north in beautiful Mendocino County. It is a well-renowned international, organic, vegan, raw foods natural chef training school. For me, being a Certified Wellness Chef (from a different institute), being immersed in this environment was fun. My role was to support the instructors teaching their certification classes and the Sous Chef for all the meals. The greatest joy, naturally, was sitting in on all the demos and eating all the wonderful foods prepared for lunch and dinner. The big finale was the catered dinner prepared by the students for their graduation. Everyday was different and fun. 

Work exchange is an interesting experience. On many levels it's fun, different, challenging, humbling, and rejuvenating. It's refreshing to share in something greater than yourself. The responsibilities tend to be light and moderate and I had plenty of time to enjoy the natural beauty Mendocino had to offer. I went camping, hiking, cycling, jogging, and sight-seeing all along the coastline and Redwoods. I became friends with amazing people from Canada, New York, Australia, Columbia, Taiwan, Yucatan, and many more. 

As for accomodations, rather than stay in a hotel, I found on Craigslist a woman renting out a furnished room in her house. We worked it out so that I would rent the room for the whole month of April. This was a siginificant savings compared to hotel rates with all the comforts and access to the whole house. The bonus was that it was only six blocks from the school! To further cover my expenses, I posted on Craigslist a sublet of my home for the month and after a couple weeks of screenings and interviews found a very good fit while I was away. So no money was spent on food or lodging.

You may have noticed that I mentioned volunteering for three weeks, but my vacation was for four. What did I do for that last week? Stay tuned for next week's blog where I will talk about how I managed to keep expenses low and keep my traveling moving forward.

In case you missed it, here's the link to last week's blog about the Benefits of Taking Extended Time Off: 

Lana Sumati

www.energizedlivingsolutions.com