Exciting Travel Jobs That Let You Travel The World!
Many people have the same dream of travelling while continuously earning an income. What could be better than waking up in a new place, and enjoying the new destination and culture, without having to worry about losing pay?
I know that that was always one of my biggest dreams. To be able to see the world without having to worry about damaging my career by taking time off or being poor due to not working. It’s something thousands of people want the opportunity to do but sometimes it just seems like a pipe dream.
But it is easier than you think!
Well, the number one way is to get hired into jobs that let you travel the world. Believe me, there are multiple options to choose from, I’ve done a few of them myself! What I want to do is list a few of the popular travel-oriented positions that can give you the money to live your life while also allowing you to experience new places and adventures.
Not all positions are equal but this is a great starting point to kickstart your search into jobs that let you travel the world. Let’s dive in.
If you need to exchange any currency while travelling the world to minimise international banking fees, check out Wise (formerly Transferwise). They have a great phone app that allows you to transfer money between currencies with ease.
Cruise Ship Staff
How amazing does it sound to travel the world’s oceans and stop at ports in different countries? Well, if you were a cruise ship employee, you’d get to do just that. With the size of cruise ships, there are hundreds of jobs available for those who love to travel. Everything from official ship crew, wait staff, housekeeping, entertainment teams, fitness instructors and more.
Regardless of your skills and abilities, there is a whole range of jobs that you could apply for. You could spend your days as a housekeeper cleaning up guests’ cabins and then on your days off you get to enjoy the new destinations when the ship arrives at port.
You could enjoy a 3-month cruise around Oceania. Or maybe during the winter months, you could explore the Alaskan glaciers. Plus with cruises ranging in length from 3-4 days all the way up to 11 months, you could go cruising all year long!
Common cruise lines include:
Travel Blogger
Travel blogging is a little different from travel writing as it’s normally a job that lets you travel the world while being a freelancer. Running your own travel blog lets you choose where you would like to travel to and write about without needing to go where other people have sent you.
With this position you will likely be running every aspect of the website yourself from the writing, SEO marketing, website design and anything else that comes with running a travel blog.
Although you have the luxury of choosing where you go, in order for your site to be successful you will still need to make sure you’re writing about topics that are being searched by an audience online. That way, you’re able to help your audience by answering their questions, while also making money for your efforts. It’s a win-win!
Travelling Nurse
If you have the qualifications and experience in the medical field, you could take your skills on the road. When you become a travelling nurse you can see the world while also helping people with your medical knowledge. You could be in a new hospital or clinic every month, or you could choose to travel a little less frequently like once every few months – it just depends on where the work is available!
As a travelling nurse, you could be in a new continent each month or even a country in central Africa before the end of the season. You could find yourself giving injections, taking blood, cleaning wounds and being an empathetic caretaker offering your services to those who need them.
As long as you’re flexible and keep your qualifications up to date, you can take your career around the world. It’s a win-win for both your patients and you. You can’t argue with that.
Travel Writer or Journalist
A travel writer is somebody who is usually hired by magazines, news outlets and travel companies. They can either be employed or hired as a self-employed contractor who gets sent to various parts of the world to experience first-hand the destinations the publications want to advertise. Typically, these positions can be seasonal depending on the location of each publication and the destinations they choose to write about.
If hired by a news outlet you could be sent to a destination with either positive or negative news stories that the world needs to hearYou’ll have to work towards deadlines set by your employer so you’ll need to have great time management. Plus, you’ll need to work closely with editors to create the perfect articles. But these are just standard expectations for the jobs that let you travel to all regions of the world to help encourage readers to choose their next travel destination.
Travel Photographer
When you’re a travel photographer you get to take photos of some of the world’s most stunning landscapes – and get paid for it! There are particular companies (think National Geographic or Magazines) that will hire photographers for individual projects around the world. Not to mention you could also embark on this photo journey as a self-employed freelancer.
You’ll get to travel to some unique destinations, sometimes dealing with unique wildlife that can only be found in certain places. Whether you sell your images independently on your own site or as part of a collective on a stock image-sharing platform, there are multiple avenues you can take. Just make sure you have a great camera and a creative eye.
Content Creator
With the likes of TikTok, Instagram and YouTube taking up so much of our lives, there is a huge influx of content creation out there. Many content creators are individuals who work for themselves and sometimes collaborate with large brands once they have established a reasonable-sized fan base.
They might create breathtaking photographs of themselves in stunning destinations, or create videos or podcasts of interesting topics. With humans absorbing media in so many ways there are countless options for content creators to wow their audience and land advertising deals. As a content creator you could travel the world creating content on any topic you deem yourself knowledgable in and with the help of affiliate sales and ad revenue you can make a livable wage to continue travelling.
Airline Staff
This could include being a pilot or cabin crew, but both are jobs that let you travel the world. When you get to be the face of an airline you could be in Europe one day, and North America the next. Pilots generally require a lot of training in order to reach the level where they can actually fly planes. You can certainly qualify to be cabin crew much quicker.
In both of these positions, you are likely to have a constantly changing schedule. Sometimes flying short-haul and other times flying long-haul. Cabin crew have to look presentable at all times and need to follow strict guidelines on their appearance so they look refreshed at all times – regardless of how jetlagged you might be. But, with that being said look at how many places you’d get to see! You might get to be in Rome one day, and Singapore the next and the airline will put you up in a hotel during your layovers. Can’t get better than that!
This is one of the original travel jobs that lets you travel the world!
Tour Guide
Being a tour guide is an exciting job that lets you share the gift of travel with the general public. Not only will you get to travel and explore interesting destinations, but you get to meet people from around the world. If you’re working for a large company like G Adventures or Contiki for example, you can lead tour groups through multiple countries.
As a tour guide, you get to share your love of adventure with the tourists who signed up for your tour group. You’ll have the responsibility of keeping the group together and helping to give them all a great experience. You’ll be in charge of getting them from one place to another throughout the itinerary and being the local expert. It’s a fantastic way to work for a travel company while getting to meet people from all walks of life and sharing your knowledge of a destination with adventurous spirits.
Popular tour companies include:
Travel Agent
Travel agents get to share their knowledge and experiences with the general public by helping them book their dream trips. Whether you are based in an office with other agents or working from home making bookings for your customers, there are plenty of ways to enjoy travelling in this career. In order to sell travel experiences (flights, accommodation or tours) you generally need to have an idea of what to expect yourself.
So, many of the travel brands that sell these hotel stays or tours will offer the travel agents selling their products FAM trips. “FAM” is short for familiarisation so it’s essentially a trip that you (the agent), are invited on to better understand how the trip will go for your customers. By having this first-hand experience you are in a much better position to successfully sell the trips that are best suited to each of your customers!
Need help planning your trip?
Check out how to plan a trip abroad & see my travel resources for more.
WayAway – Great for booking flights. They even have a cashback feature for those who fly frequently.
Skyscanner – A comprehensive comparison website showing where to purchase flights.
HostelWorld – The biggest selection of hostels & sociable accommodation.
Booking.com – The largest collection of accommodations worldwide.
Safety Wing – A travel insurance brand for long-term travellers and nomads.
Wise – Perfect for transferring foreign currencies.
iVisa – For applying for tourist and visitor visas.
Viator – Great for finding tours and activities worldwide.
Get Your Guide – Another company for finding activities.
Klook – Have some of the best activity deals in Asia.
Final Thoughts On Jobs That Let You Travel the World
If none of these travel-related jobs appeals to you, you could always look at the jobs you already have experience in and see if they will allow you to go remote. This could relate to accounting, admin, IT and cyber security to name a few.
With so many roles going remote, there are more and more opportunities to find work that allows you to earn a stable income while travelling the world to the destinations you desire.
So, what jobs tick the most boxes for you that you could see yourself doing?
