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Work Camping - Work Camper
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The terms, Work Camping, Work Camper and Work Camping all
loosely refer to short-term and, in some cases long-term employment directed specifically
to people who live full-time in an RV.
Now we're getting to the good stuff: earning your way through life and living your
full-time rving dream by by work camping. Here’s where working while you travel gets
to be great.
If you are a flexible, open-minded person, you will practically never go without a job.
There’s little glamour in most of the work camping jobs you will be involved in, but
that’s not the point anyway.
Also, keep in mind that this section about work camping is written for the asset
poor RV’er who doesn’t have a supplemental source of income and has to provide
100% of their cash needs by working. If you have a supplemental source of income, your
life on the road will be far easier and work camping may not be necessary.
Here’s the deal. Yes, you can “work camp” in the sense that you work and
live in a campground. Typically you’ll find that work camper wages are quite low for
campground jobs and many fulltimers opt for more traditional employment away from the RV
Park. There are always exceptions, of course, and you will always want to check on every
opportunity that sparks your interest.
Here a small sample of the occupations we've had while traveling:
- Campground management
- Telemarketing
- Hotel office work
- Preparing income tax returns during tax season
- Managing a video store
- Retail sales
We were once offered a job as “strippers”. Now before you go and get the
wrong idea, it’s not what you think. A hotel in Wyoming offered us a work camper job
stripping the linen from beds and taking them to the laundry. We were about to go when
other matters came up and prevented us from taking the job. You’re probably thinking
that work camping job sounds a little crummy. Perhaps it would’ve been, but
here is what else you have to consider: An hourly wage paid for 40 hours a week and a
bonus at the end of the season, a deeply discounted price for our RV site, free propane,
free cable TV, free laundry and plenty of time to enjoy the natural beauty of the area. If
we had worked through the entire season, the RV site would have been free. Not a bad deal
at all for work camping when you add everything up.
Your work camper experience on the road is probably going to be dictated by your
personality. Are you an outgoing, never met a stranger, type person? You’ll probably
excel with commission sales jobs, product demonstration at fairs and trade shows, or as a
vendor at a flea market. If you’re not the extroverted type, you may be involved in
maintenance, clerical work, cleaning, transportation, construction or other occupations.
Most of us are somewhere in between and able to work a wide range of work camping
occupations we never dreamed we would attempt.
A View From The Road - Yellowstone National Park
Here is a sample of the potential work camping opportunities you will find available when
you hit the road:
- Campground host
- Campground maintenance
- Campground office work
- Selling advertising
- Transporting RV’s
- Corps of Engineers gate attendant
- Flea market vendor
- Craft show vendor
- Manufacturers sales rep
- Construction work
- Retail sales
- Christmas tree lot attendant
- Pumpkin lot attendant
- Fireworks stand vendor
- Tour guide
- Fishing guide
- Museum guide
- Covered wagon guide
- Photographer
- Stocking in retail stores
- Product demonstration in retail stores
- House sitter or property caretaker
- Seasonal income tax return preparer
- Selling campground memberships
- Freelance consultant work
So, just where do you find all these jobs? Actually, there are several methods. A good
place to start is to check the Work Camping Jobs
page, and the Earning
Money While You Travel page, on this website and see if there is anything that
interests you. Be sure and go there for much more specific information on particular jobs.
There is also information about self-employment ideas.
You likely own a computer otherwise you would not be reading this. One way to research
jobs is to use the Internet to find online newspapers for the area you want to move to.
The Internet Public Library is a good starting point for your research. Go to
www.ipl.org/div/news/browse/US/ and select the state you are interested in. Then simply
look for that newspaper’s classified advertising section and find the help wanted
ads.
Another surprising source of local information is the National Thrifty Nickel classified
ads by going to http://www.thriftynickelads.com/ and select the city and state you’re
interested in. When the specific city comes up, select the employment listings. With the
Thrifty Nickel you’ll have to sift through lots of junk advertising to find some of
the local help wanted ads, but after all it’s a free source.
Another way to search the Internet for local online newspapers is to go to a search engine
like www.google.com and make a query. Let’s say you want to see if there is a
newspaper for Casper, Wyoming. Simply type in something like this – Casper Wyoming
newspaper. You will find that not all newspapers are online, but there are enough to give
you some serious leads.
When all else fails, simply go to the area you are interested in and see if you can find
work. Just keep in mind that jobs in very small towns may be difficult to find when you
get there. But what you will usually find are some great prices for parking your RV. One
place where we parked in upstate New York was only a block away from Lake Ontario. We were
only paying $150 monthly for rent, including cable TV and all hookups. It was an easy walk
to watch the sun set over this fresh-water ocean every evening, and at night the honking
of Canadian geese flying over would lull us asleep. The pay in an area like this may be
low, but so are the costs of living.
Here are the keys to work camping and surviving financially on the road: Keep living
expenses to a minimum. With limited storage space in your RV, you’ll find that the
lifestyle lends itself well to frugality. The best way to do this is to eliminate any and
all debt. It is easier to find work camping employment that will pay your way if you
don’t have to crack a large cash-flow nut every month. When your cash needs are
excessive you will have to stay parked at a location much longer, and you’ll soon
grow frustrated, and may decide you would have been better off not RV’ing. Nothing
will kill your dream lifestyle faster than being stuck in one location for a very extended
period of time.
If you don’t have a supplemental source of income, you’ll probably need to
remain parked in one place for several months at a time to replenish your cash reserves.
There are many advantages to this work camper approach. First, your traveling costs are
reduced dramatically. In addition, you’ll get to know the area you’re living in
more intimately, and if you are like we are, you’ll develop a network of friends
across the United States. Some of those friends will be RV’ers, but most will be
long-term residents of their community. You’ll also be able to find lower-cost
monthly rates in RV parks.
If there are two of you on this RV’ing adventure, try to find work camping jobs where
you can both work for the same company. Virtually every job we have held allowed us to
work for the same employer. This eliminates transportation conflicts and saves on driving
costs.
Plan your work camping location to be in an area that you want to explore and are
interested in visiting anyway. Otherwise, after a few months, you’ll start feeling
frustrated and trapped. If your cash flow requirements are large, you may not even have
the luxury of working where you would enjoy living, and that is the real dream killer.
When you are traveling and sightseeing between work camping jobs, budget your time and
money so that you get the maximum enjoyment. Make sure that you have ample funds to arrive
at your next work camper employment destination and tide you over for a couple of months
just in case work is difficult to find, or the work camping job you were promised
doesn’t work out as advertised.
An excellent opportunity that you may want to consider if you've saved up enough money for
several weeks, or months travel, or you have supplemental income, is to be a volunteer camp host. At any given
time, there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of campground host opportunities
available.
You can work camp for weeks or months at a time by exchanging a few hours a week work for
your campsite. To further extend your stay, you might consider getting part-time work in
the local area. That way, instead of living somewhere just to earn money, you can pay your
way while living where you want to be.
First, go to the Volunteer Camping
section of the HappyVagabonds.com website. You'll find links for Federal Government camp
hosting opportunities, State Parks, County Parks, City Parks and even Canadian Parks.
Next, make a list of several parks you will be interested in and then contact them to see
if they have a need for a campground host when you are available. If so, then apply for
the position. In fact, set up a schedule of positions in several places so you can move
around a bit.
Again, please check out the Work Camping Jobs
page on this website. You may find an idea that will work for you.
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