I’m curious what kind of work you are required to do, how long you can stay and all the little details of the lifestyle. Would love to hear stories about your experience workamping!
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Great topic, I have been looking at a work/camp situation through Yosemite Conservancy (they are all cancelled for 2020) and am wondering what the lived experience is like! Please share!
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My wife is a systems trainer for a insurance company and I am a digital forensics investigator. She works at the dinette in our 20’ travel trailer and I work on a bar stool at the bar, and both of us have turned on our hot spots on our phones. We will work a few days and then vacation a few days, then come home. We go to Campendium.com to check the reviews on the cell service before we make our reservation because it wouldn’t go well if we got down there and couldn’t connect our computers to the internet.
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Good to know, Chris, although I think Taylor was referring to actual workamping jobs like camp host or other jobs, often service or maintenance related, where part of your compensation comes in the form of a place to park and live in your rig. Most of them are part-time, seasonal jobs. Legally, they have to pay you an hourly wage if the value of the parking/living is less than minimum wage for the hours you’re working. There are websites such as www.workamper.com and workampingjobs.com.
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My bad… I learn something new about camping all the time. 
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No worries, Chris! I’m still learning, too, and I’m always interested to learn about how other people work on the road.
As someone who was interested in this after retiring, I read the extensive topic on this in iRV2.com whic h has a section on all kinds of camping, this included.
Best of luck!
In my ten years of full-time RVing, I have had many work camping opportunities and all have been wonderful. The range of jobs and situations is hugely diverse. Depending on the situation you may get paid or get your campsite for free. The duration varies. My first experience was with the US Army COE in Idaho. Work 4 hours/day, 4 days/week operating the fee booth and cleaning bathrooms. We were not paid for the job but they reimbursed our mileage from our homebase in FL and a free site. Have also worked for a private RV park where the hours worked were paid. Volunteered at a FL state park where you work 24 hours/week to get a free site. The advantage is that you get to stay there up to four months instead of the normal 2-week maximum. I’ve also worked for a winery, brewery and catering company where I was paid an hourly salary but had to pay for my campsite off property. I’ve written a few articles on this subject on my blog RV-A-GOGO. (http://rvagogo.blogspot.com) under the work camping tag. There are many advantages such as being able to stay in a place longer, earning income, free camping, meeting new people, volunteering, etc.
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I’ve often wondered as a pro photographer what it would look like to workcamp. It seems like there’s always a need for quality content, but sometimes the money just isn’t there
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Tony - In my experience, you won’t make money workamping, but you’d have a longer-term (and usually free) place to park your rig. Then you can do your paid work (for me it’s writing) for someone else.
I’ve thought about it as something we could do in the future. The Hubs is ambivalent, as he’d be the one cleaning the men’s bathrooms. He always complains about how disgusting the men’s bathrooms are.
Agreed! Especially with Covid-19. We managed to get a camp hosting gig at MO state parks with no bathroom cleaning. For the most part, we skip over jobs requiring bathroom cleaning. We have done it in the past and have decided it is way to disgusting and our health and safety is more important.
Chris, thanks for the tip! This is helpful.
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