Have you always wanted to travel the world, but never been able to come up with the dough? These days, if you aren’t afraid to talk to strangers or to get your hands dirty, there are lots of ways to take your US passport around the world for cheap.
1. Working on an Organic Farm: If you volunteer with WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities On Organic Farms), you can arrange to work at an organic farm overseas in exchange for food and lodging. Volunteer for weeks, months or even years…it’s up to you (and your host).
2. CouchSurf Across the Globe: If you aren’t afraid to depend on the kindness of strangers and you don’t mind crashing on an unfamiliar couch in another country, couchsurfing can help cut your travel bills.
3. Lead a hiking tour: Get out your hiking boots and lead tour groups across Europe with HF Holidays. In exchange for leading groups of hikers on walking tours, you get to explore the Old World for free!
4. Work from the road: If you have a laptop and an internet connection, you can often work remotely while you travel.
5. Join the Peace Corp: If you have 27 months to spare, want to travel and don’t mind working hard to make a difference in a local community, the Peace Corp might be for you.
Of course, to do any of these things, you will need to have a US passport. Make sure you apply well in advance-it takes at least 6 weeks to get a US passport if you apply with normal processing, and at least three weeks if you apply with the government’s expedited processing service.
If you’ve found the opportunity of a lifetime, it’s a good idea to order your passport through a private passport expediting service.You’ll benefit from more personal customer service, faster tracking of your passport application, and much faster processing times. In fact, with an expediting service like RushMyPassport.com, you can get your passport application processed in as little as 24 hours!