Summer of 2021 held a lot of firsts for me as a young traveler. First time visiting Europe, first time solo traveling, and first time feeling like an adult, just to name a few. This experience greatly shaped how I approach travel as it helped me realize what I was capable of doing on my own. Since then I have solo traveled in 7 other countries, with 4 of those also being in Europe and 3 of those being in Asia. Solo traveling is now my favorite way to travel and I will spend the entire upcoming year doing just that- but I never would have been encouraged to do this if I hadn’t taken initiative and pursued that first step two years ago. So how did I spend 6 weeks in Spain practically for free? Easy- au pairing.
For people who aren’t familiar with the concept of au pairing, it is really just another name for live-in nannying. In exchange for watching a family’s children, you are given free housing, food, and (usually) a small weekly allowance. To be quite honest, I can’t remember who first told me to look into au pairing, but I decided one day during the early spring of 2020 after hearing about it that it was exactly how I wanted to spend my summer. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic blocked that opportunity as soon as I had decided to pursue it. I held onto that goal for the next year though and eventually found a family the next April to au pair for. They lived about an hour north of Barcelona on the beach in a small town called Malgrat de Mar, and the best part of the job was that the two daughters were 11 and 16. Obviously girls of those ages do not need a babysitter, so my primary job was simply to hang out with them so they could continue to practice their English (which they were already fluent in). I was their 7th au pair and later ended up recommending a college friend of mine to them for the following summer.
My days consisted of sleeping in, sitting at different cafes reading, lounging at the beach, and watching Stranger Things with face masks on with the girls after they got home from their summer camps each day. If this sounds like an ideal job to you, it is absolutely possible for you to do. To find my family, I used AuPairWorld.com, which is essentially like a dating profile where you match with families you think you would mesh well with. I believe it to be a relatively safe website as it runs background checks and requires recommendation letters from both potential au pairs and host families alike. Of course, caution should still be exercised because you will be living with strangers, so it is extremely important that you have as much information about the family as possible. I had a Zoom call with my host mother and one of the daughters before I committed to them, which helped me ensure that the family I had chosen was legitimate. It may also be a good idea to choose someone who has hosted au pairs in the past so you can reach out to them to ask about their own experiences.
Leading up to this trip I had been working at the front desk of a spa as well as babysitting several days a week to save up. However, you shouldn’t need much money in your bank account to pursue something like this. Utilizing some of the many tools available online that assist with finding cheaper flight options can greatly reduce the costs you would typically incur on a European summer. I spent $520 for my round trip ticket to and from Barcelona, which can be saved quickly. The allowance I was given by my host family was not big by any means (roughly $100 a week), but this was definitely enough to cover all of my weekly expenses and personal purchases. Keep in mind, I ate all of my meals at home with them for free unless I chose to eat out on my own. I actually refused the money one week because my job was so easy that I literally felt like I didn’t deserve to be paid. I was also given weekends off and used this time to travel to Barcelona to visit friends and take two solo trips to Paris and Vienna.
One of my favorite parts of this experience was being shown around by my host family and participating in their full family functions for holidays. I loved seeing Cataluña through the eyes of locals and experiencing national holidays with the whole extended family that graciously accepted me. They also took me to neighboring towns to eat and sight see which was so much fun. My host mom spoke English very well as she had spent time in England years ago, and even the dad (who spoke no English) was so fun to talk to with the help of other family members acting as translators. I really could not have picked a better family to spend the summer with.
If you are young (or old) and have a travel bug, au pairing might be a perfect opportunity for you to explore new countries and cultures without paying an arm and a leg. It’s much cheaper than group trips (EF Ultimate Break, etc.) but you still have the security of living with another family instead of being entirely alone. This still stands as one of my favorite travel experiences of all time and anyone considering becoming an au pair will not regret it.
