I’m currently on my first WWOOFing experience on a homestead in America. It’s an older husband and wife but the wife isn’t really involved because she has a physical disability. She’s also mentioned that they are planning to sell it. They don’t do it for money it’s just to live off the land but they’ve kind of lost control and have more than one person can handle. Before I got here they had long term help that was here for over a year. There’s another family here but they’re leaving next weekend and have been traveling so I only really worked with them one day. I talked to them about what was going on around the homestead and they agree that it’s overwhelming and disorganized so it’s hard to really learn any real skills here. The host has a million different things going on and is extremely knowledgeable but there’s no structure. I was so excited for this opportunity and I’m bummed that I have to reevaluate my entire life it seems. I love nature and I love animals. I enjoy being around the pigs and chickens here but not the rabbits since they’re caged and the other animals are free range. The garden is done so I won’t get to learn that this time of year. Since this is my first time it’s kind of put me off to the whole thing but I packed up all my stuff into my car and this was my plan for at least a month. It’s only been a week and I’m panicking. It’s nothing like I imagined and the other WWOOFers agreed it’s kind of like we were catfished. Just wanted to vent here because I’ve exhausted all my options it seems. I also don’t get much response from hosts so maybe this is a sign for me to just give up this dream and figure out what in the heck I’m gonna do now. If anyone has had a really good experience in America please let me know and I’ll look into it.

Has anyone done it? Used your presence in a country for volunteer work as a stepping stone to getting a legal paying job? Where has it worked, where hasn’t it?

Is it just the same as whatever the minimum cost of living is in the country?

Edit: I'm referring to the bare minimum I would need. Spain would be fine too because I just want to improve my Spanish.

when I was growing up, we used to take woofers on our farm. Mostly all of them were fantastic! eager to learn, integrate well with the people already here, eager to go out with us and enjoy a hike or take in the culture also.

however we gave it up after have several "wonky" ones in a row. from some who were just plain lazy, uninterested, down to some who were mentally ill that were weren't equipped to handle.

I'm looking at becoming a host again now that I am farming the land myself. Hw do I attract the best WWOOFers to our farm?

Anyone have any experiences/recommendations for WWOOFing in India? I'll be in Goa for a yoga teacher training until the beginning of Feb, and looking for a farm to visit afterwards 🙂

Thanks in advance!

Hello! A friend and I are looking to Wwoof in the south of France this upcoming summer. Wondering if anyone has any recommendations that is close to town somewhere, I’ve never done this before.

Hi! Looking for places to stay, volunteer, and ride horses in this area this summer for a few weeks or a month. Doesn’t have to be on WWOOF! Please recommend places if you know of any :)

Has anyone here ever wwoof with a cat? Wondering people’s experiences. I’m super interested in starting but am debating if this is something I want to bring my cat along to.

Looking to wwoof in Japan next February. I'm female myself so I would like female travel buddies! Am in my 30s :) hit me up if you're looking for a buddy too!

I arrived last week on a farm and it has been great, everything is going really well and it is lovely, apart from that another wwoofer has arrived today and they are expecting us to share a bed?

Is this normal? If it within the regulations of wwoofing then that's fine I can deal with it, but I'm wondering if this is an expected sleeping arrangement?

Hello I am looking for some information to help me to navigate where I want to woof. I have narrowed it basically down to three countries. Greece, Italy, and France. Greece was super easy to navigate there wasn't an overwhelming amount of farms and I think 99% of them were in English. I tried to start looking through France and I don't think I have seen one in English, or at least not very many. I am totally open to having to learn a language or maybe even just enough to get by but do I need to translate every single farm in France? Has anyone had experience with trying to find a farm in France that can help me?

Also, I plan on wwoofing by myself and I would love if anyone here is interested in doing a couple wwoofing trips in Europe this coming summer June/July/August. I am a grandpa in the world of wwoofing (35), but I work out almost every day so I can keep up with the kids. I am Black and Queer, lots of energy, personally, and would love a friend to join me.

So basically my family life is terrible and I need to escape, but I don't have a bank card and even if I did I was let off at work a while back and I have no money, I could ask my mom to pay but that's gonna take weeks or months because she never has money, I just need a way to get away from my family and I'm sad that I wont be able to

Edit: I do think it's okay that there's a subscription fee, how else are they gonna run their business, I guess I was just hoping there wasn't, that's all

I’m 25 (I know it’s not old) but was just wondering if I’ll be like that steve buscemi meme lol?

Like the title says, I wanted to know how safe this experience could be for someone like me? I understand that some farmers may not be exposed to a diversity of people compared to someone who lives in a big city.

I would really like to try this experience and I really love spending time in nature, animals and gardening, but I just want to avoid awkward situations with hosts that I won’t get along with.

I currently live in France, so I would like to stay in Europe. I haven’t done more in depth research yet, but I have been considering either going to England or Sweden.

Anyone been in those places and could share how safe they are? Thanks for reading!

I’m 16 years old and would love to do some farm volunteer exchange or something along those lines, but everything seems to be 18+? Is there any way I can do a volunteer exchange at my age? If so where do I look?

I recently finished a wwoofing stay and it was… not great. The work was fine but the host had some issues and made me a little uncomfortable. We parted on good terms, but I think that it would be wise to warn future wwoofers. I just really don’t want to leave a review that this host might see and then link back to me. Any advice?

TLDR: know that during this WWOOFing experience you will be joining a cult called, "Divine Madness Running Club".

WWOOF page in question: [ The Retreat Farm and Learning Center ]

Hello all, please exercise extreme caution when thinking about WWOOFing here. I just left yesterday and am still in a bit of a shock. I assumed they were going to be a bit spiritual, but I didn't realize to what extent. I was looking to disconnect from tech for a bit and enjoy the outdoors and thought living with intentionality was going to be cool. I resonated with the ideas I read about on their WWOOFing page and was excited to learn about their off-grid living situation. And it was cool to learn about, I really enjoyed it. They have cool buildings and cool systems in place (as an ex-Electrical and Computer Engineer, I really appreciated it), but after 3 days I started to suspect that their operations were a bit suspect. I noticed their "teacher", always had people, mostly woman, tending to his needs. He would get special treatment like smoothies in the mornings, I never saw him do any chore, and he received praise for everything. It was starting to become eerie and I had some bad thoughts come to me about what might be going on but without proof, I didn't feed into it much.

After 5 days, the other WWOOFer that had been there for a month approached me saying we needed to talk. I said sure, and I whispered to her, "I think this is a C-U-L-T" and she said, "ooooh yeeeeeah". After we spoke, I was shook by what I learned about their teacher, Marc Tizer. I mainly learned that he has sexual assault allegations against him and learned about the Divine Madness Running Club. But all this information is pretty accessible online by googling his name and the name of the cult. In doing so, I learned that they watched one of the runners die, after which they emailed the dead guy's parents saying he owed them money, learned that Marc made people sleep with each other in order to prevent monogamous relationships from forming (which he confirmed himself to be true), that what funds their operations is largely inheritance money of people that are in the group or used to be and that there was another WWOOFer who has been in this situation and details virtually the same experience I had in a podcast I will link below. I was told that she was deeply traumatized because she grew up with teachings of a cult, but I did not and I still feel creeped out as well.

I had already suspected something fishy, but I was still taken back and started to get nervous about the situation I put myself in. Mostly because it was really remote, there is no cell service for miles from the property. You park your car about 3-4 miles away from the house. There is internet at the main house but it's an open network with no security so they can monitor your activity (I don't know if they were but they could so I just tried to avoid it). Most of all, you're highly discouraged from leaving to go into town. I told the host that I was thinking about going into town to buy a blanket and she said, "but you don't have a car" and I said, "I do, it's just far". She quickly responded with, "but covid". I had to take two covid tests before arriving and I also had to send a selfie which I later found out, a lady ('the healer') used to detect COVID in me - yes, from the selfie (wish they told me that before I spent money to buy the tests haha). But I suspect they aren't really scared about the disease and that their leader just likes the control and the COVID scare is advantageous for him.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed a good bit of it at first. You're immersed in nature, you're eating healthy food, you're connecting with people who are down to Earth. It makes you double think the position you're in. But that's how they get you! After my two weeks, I am confident that most people there do mean well, and they are good willed. Perhaps in the beginning, everything was rainbows and butterflies and people gave their full trust and respect to this person, Marc. Now they obey him, no questions asked which is very very dangerous. In fact, part of the practices nowadays involve, thinking less with your brain and feeling more and not asking questions, trusting in the process because at the end everything will make sense - pretty convenient if you ask me.

I will say, I wasn't scared about my physical well-being at any point but I did feel like an emotional piñata at one point. It's hard to be in an environment where everyone obeys orders from above and doesn't question anything and seem happy for the most part. I felt like I was doing circling in my mind, questioning what I was seeing, were the allegations true, am I biased by the information I saw, am I wrong? And so I see why at a certain point someone might conform and just go with the flow. The main thing preventing me from flowing with the current of Yo was the fact that he had allegations from different woman and I know how difficult it can be to prove that he did anything wrong. It's tough. I can't say definitively that he did anything wrong, but I can say I noticed the seeds that they were trying to plant, the ideas they were attempting to sprout in my mind, the manipulation he employs (which made me feel shitty about myself).

But I will expose this. He meets people at 2am at night. Why? Well because that's the time that works with his busy, busy schedule, again, how convenient. I was only there two weeks but I only heard about him meeting with women. They glorify the act of meeting with him too. First day, I spooked him when I returned from a walk in the late evening and I introduced myself and he just responded with, "I know who you are". I asked who he was and he said 'Yo'. I said cool. He didn't extend his hand to greet me and came off as pompous so I didn't entertain him further. Come to find, people were amazed that I met him so early lol. "Omg, you met Yo already, no one usually meets him that early, wooooow." I find it laughable, but this is because meeting him is super special in their group. It's an honor to meet him. It probably helps people ignore the fact they are meeting him at 2am. The scarier part is his meeting ritual. He drinks half a beer, leaves the other half in the fridge and you're suppose to walk in and drink the half of beer. Apparently you don't have to drink it but it's still a red flag in my books. Easy way to get drugged. To add onto that, after a healing session with them, they tell you you'll feel really really sleepy and will need a lot of sleep afterwards. I am taking a big leap here, but in my eyes, it's very plausible to drug someone, tell them they had an intense healing session so they might not remember everything, and if they wake up drowsy, they can tell them it's part of the healing process. I could be putting my tin foil hat on for that last part but I sure as hell wouldn't let my sister do that shit, no siree. Again, to be clear, I didn't hear of that happening. All I know for sure is that he met with women at 2am, the half of a beer ritual, and that healing will make you feel tired. I feel it in my bones, bad vibes from this dude. I worry deeply for the ladies that will unknowingly seek his guidance.

Anyhow, that was a lot longer of a post than I intended for, but it felt like I just lived years worth of material. I have a lot of stuff floating in my brain right now, but I wanted to try to make this as detailed as possible, while trying to keep things as objective. It's a shame because the place is truly beautiful and so are all but one people there. Be safe fellow WWOOFers.

Peace.

Links to materials:
- Podcast from previous WWOOFer

- Divine Madness Running Club

- Rick Ross & The Divine Madness Running Club

- A Divine Madness?

I'm an 18 year old guy taking a gap year before uni and thinking about travelling eastern Asia in the new year for 3-4 months (still nothing concrete atm).

I was gonna do some WWOOF or Workaway (or something similar) to reduce costs and just experience something interesting and a bit different. It’s my first time doing it so I’m not massively sure how it all works.

I was wondering if there is anyone in a similar sort of boat/ that would want to join me or help plan/ brainstorm ideas.

Guys, make sure your hosts accept your invitation before you arrive. I have had two hosts not accept the invitation and although I didn't think much of it, I found out they do that with most of their WWOOFers so that they cannot leave bad reviews. When they accept someone, they change their behaviours, act nicer to them, and can manipulate the reviews people leave on their farm. I see no valid reason to not accept WWOOFers on the website.

I had a really, really scary experience just now, and will make a separate post about it soon. I just want others to be safe when going on these fun adventures. Please, take care guys.

EDIT: you can still leave a review!! False alarm. But still a good thing to know :)

Hello wwoofers & wwoofies... We are hosting 2 young men at the moment who have asked us for a review to increase their chances of getting another wwoof spot. One of them is a relatively good worker and the other one really just is unbelievably slow and like waaaay too thorough, unable to speed up even when we suggest to be less thorough and faster... Any ideas on nice and also honest ways of saying this ? We are simple farmers not wordsmiths unfortunately

When I would be planning to WWOOF, (summer 2025) I will be 17 years old (America). Some countries im interested in are:Iceland, France, Switzerland, and ireland. Would I still be able to do any farm help jobs at 17? (Parents would allow)

Gonna try wwoof for first time because Japan helpx and Workaway don’t have the best options. Any advice on wwoof or japan in general?

Hey all! For those of you who have WWOOFed before, what would you say are the first steps to WWOOFING? I'm really looking for something like a check list, for example:

1. Step one: sign up on the WWOOFing site
2. Step two: find a host

Etc.

Thanks all!

Hello! My partner and I are exploring the idea of WWOOFing for the first time next year, and we’re hoping to find a placement in May 2025. My partner is a professional mural artist, and we’d love to volunteer our time to work on some art projects for a couple of weeks.

We are both in our 30s, and speak fluent English; he’s fluent in Spanish, and I’m at an intermediate level. Ideally, we’re looking for a placement with a private bedroom that has a double bed. Other than that, we’re pretty flexible—we live simply and just want to immerse ourselves in a different part of the world for a couple of weeks.

We’re particularly interested in Spain, Italy, Greece, Japan, and Peru, but we’re open to other locations! (Unfortunately, the U.S. isn’t an option due to visa restrictions.) If anyone has recommendations for WWOOF hosts or other volunteer opportunities for artists, we’d love to hear them!

Thank you so much!

Most of what I can find online says to be discrete with your intentions entering a country and to WWOOF with authorities none the wiser.

I went on the website and read that some countries operate as “national organizations” in which case, isn’t there liability? Isn’t it out in the open what I’m doing?

What are your experiences? I want to go to the US (from Canada) but I don’t want to risk anything. Anyone ever get caught WWOOFing without a work visa in the USA?

I’m hoping to wwoof this summer with 2 other friends in Brazil (21-23F). Any advice or suggestions for staying places? I’ve wwoofer before in the US and have traveled to S.A before but not Brazil.

Hey all, I've never traveled abroad though I'm planning to WWOOF in Sicily. Anyone know what kind of visa I need and how long it typically takes to get approved for one? I live in the US.

hi, so I've been Wwoofing before and never had a visa just my tourist one but last time i tried to enter i almost got denied entry as the laws had changed, i looked into a visa and it says i need a full time job for one? so how can I wwoof there again or is it just not possible anymore as a uk citezen? please help i really wanna go back!!

I’ve done a few farmstays and overall have has a great time. I just got to a new farm and I’m not really enjoying it. Im supposed to be here for 2 weeks, but I’m thinking of cutting it short tk just one week- but im not sure how to go about it ans would appreciate some advice!

My host is super experienced, but has been really unclear in terms of expectations. She hasn’t been clear on the work schedule, and has basically told me to find tasks to fill my own time, which considering I just got here and don’t really know the farm that well is hard for me to do. I’ve asked her for some clear projects, but she’s super overwhelmed and has a kid to take care of, so I haven’t really gotten a clear answer. Because the schedule is so unclear I don’t feel like I can take breaks or spend time exploring the local area.

Overall it just doesn’t feel like a good match, and that she needs someone whose more self directed than I am, and I have a limited time in the country so I went to spend it where I have a bit more freedom and clear direction. How should I ask her to cut my time short, and any advice on how to enjoy the time I have a bit more?

Hello everyone!

My friend and I (both 18M) are going to start our very first wwoof experience in Japan for around 4 weeks working with 3 different hosts across Japan.

We would like to hear your experiences wwoofing around in Japan (and or other places) and basically what you got from the wwoofing experience in general.

We also have questions like:

What do we tell the immigration officer about what we are doing in Japan?

How legal is Wwoofing in general (do we need work pass visas?)

How do you save money whilst wwoofing and etc.

Thanks in advance! :D