How to House Sit and Travel the World for Longer
House sitting is when you look after other people’s homes and/or pets while they’re away. In this house sitting guide, we explain how to find your first house sit and travel the world for longer.
House Sitting
Dreaming of slow travel, taking it easy and living more like a local than a backpacker? House sitting could be for you. We’ve been house sitting since 2014, looking after homes and pets at house sits in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama and Guatemala. Learn how to become a house sitter and what house sitting really entails.
Need house sitters yourself? Check out our house sitting profile.
11 Tips To Find Your First House Sit
You’ve read about how to become a house sitter and now you’re ready to find your first house sit and make sure it’s a success? We’re here to help.
Eco-Friendly Accommodation Options and How to Find Them
If like me you are feverish with wanderlust but also keen to be as eco-friendly as possible while travelling, then you might want to look into making eco-friendly accommodation choices. You don’t need to spend a fortune to be an eco-friendly traveller, but making eco-conscious choices often takes a reasonable amount of research.
Unfortunately, it can be all too easy to end up staying in a hotel or resort that has a negative impact on the environment without even realising it. Collectively, hotels are guilty of excessive energy consumption, unnecessary overuse of water and poor waste management. From bigger issues like building in areas where construction ruins the environment down to the little things like pumping out air conditioning and washing bed linen daily, hotels can leave a huge carbon footprint.
What is House Sitting in Costa Rica Really Like?
We travelled Central America for one year and a large portion of that time was spent in Costa Rica. Why? Not just because Costa Rica is beautiful, but because there’s a lot of house sitting work out there.
Though it’s true that we house sat in Panama, Nicaragua and Guatemala too, finding assignments house sitting in Costa Rica were by far the most common. When we accepted our first house sit in the small mountain town of Puriscal, we had no idea how many opportunities for house sitting Costa Rica there would be. We house sat for the same family in Puriscal multiple times and house sat once in Quepos. Though both of the locations where we house sat in Costa Rica were completely different experiences, they were both awesome. While every house and home owners are different, there are a few realities of house sitting in Costa Rica that you should know about.
How We Went from Rookies to Long-Term Travellers
When we set off on our indefinite travel adventure to Costa Rica, we didn’t know what to expect. Eight months later and we’re long-term travellers. So how did it happen?
When we left the UK in May last year, we didn’t have all that much. We had a little money saved from our year teaching in Taiwan, a one-way plane ticket and our first ever house sit lined up. We knew that, at worst, we had enough money to last us for two months of travel. If we had to come home and rethink our plans after that, then well, we would’ve had a great holiday. Any amount of time we were able to stay travelling after that was a bonus. Right now, we’re into 6 bonus months and still going strong. Here’s how it happened.
Why Quepos is the Ideal Place to House Sit for Travellers
We had an inkling that Quepos would be an ideal house sitting location for travellers, and it turns out we were right.
During our first house sit in Costa Rica, we were living well for less up in a small mountain town called Pursical. The house sit was completely incredible, however we weren’t able to explore much of Costa Rica and instead contentedly wiled away our time ambling around the local farmer’s market, drinking coffee on the porch and watching Mad Men.
6 Cute Pets that Will Make You Want to House Sit
We’ve been living well for less in Costa Rica, house sitting in the mountains surrounding San Jose. One of the best things about this house sit has been the animals: 10 dogs and a cat. It sure is a lot of animals to look after, but we’ve loved it. If you follow me on Facebook, you will have seen some of these cute pets before.
Living Well for Less in Costa Rica
We came to Costa Rica by chance. Open to house sitting anywhere in the world, Luke and I were fortunate enough to find a temporary home in the mountains overlooking San José. We don’t have much – a close to empty bank account, a backpack each, and just a couple of ideas between us. After 10 days living in Costa Rica, we’ve realised that we don’t need much more than that. We’re living a good life for much less than you would think.
