Travel the world and get paid for it, sounds pretty good right, but where do you start to look and how can you do a working holiday? Those were my first questions.  I've compiled this page to list as many resources as possible for those interested in a working holiday. Most of my advice is in terms of the New Zealand program, but it shouldn't differ too much for other countries.




First of all what is a Working Holiday?
A working holiday is a special visa for those between the ages of 18-30, and in some countries 18-35. It allows you to live in a country for a specific amount of time and allow you to be a student or to work. Working holidays allow you the chance to really live in a country and experience it as a local. You also get the chance to work in another country and earn money for your travels. The visa also means you don’t have to save up quite as much to make your dream trip happen as you can save as you go.

Now once you have decided to go where do I start planning?
For me organising a whole working holiday was quite overwhelming so I decided to go to an organisation that deals with working holidays. There are quite a few organisations out there that will help you but still picking the one that you want is a different story. There are three companies that I have looked in to for New Zealand, IEP, Student flights and STA Travel


IEP
I was suggested this company by a friend who had gone through them to do a working holiday in Canada. IEP do many different working holidays whether it is summer camp in the USA, Working in bar in Europe or volunteering in Cambodia. I highly recommend this company 100%, why you ask? Because they organise everything, everything from pre-departure advice, through to transport and accommodation when you arrive, even help getting a job. This company will fully support your travel; they even have branches in most places where some of the working holidays are based. So fall in to any problems while travelling you have a place where you can call in on and ask for help. Of course this comes with a price but to my surprise not a huge price, not including visa and airline ticket it comes to $395.


Student Flights
Student flights is very similar to IEP they offer everything from visas to cheap student flights (hence the name of the website) to setting up bank accounts the only thing different is that they don’t supply you with that support network that IEP has and they only supply you with the 1 year visa. I noticed with some of their programmes especially with the Work UK programme you can customise or programme to you preference for example you can just have them sort out your accommodation and visa and that is or if you just want your flights and a guaranteed job that’s all you pay them for that service.


STA Travel
STA Travel is very similar to IEP, although they do have a few things that are different. STA offer a lot of the same programmes especially the English programme. For example the work Britain is exactly the same as IEP's Work Britain with the support of an IEP member the only difference is the price. They do offer a programme that no other organisation offers which is the option to teach in the UK. This would be great for new teachers to get experience overseas also a chance to travel with a guaranteed job. I would choose this organisation over IEP if there flight were as cheap as student flights they are almost $100 more than student flights.


Over all you have to pick the organisation that suits you and your travels. If you want to just get the visa and flights don’t go for a whole package in IEP. If you want the support and someone to rely on while you are overseas then go with IEP or STA Travel. Do you research before you choose.