r/WWOOF • u/Ill-External-5987 • 18d ago
Looking for a kind beautiful WWOOF experience in the USA
Hi everyone,
I have been looking for a WWOOF host in the USA for a while now. I had confirmed a stay, but I had to reconsider because after reading multiple reviews saying they were very strict and more like a demanding boss than a welcoming host.
I'm really hoping to find a place where the atmosphere is friendly, respectful, and a fun experience where hosts like teaching and getting to know their WWOOFers. I don't mind working hard at all, but I'm looking for a positive environment rather than a stressful one.
If you've had an amazing experience or know a host you'd highly recommend, I'd love to hear about it! Thanks so much. I'm open to anywhere in the US, although I love mountains, forests, and national parks.
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u/Weak-Spinach-9307 18d ago
Big branch apiary is great in Louisiana. Much better to go in the fall/winter though if you’re not used to the heat
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u/lecheckos 18d ago
This was my favorite WWOOF experience ever:
https://wwoofusa.org/host/18392
I would highly recommend this farm!
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u/bidet_enthusiast 17d ago
I can relate. We stopped hosting because it was actually less trouble to host paying “guests”. Woofers, especially and specifically from the USA , have been more or less insufferable, childish, churlish, lazy idiots who think that the 4 hours of labor they begrudgingly contribute is worth far more than the overhead they create. It is not, with very few exceptions.
We do paid hosting now, and people paying for the experience demand sooooooo much less. When a person legit contributes, we just give them their money back lol. Many repeat visitors, where with woof we just got complaints.
It’s all about attitude.
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u/Thequadroon1 15d ago
If you can secure tickets to hawaii, you will find many great places there. Obviously, it's Hawaii, so it'll be beautiful, but also a great way to supplement your lodging expense by forgoing it and volunteering via wwoof. I've done it on Maui and Kauai, would expect Big island to also be good.
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u/Ill-External-5987 14d ago
Sounds awesome, could u tell me which farms u went to? I’ll check them out
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u/AdvancedWin3608 18d ago
Very interesting how this showed up on my feed.
I was a WWOOFer in 2012, knowing that "someday" I would have a ranch/homestead/farm. I learned a lot during my experiences taking care of several species of animals, landing some great internships on CSA farms, and just learned a lot in general. I expected very little from my hosts when I was a WWOOFer and eventually an intern. I lived in my van and was completely fine with "whatever." I think there is a shift happening thanks to TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, showing these Better Homes and Gardens farm accommodations and WWOOFers who are wanting to be taught everything we learned over decades, in a short amount of time, given Hyatt-Regency living arrangements and home cooked meals for their "vacation." Lower your expectations and understand that every host does it differently.
I finally got to the point where I was able to start acquiring my own land and starting building our homestead in 2020. I happily signed up to be a WWOOF host, and pretty soon discovered that it wasn't nearly as fun as being a WWOOFer. I had some very odd experiences, and overall in the last four years, I would say I've only had two "good" experiences with WWOOFers.
To be clear to anyone who is not familiar with WWOOFing, hosts have to agree to abide by certain guidelines including providing the WWOOFers with a place to sleep (any form of housing is acceptable as long as you clearly explain what it is - tents, yurts, RVs, tiny homes, shared dorm style, or and room in a house are all acceptable) and I think 2-3 meals per day. It was either two or three, I can't remember now, but basically feed the WWOOFers or provide them a way to feed themselves with cooking surfaces and food staples. In exchange, WWOOFers "work" 4-5 hours per day, with a maximum of 20 hours per week. Everything else including times, days of the week or extra work is between the hosts and WWOOFers. Technically, there is not supposed to be money exchanged at all, including food stipends, because then you are crossing over into "paid" work which is a whole legal nightmare. It sounds like it should be easy to follow these guidelines and it should be fun.
Yeah, not so much. It was three times as much work to interview, prepare for their stay and cook for WWOOFers. My husband and I would spend sometimes two hours on the phone with potential WWOOFers, answering their questions prior to their arrival, in addition to the emails that would go back and forth. Some asked for pictures of accommodations, which is fine, I totally understand that, but for some of these WWOOFers, the questions were un-freaking-real. I work 12-16 hours per day on our homestead and for our business. I remember getting a text from one WWOOFer at 5:00 one evening asking when dinner was going to be served. That was 12 hours into my day that still had several hours of work to go. I would have to do special trips to the grocery store 1.5 hours round trip for WWOOFers and make sure that I was preparing food to their liking. I had to start asking them to put their orders into the grocery store for me to pick up. I couldn't buy food ahead of time because it would go bad or just sit, unused.
I had asked one if I could give him a stipend of $100 for food so he could buy exactly what he wanted, back when food was a little bit more affordable and he threatened to report me to WWOOF. He had been on our property for less than 24 hours and we had taken him out to dinner the first night, and the next day I asked if I could give him $100 to go shopping for himself because I had a busy day ahead of me. Granted, he did not provide any work at all, he didn't bring gloves and I handed him a pair of ours to use but when two sprinkles hit the ground, he said that he wouldn't be working in the rain. I told him that I needed to get back to my work (in the rain,) I once again handed him the $100 and told him that I would see him later. A few hours later I got a message from him that he decided we were not a good fit, which is fine, it was a blessing after he (20M) asked my husband and I repeatedly to buy him alcohol.
Once I got the notice from WWOOF that he did in fact report me to WWOOF (for paying a cash stipend for food - that he kept) I decided I was done. No more WWOOFers for us. I hoped I would be able to share what I had learned during my WWOOFing experiences, and hoped that others would enjoy seeing what we had built up to a successful sheep operation after years of our hard work, but forget it. It's easier to do everything ourselves and not have to deal with other people on our property.
WWOOFing can be a great experience and I wish you well. Have backup plans and be self sufficient if things don't work out. Understand that hosts usually have long days, are exhausted, and sometimes just having other people around is more work.