How To Spend A Summer In ALASKA, And Get Paid For It!
travel·@misterw·
0.000 HBDHow To Spend A Summer In ALASKA, And Get Paid For It!
 I used to see pictures and videos of Alaska and think about how much I wanted to visit there one day. But I honestly thought I wouldn't be able to until maybe my 60's when I retired. (This was back when I had the same retirement fantasy as the rest of the masses.) I knew I didn't have the money to travel to Alaska and I certainly didn't have the time, seeing as I was working 60+ hours a week just to pay my bills. But soon after I started my process of awakening, and I started educating myself, I stumbled across something that allowed me to not only spend 4 months in Alaska but also to get paid while I was there. In fact, I ended up leaving with more money than I came with. What did I discover? Seasonal work! Every summer thousands of people flock to Alaska from the lower 48 states and from around the world. With this increase in tourist comes an increase in the amount of job needed to serve these tourist. This, however, presents a problem. There are not enough locals in Alaska to fill all these jobs, especially since they only last for the summer season. So employers in Alaska that see an increase in their business during the summer (or who are only open during the summer months) are always on the lookout for people willing to work during the busy tourist season. This presents and opportunity for people who want to see and experience Alaska but don't have the money to do it the traditional way. If you have the time and the price of airfare (my round trip ticket to Alaska and back was less than $400) you can get a summer job in Alaska with housing provided in most cases. And some of the jobs even include a meal plan. So basically all you have to do is get to Alaska and everything else is pretty much taken care of by your employer.  So what type of jobs am I talking about? There are a wide variety of jobs available but pretty much all of them are entry level jobs in tourism/hospitality related fields. Let me just say here that these are not those fishing jobs you see on TV where people make thousands of dollars a week like Deadliest Catch or something like that. These are low paying (usually minimum wage) jobs. A lot of them are in retail and hotels and motels, but there are also jobs on scenic cruise ships and railroads, and at restaurants and bars. Basically any business that ramps up during the summer months in Alaska will probably be hiring seasonal workers. A lot of people get turned off to seasonal work when they see how low the pay is. But for me the money wasn't the reason I went. I went to see Alaska and I got to do that for an entire summer. I worked at a place called Trail Lake Lodge which was on the Kenai Penisula between the city of Anchorage and the town of Seward. It was located literally on Trail Lake and was surrounded my mountains. I worked about 35 hours a week on average as a housekeeper cleaning hotel rooms. And when I was wasn't working I was out hiking, climbing mountains, exploring nearby towns, fishing, watching the salmon spawn, hanging out with new friends, going on wildlife cruises, etc.  I got to do everything that tourist got to do, and I got to do it for 4 months! Four months is a long time to spend in a place and after awhile you actually get to feel like one of the locals. One of the downsides of my trip was all new friends that live in Alaska that I had to leave when the season was over. My housing was provided by the lodge and was on grounds, so I didn't have to bring my car. I ate the majority of my meals from the restaurant at the lodge where employees got a 50% discount. We even got a free beer every shift lol. It was a great experience and I met a lot of amazing people and saw some sights and scenes that I previously would have never thought I would see. For instance, none of my friends have ever seen a glacier, I have! And all I had to do in return for all this was do some pretty easy work for about 6 hours a day. I was working way more hours than that back home without any of the perks. I could go on for much longer about the time I spent in Alaska. But I'm going to wrap this post up. If anything I said interested you then I recommend checking out <a href ="https://www.coolworks.com">Coolworks.com</a>. It's a website dedicated solely to seasonal jobs in awesome places. You can click here to go straight to the <a href ="https://www.coolworks.com/alaska-jobs">Alaska page,</a>, but if you feel like doing some exploring they have job listings all over the country, and some in other countries too. I hope this post was informative, thanks for reading and HAPPY TRAVELS!