I’ve been asked about what I did on this program a few times now so I thought i’d make this post to sum it all up.

Work America by Bunac allows you to work in the USA between the dates of June 1st and September 15th. Before and after this time period you also get 30 days to travel around the states.

I was lucky enough to find work before heading out but if you haven’t been able to secure a job there are plenty of companies hiring once you get to the states.

The first job I obtained was in California. I booked my flight to leave London and arrive in New York. This is because STA travel recommend you fly to NYC regardless of where you will be working. It is the cheapest flight path and the easiest airport to get home from. Besides, you are going to be passing NY on your way back to England anyway. Also, because you don’t know where you will be travelling to after your program. The best thing to do is to pick an airport like NY and just get an internal flight from wherever you end up.. back to NY.

I did the majority of my travelling using internal flights. These are a lot cheaper in the US and booking in advance whilst using a website like www.skyscanner.com can get you good deals.

The route I took was as follows, the amount of nights I stayed for are in brackets:

NYC (4) -> LA – Hollywood (5) -> Santa Monica (1) -> Anaheim (1) -> Hermosa Beach (1) -> San Diego (3) -> San Francisco (4) -> Chicago (3) -> Wisconsin -Door County

I had the best time of my life. Travelling this route was amazing. I customised it to cater what I wanted to do.. The 1 night in Anaheim was to spend a day at Disneyland and the 1 night at Hermosa was to attend a concert. I flew to all the major locations but took the bus for $20 from LA to San Diego.

I stayed in hostels for the majority of my trip. Definately stay in USA Hostels when in California. They have one in Hollywood, San Diego and San Francisco. I made a lot of friends here and went on some great free tours led by the hostel workers. For the other hostel nights, I stayed in Hostelling Internationals (HI hostels). Google them if you haven’t heard of them, they are one of the biggest hostel groups in the world.

After I booked the California trip I actually ended up without a job there. I found a different job and my new employer then picked me up from Chicago to take me to my new work location in Wisconsin.

When I finished work, I had a Bamba bus tour booked with STA Travel. This tour is just a bus ticket. It allows you to travel at your own pace taking as long as you want to do the trip in. You can hop on and off buses and spend as many nights as you want at each place. I booked this in advance as whilst most of you will want to travel with people you meet during the program. I knew I wanted to see parts of America I haven’t seen before so this was the best option for me.

Other travel options include: TrekAmerica.com, Bambaexperience.com, STA Travel tours, realgap.com

So good luck with it all if you’re thinking of doing Work America in the future. Any questions; send me a message 🙂