14 Unique Ways to Spend a Gap Year

When you hear the term gap year, your mind probably instantly goes to traveling abroad and taking time off from school before college.

But traveling is far from the only thing you can do during a gap year. There is no singular way to do a gap year, and you can tailor your gap year experience to fit your future goals.

Once you know the myriad options available, you can better plan and prepare for a productive and unique gap year off from school while still setting yourself up for personal and professional success.

Options for What to Do During Your Gap Year

You can pack a lot into a full year, a unique gap year can be a combination of multiple different experiences. You can spend part of the year working to save up for living expenses before setting off for six months of travel or do an internship for part of the year before volunteering abroad for the rest. It’s all up to you, as long as it aligns with your interests and goals.

To help you start planning a unique gap year, here are 14 different things you can do after high school graduation:

1. Work as an au pair

If you want a gap year experience with a mix of work and travel, being an au pair is a popular option. Living with a host family in a different country, you can immerse yourself in the local culture, practice language skills, and have your accommodations, food, and wages covered. If you’re planning on going into education or love being around children, being an au pair is a great way to gain experience in childcare.

2. Do a volunteer program

Lots of students opt to spend at least part of their gap year doing volunteer work with different organizations around the world. Depending on what you’re passionate about or how you want to give back, you can do anything from helping build houses to working for conservation and environmental efforts. Just make sure to do some due diligence on the volunteer organization before committing to a program.

3. Do a language immersion

Whether you want to learn a new language or increase your fluency in a language you’re already studying, gap years are great times to do a language immersion program in a different country. You get to live in a local community and interact with native speakers on a daily basis, improving your language skills and cultural sensitivity.

4. Take part in work exchange programs

Similar to being an au pair or doing volunteer programs, work exchange programs allow you to travel and trade your labor and work hours for accommodations. Not only does this help you save money while still seeing the world, but you also get to meet new people and participate in cool experiences like working on farms. You’ll also walk away with work experience to add to your resume.

5. Save money by working different jobs

Getting a gap year job comes with tons of benefits, from helping you save money toward college or traveling to giving you real-world work experience to add to your resume. While it’s a good idea to plan ahead financially and boost your resume, it’s important to not let work be the only part of your gap year. You can do part-time work, find one-off odd jobs, or work for a set period of time before pursuing other interests.

6. Take classes with an educational gap year program

Lots of students take gap years because they’re unsure of what they want to study in college or pursue as a career path. Taking some time off from traditional schooling can let you take new and different classes in different fields. Gap year students can join educational gap year programs that follow accredited curricula or take one-off classes in areas that interest them. These could be online or through local organizations like community colleges.

7. Focus on your own personal growth

For both high school students and college students alike, gap years represent big steps forward into adulthood and being independent. In addition to taking classes or taking a gap year abroad, you can also take time to grow as an individual and cultivate personal and professional skills you’ll need as an adult. This could be anything from challenging yourself to better handle your finances and make a budget to working on communication skills.

8. Travel abroad

Getting to explore the world is one of the most popular options for gap year experiences. As for how, the sky’s the limit, from planning solo trips like backpacking around Europe to joining gap year travel programs that follow set itineraries and often come with educational opportunities.

9. Travel on a budget

Even if you’re on a tight budget, it’s still possible to incorporate travel into your gap year plan. Options like volunteer work and work exchange programs allow you to travel and stay in other countries without worrying about the extra costs of accommodations and food. If you don’t want to go with a formal program for budget-friendly travel, you can still travel on the cheap with careful planning and budgeting, both of which are valuable skills.

10. Stay close to home

While international travel is great, it can also come with a few hoops to jump through like getting visas and in some cases vaccinations. Planning your gap year closer to home lets you save money, gain work experience, take classes, and explore your own country.

11. Do a sailing program

Gap years are prime times to do something extraordinary with your life, and what’s more extraordinary than living at sea full-time? Doing a sailing program like Sea|mester offers a mix of adventure, fun, and learning, spending anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple of months living, working, and learning on a sailing vessel. Offering accredited classes in a range of topics, you can still stay on top of your academic career while getting a taste of adventure and seeing the world.

12. Do an internship

If you know what you want to study in college but want to gain real-life experience in the field before committing to it, you can do a gap year internship. Gap year internships help you add work experiences to your resume and show you what it’s actually like to work in specific industries and fields. Some also come with benefits like being paid or offering college credits.

13. Learn new skills

From getting better at soft skills like communication and teamwork to learning hands-on skills you couldn’t do in a classroom like nautical navigation, gap years are great opportunities for experiential learning and honing new skills.

14. Go abroad for a working holiday

Lots of countries offer working holiday visas, which allow young adults to travel abroad on short-term visas for different work like seasonal jobs in tourism or hospitality. Working holidays are a great option for incorporating work and travel at the same time, letting you earn money while also staying in a different country, meeting new people, and gaining work experience.