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Help us with cleaning & cooking in a pilgrim hostel

5.0
(15 reviews)15

The experience

- You'll help with cleaning duties and house chores in the hostel (albergue in Spanish :)).
- You'll help with cooking tasty vegetarian/vegan meals. Mostly as a "kitchen hand", but sometimes you'll be responsible for cooking the lunch for the "staff", meaning you and us, either following our recipes or creating something yourself.
- The work is distributed into 2 shifts: 3 hours in the morning, and 2 hours in the evening. 2 days off/week.

What you offer

25 hours of help per week

Cooking: Choose the menu, pick ingredients and cook delicious dishes.

Kitchen Hand: Help prepare, finish and serve meals.

What you get

2 days off per week

Private Room: You will have a bed in a private room. In other words, a room just for you.

Breakfast: You are entitled to a free breakfast, every day of your stay.

Lunch: You are entitled to a free lunch, every day of your stay.

Dinner: You are entitled to a free dinner, every day of your stay.

Free Laundry: You can use our laundry room freely.

Bikes at your disposal: You can use our bikes any time you want.

Use our equipped kitchen: Feel free to use our kitchen and make your own delicious food.

Fast Internet Access: High-speed internet for you to work remotely

Requirements

Fluent English or Fluent Spanish

Between 23 and 70 years old

Only hosts solo volunteers (doesn’t accept couples or partners)

What's not included

Flights, Travel Insurance, Internal Transportation and Visa

Program Details

We expect you to work for 25 hours a week, with 2 days off (Saturday is an obligatory day off, since we close the hostel, the 2nd day off you can take any day of the week). During your free time, you can enjoy either our place or its surroundings. We have bikes for volunteers, and both beautiful beaches and natural sights are within 30 minutes of bike ride away. The best beach is just 15 minutes bike ride away.

Basically the house is a pilgrim hostel, where people on the way of Saint James stop to rest, always for one night. We serve them good vegan dinner, and make sure they have a comfortable stay with us. You can enjoy interactions with pilgrims from all around the world while in the house, or spend your free time exploring the natural surroundings. The house is in a small town, but both beaches and mountains are within an easy reach by bike or even by walking. We have two supermarkets, restaurants and bars in town.

You should know that there is very limited public transport here, although from a nearby town (Unquera, 2km away) you can get by bus to any major town on the coast, and also to the Picos de Europa mountains. We can also pick you up there upon your arrival.

You should also now, that we live in the hostel, together with our little son Kubko (born in November 2025). Hence you should have a positive attitude to children being around :).

Lastly, we are in Asturias, which is the greenest part of Spain. It also means that it rains here sometimes, and temperature is very rarely above 30 degrees. We recommend you to read more about the climate in the region before applying, since it may be quite different to the climate you know from other parts of Spain.

Activities & Shift

On the five days you work each week, your shift will be split into two parts:

1st part: In the morning (anytime between 8:30am and 1pm), you'll help for 3-3.5 hours with cleaning the place (vacuuming the floors, cleaning the bathrooms, going with the rubbish bins, etc), and sometimes with cooking vegetarian lunch for the staff (3 people).

2nd part: In the evening the routine is the following: At 18:45 you start with preparing the salad for the dinner (according to instructions). Then at 19:15 you set up the table (typically for 11-12 people, including you). Then at 19:30 we have a dinner together, with all the pilgrims. Once the dinner is over, you collect the dishes and put them into dishwasher, prepare the breakfast (according to the instructions), and empty the dishwasher. The tasks before & after dinner take about 1.5 hours in total.

The rest of the day you'll be free to enjoy either the house or its surroundings, having a mountain bike on your disposal.

Rules

- We prefer non-smokers, and the entire house is no-smoking zone.
- All meals served here are vegan (dinner) or vegetarian (lunch and breakfast). You should be okay with such a diet during your stay. It is not allowed cooking/preparing any non-vegetarian meals in the house.