Agriturisms in Asia

How to find farm stay opportunities—the chance to stay on a working farm—in Asia

How to find farm stays in Asia

Some local tourist offices provide lists of local farm stays.

Few are listed in English-language guidebooks—but you can sometimes find guides available in local bookshops—often in the local lingo, but the important bits are easy enough: addresses, prices, and phone numbers, photographs, and icons for private baths, swimming pools, etc.

You can always just look for agriturism signs on country roads, pointing down rutted dirt tracks toward a farmhouse set among the vineyards.

If you want to find and book a few before you leave, here are the best online resources for finding farm stays all across Asia. Not all sites are available in English, but the pertinent details are usually pretty easy to figure out:

Farm stays in MALAYSIA

Homestay Malaysia (www.go2homestay.com) - The official website endorsed by the Ministry of Tourism, with everything from Ostrich farms to chili sauce makers.

Malaysia Tourism (www.tourism.gov.my) - Under "activities" is a section on homestays, with tips and a directory of around 120 options.

Farm stays in INDIA

Explore Rural India (www.exploreruralindia.org) - TK

Agri Tourism India (ATDC) (www.agritourism.in) - TK

GENERAL farm stay catalogs

Agrisport (www.agrisport.com) - It's very much a homemade site, and far from the best organized around, but it's loaded with links once you drill down. These are not only to specific guest farms and dude ranches, but to other outdoors and agritourism links as well, all grouped by country or state. One annoying factor: you have to open a site in a new window to see what its actual url is (otherwise every page is masked as "agrisort.com").

Earthfoot (www.earthfoot.org) - Under "Homestays" you'll find some good listings for India (mostly Kerala), plus a bit on Indonesia, Nepal, and Thailand.

Organic Places to Stay (www.organicholidays.co.uk) - OK, nearly two-thirds of the listings here are lodgings that happen to offer organic food. The other third, however, are B&Bs, rental cottages, or homestays on working organic farms. There are listings all over the world, including Bali (3), India (17), Nepal (2), and Sri Lanka (2).

Agritourism World (www.agritourismworld.com) - Ladies and gentlemen, behold: a list of thousands of farm stays around the world... in alphabetical order by name. Not even sure why I bother including this sits, since the results are nearly random—a farm B&B in rural Pennsylvania wedged between one in Italy and another in Belize. How useful is that? Still, if you just want to roll the virtual dice when it comes to location, you'll find plenty of agriturismi here.

Become a farmhand; sleep for free - If you really want to get your hands dirty, sign up to become a temporary farmhand through one of two volunteer organizations: WWOOF (www.wwoof.org) and Helpx (www.helpx.net)...