We’ve just returned from a Boundless Life month-long cohort in Syros, Greece. It felt like a mini-sabbatical and it was wonderful! I want to capture all the goodness before it fades, bottle it so I can take a sip whenever I need to remember and hopefully inspire you in some way.
Our favourite Beach - Agathorpes (Photo Credit: Jessica Bidwell)
Boundless Life is a company that enables families to live and travel around the world by providing the essentials families need to make this lifestyle possible. They offer accommodation, co-working space, a community, and a school programme for children up to 14 years old. They currently have six locations around the world, with more opening soon. They organise travel into 1-month or 3-month cohorts of around 20-30 families, so you get to know your destination and community. I first heard of Boundless Life when they launched in 2021, and they invited us to be a “founding family,” but my daughter had just been born, and we decided we’d really be able to take better advantage of everything Boundless Life offers when she was a bit older. And in August 2024 – our waiting was over!
We signed up for the month-long cohort in Syros, Greece. While we booked many months in advance, all the Boundless Life accommodation options were taken, so we booked our own. While offering accommodation is attractive, this isn’t where Boundless Life shines – anyone can easily rent an Airbnb. Where they shine is in the school and community. There’s nowhere else I know of where I could send my child to school, while I can work in a dedicated workspace and be part of a community of families all doing the same thing. It’s a totally unique experience and solves so many of the barriers to long-term travel for families.
Here’s what I loved most about the experience.
Play dates – for kids AND adults
What I loved about the community was that it was filled with parents of children the same age as my daughter, and older, and we were all there for the same reason and with the same mindset. What that meant was that it wasn't at all awkward to suggest meeting up for a coffee, going to the beach together, or having a play date with other children. In fact, it was expected! It was just the normal thing to do. At school pick-up time, we would all gather around, and if anyone had a fantastic plan for exploring a new beach or going to a new restaurant, we would all jump on board with that plan, and that was perfectly fine.
In normal life, I feel like we've lost this sense of open invitation and spontaneity. We need at least two weeks' notice to plan anything, and it usually involves a million text messages, reservations, or a complex plan of logistics. The Boundless Life community was more free, open, and up for anything. The problem wasn’t finding things to do – the problem was having enough energy to do them all, which leads me to my next point.
The little friendships that form 🥰
The feeling of Expansive Time
One of the things I cherished most was feeling like time slowed down. The long, warm days stretched out in front of me; there was no schedule, no demands on my time, no one controlling me. While my daughter was at school, I had complete freedom to wander, explore, sit, eat, read, think, and nap. I did that on repeat for many days.
I’ve had this feeling of expansive time in my life more than most because I’ve taken so many sabbaticals. My solo sabbaticals were all about expansive time. I had complete control over my time and schedule. But since entering into motherhood, that sense of expansive time has all but evaporated. If I’m not working or caught up in the endless life admin tasks, I’m running around after a tiny human who demands my attention and energy and will stop at nothing to get it. Expansive time is one of the things I’ve mourned the loss of most in my transition to motherhood. But when I was in Greece, I got it back, and I loved every minute of it. I relished that feeling, guarded it, and held onto it as much as I possibly could.
It turns out that it needed to be guarded because, with so many things going on in the community – so many activities and play dates – it could have been very easy to have had my time completely gobbled up by the busyness of other people’s agendas when what I really needed most was to feel expansive time for myself.
Now, this isn’t my first rodeo, so I knew this about myself, and luckily, I did guard my time, and I feel that this time around I got the balance right between leaning into all the community could offer and giving myself expansive time. What this actually looked like was actively choosing not to take part in activities – and that was hard because the FOMO was real! People were out there doing amazing things every day, but if I had let FOMO control my experience and tried to do everything, I would have been exhausted.
Getting out of my bubble
When people talk about the power of a community, you often hear "it's all about the people". That's exactly the power of the Boundless Life experience - the people you meet and the experiences you have and the close bonds you form over a short period of time. We have an amazing bunch of friends in Amsterdam, but while we look quite different on the surface (different home countries, upbringings, etc.), our lives do all look pretty similar. What I loved about the Boundless Life community was the depth of differences between us all – from the family who had just finished building an amazing house in Nicaragua while building their tech startup remotely and sending their daughter to a jungle school, to the family who were remotely running a party boat company while travelling the world with their sons. The way people were organising their lives, what they were prioritising, and what they valued were so different, and the shapes of their lives were so different to ours that it was enlightening and refreshing. It’s always inspiring to be around people who have a vastly different outlook and are living completely different experiences to you. If the saying “you grow like the five people you spend the most time with” is true, I want to spend more time with Boundless people.
Out at a community dinner in a Textile Museum (Photo Credit: Jessica Bidwell)
Out of the Ordinary Experiences
One thing that Boundless Life does really well is giving you access to experiences that you would never be able to come across or organise on your own if you simply travelled to a destination. One of our favourite days was when we took a speed boat out to an uninhabited island near Syros. On the way there, we stopped off for snorkelling over a shipwreck, and then we arrived at a deserted beach with just a shack and a BBQ. We had one of the most amazing lunches of grilled mushrooms and BBQ chicken skewers, Greek salad with freshly barbecued pita. We drank beer, swam, and sat in the crystal-clear water while the kids explored the beach and climbed up to explore the lighthouse.
We also had the rare opportunity to do a workshop with one of the world’s top gelato artisans. He’s perfected all-natural processes to make the best-tasting gelato I’ve ever had. He came over from Athens to give us this special insider view into the tricks of making gelato without processed powders or stabilising agents. It was so inspiring to hear about his 10-year journey of experimentation to create a pure product that he so passionately believes in. He only runs this workshop for Boundless Life so it felt like a privilege we never would have been able to experience.
Our deserted island beach BBQ
Living like a local
I’ve done a lot of fast travel in my life (I’ve been to over 60 countries on all 7 continents), and now I prefer slow travel. Being in one location and staying to get a feel for the lifestyle, culture, people, and food. And that’s exactly how we felt in Syros. We leaned into the Greek lifestyle. I took my morning swim and got to know the “Swimming Ladies” of Syros, we took siestas every day to escape the heat, and we ate at the local tavernas almost every night. My daughter stayed up later, and we were often strolling through the town square eating gelato as the sun was setting and families came out to socialise. Over the month, we really got to explore the whole island and its many beaches. We had time to find our favourite spots (Agathopes Beach!) and returned often. We got into a beautiful rhythm of life at a slower pace that honoured our energy levels, the weather, and the community. It’s no wonder Greeks live longer – the lifestyle is simply healthier and more sustainable.
My morning swimming spot
Were there negatives?
Sure, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. We loved our house and had booked it for the amazing view but it didn’t have air conditioning – which we knew going in. We were there in the hottest months of August and it was hot! It took some adjustment and we were grateful for the beautifully conditioned co-working space. But if I had my time there in August again, I’d book AC!
The main complaint I’d have with Boundless Life as a company is them trying to do too much. Some of their experiences were things we could have booked ourselves, and booking them through Boundless Life just added a layer of cost and complexity that was unnecessary. Instead, they should focus on organising only the uncommon experiences that we wouldn’t be able to access ourselves.
Some families with older children didn’t find the education to meet the standards needed for 10-12-year-olds, but for us, with a daughter only 3 years old, it was absolutely perfect, and our daughter quickly formed bonds with her teachers and classmates.
Most downsides are really centred on Boundless Life as a company wanting to facilitate the best experience for everyone – and that’s exactly what you want from a company! To care. But it’s a balance they are working on as they grow.
Want to go Boundless? Get a discount.
I’m not affiliated with Boundless life. But I believe in what they’re doing to create travel experiences that enable families to experience the world. The great news is that they have a referral program. If you give them my name, we both get a discount. Win-win! Then once you become an alumni, you can refer people too!
There’s no doubt in my mind that our month in Syros will be an enduring family memory. My daughter will remember the Syros cats… no… who am I kidding… she’ll remember the nightly gelato! We’ll remember the long lazy days by the beach and the slow pace of living and eating like a local. Syros and the wonderful people we met will hold a special place in our hearts.
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