Boundless Life: What is it like to live in Syros, Greece for 3 months?
We just finished up 3 months living on the beautiful island of Syros, Greece and it was literally a life changing experience.
We are a family of four who has been traveling full time since 2018, and all of that travel was in our home on wheels (our RV) until this experience.
Why we chose Boundless Life for international travel
We have loved full-time RV travel, and have explored a ton of the U.S. and Baja, Mexico this way. However, we recently learned of an organization called Boundless Life that caters to families with young children.
They host one month and three month long cohorts in different places around the world (currently Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Indonesia with more locations starting in 2024), provide an education program for kids ages 1-12, a co-working space for adults, furnished homes and planned weekly activities for the adults.
We figured it was a great way to see somewhere in the world other than North America for a bit, and since it was our first time overseas, having an organization with local staff to help us navigate foreign travel was a huge benefit.
In RV life we have great community with other RVers, but it isn’t as easy to have community when traveling internationally, so we were really excited to have a built in community of other families to explore a new place with!
Our Experience in Syros, Greece
We decided on the location in Syros, Greece which is a beautiful island. Our home was in the city of Ermoupoli, which is the capital of the island and of all the Cyclades. It felt like a fairy tale island. Everyone was nice, there was no crime, the streets are clean and well lit and the island comes alive at night! It just seemed like a picture perfect place to call home.
Living on an island for the first time
We had heard of island fever and were curious what it would be like to live on an island for 3 months. Would we get restless? Bored? Claustrophobic? Nope.
It really felt no different than living in a walkable downtown area of any midsize city. We did not have a car, so most of our days were spent walking into town about 15 minutes from our house. The co-working hub was in town, along with the harbor, town square, city beaches (which were more like concrete boardwalks that you could hangout on and jump in from) and most of the best restaurants.
Whenever we got in the mood to leave town, we would rent a car for €35-€50/day (depending on the time of year) to explore the island, find a hike or visit some of the sandy beaches on the other side of the island.
It was also easy to visit other the other islands nearby using the ferries. We spent multiple days in Mykonos (checkout IG Reel of Mykonos) and Naxos (Checkout Pics & Reel of Naxos)
Since we did so much walking, comfortable shoes were a must. I tried on tons of shoes before we left and settled on a pair of adidas Retrophy E5 sneakers. They are by far the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever owned. Our son likes to dress in all Adidas whenever possible (I’m talking hat, shirt, shorts, pants, socks and shoes, so he brought a pair of adidas Lite Racer Adapt 5.0 shoes that served him well for the thousands of steps we took in Greece! You can find Casen’s sneakers and others at the adidas site.
The Weather
We arrived in April of 2023, and the weather was a bit chilly and breezy for the first month. Many people would disagree, but we have become quite the weather snobs by traveling full time for so long (Full disclosure on our weather-snob status, we experienced daytime highs around 67-70° F and lows around 60° F with 8-20 mph winds. We might need to spend a winter in the snow to reset our cold tolerance!)
We always chase good weather, and wearing jackets and having windy days weren’t my favorite during April! As our time went on, the weather warmed up about 10°, and was pretty close to perfect most days.
The Boundless Staff
The most special part of our experience were the people, and that includes the Boundless Life staff. The Boundless Life staff members are some of the most kind, patient and helpful people you can imagine. They were all locals and took care of anything we needed.
From hospital visits and home maintenance issues (including when you lock yourself out of the house, oops) to ordering a cab and giving restaurant recommendations…anything that anyone needed assistance with, they were just a text or call away.
The Education Center
The teachers at the Education Center were such a great group as well. They taught the kids not only things like math and language, but also things about growing up in Greece and all kinds of things about the culture and history from their firsthand experiences.
The kids had many field trips and group activities and extracurricular activities, which made learning a lot of fun. Both of our kids looked forward to going each day!
The Boundless Community
The other families that were in our cohort became like family to us. I still can’t wrap my mind around how so many incredible people all ended up in one cohort and how WE got the opportunity to learn from them and be a part of their lives for a short period of time.
We shared meals together, drinks together, lots and lots of laugher together and even tears together as several families experienced some really tough personal hardships. The community leaned in and helped each other out, just like a family does, and how I believe every community should.
We shared our experiences and expertise with each other, listened to one another and loved each other even though we all had different lifestyles and backgrounds. I truly believe the people in our cohort are some of the best people I’ve ever met.
What’s next?
Its hard to write this and not get emotional. It’s been two weeks since we left and I’m still mourning. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it’s true! The experience changed our life, broadened our worldview, and opened our eyes to European travel. We created memories with our kids and our new lifelong friends that we will NEVER forget.
Needless to say, we have already signed up for another cohort! We will be going to Sintra, Portugal in Spring of 2024 and we are SO excited. Our son will be 13 then, so he won’t be able to participate in the education program, but we will do our own learning and exploring around Portugal while Calista is in school.
During our Syros cohort, there was an older sibling who was 14 and he joined his parents for things like weekly hikes and yoga, and he took tennis and soccer lessons while he was there.
I am so glad we will be doing another cohort, and honestly I don’t see how anything can live up to our experience in Syros. Maybe I’m wrong, but if our experience in Sintra is even half as good as our last one, it will be worth it!
Our 2024 Europen adventures will not only include Portugual, but we also plan on exploring Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. We will be getting an International Driving Permit for some of our adventures in these loacations.
We were able to drive in Greece without an International Driving Permit, but some countries require them, including Spain. You can get one in person or via mail good for 1 year HERE for $20 or online HERE where you can receive a printed and digital International Driving Permit booklet and card. The digital IDP is sent in 8 minutes and your physical IDP will be mailed. You have the option of getting a permit here that is good between 1-3 years.
If you’re interested in joining us in Sintra in spring 2024, we’d love to have you join! Explore their website and book a call with them to get all the details.
You can mention The Wanderpreneurs, or our code: WANDER and get €400 off any cohort you sign up for!
**Some products discussed in this blog were gifted to me by adidas however, all opinions are entirely my own.
Check out our other experiences with Boundless Life
From driving across the border to putting the RV in storage to fly overseas, we have fallen in love with international travel. Here is a quick rundown of our experiences so far.