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This post was not paid for by Boundless Life, and all opinions are entirely our own. We paid full price, and this is our honest Boundless Life review.

A couple of years ago, I texted Alyssa a link to a company I’d found called Boundless Life. Some friends of ours had recently gone through their inaugural cohort, and the concept seemed interesting: Boundless provides you and your family a place to live, a coworking space, a Montessori-style school for the kids, and a community of like-minded families. At the time, Boundless Life had two locations in Greece and Portugal. (They now have seven.)

It kind of sounds like the dream, right?

As I looked at Instagram photos and reels of people sipping wine in exotic places (while their kids were safe & happy in school), I couldn’t help but be jealous.

“I think we should try this when Eli is old enough,” I told Alyssa. He was only a few months old at the time.

We’d always dreamed about the idea of a year abroad with the kids, but the logistics felt daunting. Where would we stay? What about visas? Would the kids be able to make friends? How would we find childcare? Boundless Life seemed to solve these problems.

Since Eli was a baby, we put it on the back burner. (With Boundless, schooling starts at age 18 months.) However, the seed was planted.

Over the next year, we followed along with Boundless Life on Instagram and oohed and aahed over the experiences. With each post, we got more excited. They announced new locations, such as Italy and Bali, in the meantime. They were actively growing and it seemed like the real deal.

Finally, in the spring of 2023, I pulled the trigger and set up a call with their sales team.

On a Zoom call with a Boundless Life employee—a mom with kids in the program—we immediately connected. She shared with us their experiences of raising children abroad and how impactful the program had been for them. We told her about our adventures with the kids across Europe, Japan, and New Zealand and how we missed community while we traveled.

We got off the call and knew we had to do this. We signed up immediately and made a substantial ($5,000+) deposit to secure our space.

We would join their Portugal cohort in the fall 2023 semester.

We decided on Portugal because it was their first and most established location and what our Boundless sales person recommended to us. Other locations had been spun up more recently, so we liked the idea of dropping into a place that should have more established routines and processes. Whether or not this was true was TBD.

Why am I writing this article?

I haven’t seen a long-form Boundless Life review (outside of Instagram). My goal isn’t to promote the company or put them on blast, but to share our honest experience with enrolling our kids in Boundless Life. The real stuff, not the Instagram highlight reel.

I’ll share what we paid for the program, what we liked about it, and what we didn’t like. I’ll also share my thoughts on whether I’d recommend it to others and whether we’d do it again.

And last thing to note, we were not compensated in any way for the program or for sharing this review. We paid full price. This is just a Boundless Life review from a family who has gone through the program.

What is Boundless Life?

Boundless Life is a venture-backed startup focused on providing world schooling experiences for families. They currently have locations in Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Montenegro, Uruguay, and Bali. They have three-month cohorts in the winter, spring, and fall that mimic a full school year as well as and shorter (4-week) summer and holiday cohorts.

In exchange for the cohort fees, you receive a family-friendly apartment, Montessori-style school program, coworking space, and community activities for families.

Boundless Life was catered towards digital nomad families as a way to travel long-term with kids (I say was because they’ve changed up some of their marketing, and our experience was mixed on whether “digital nomad” most accurately describes the target customer).

What I Liked About Our Boundless Life Experience

We will start with the good. 🙂

1. The ability to travel long-term with kids.

Over the past two years, we’ve traveled to over 12 countries with our kids (2,4). We’ve camped in rural Japan, hauled them on a long-distance flight from New Zealand to the US, and driven an RV all over Europe.

We’ve created unforgettable memories together, but only on short-term trips. We would travel for a month or two and then return to our everyday life in Colorado. The kids would be in daycare where they had friends, and we’d work during our time stateside. After doing this for a couple of months, we would get restless and plan another trip.

This life was extraordinary, but we wanted to explore whether we could create a more sustainable way to travel long-term with our kids. This way, we could make a more blended solution. Some travel, work, and life all mixed together.

For us, long-term travel would have a few components:

• The ability for Alyssa and me to work 20-30 hours per week
• Kids are in quality childcare that feels safe and fun
• A sense of community for the kids and us

Enrolling in Boundless accomplished these goals for us.

Not only were we able to work while traveling, but the kids were well taken care of in the Boundless school. We all made amazing new friends (some of whom we’ve met up with since leaving Boundless already) all while experiencing a new place.

2. We could go on endless dates.

We’ve only traveled in Europe since Ellie was born, and never had the luxury of exploring without the kids. Walking around our town or training into Lisbon for the day as a couple was such a luxurious feeling. We could explore just the two of us while our kids were safe in school.

This is easily the biggest surprise for us with Boundless and one of our favorite parts. There are monthly movie nights for the kids, so we have ready-made date nights. And in Portugal, we could easily train or grab an Uber to a nearby town or beach for day dates.

3. The Boundless Apartment

With each location, Boundless provides fully kitted-out apartments for families. This means you’ll have plenty of kid-friendly plates, cups, and bowls. Plus, the apartment feels very much catered to families.

Sometimes we book an Airbnb that claims to be family-friendly, but we are immediately met with a giant china cabinet. Boundless Life does a great job of making these spaces feel like home for families.

(Note: Boundless does not own these apartments. They have secured long-term leases with building owners and then rent them directly to Boundless families.)

Our apartment was a 7-minute walk to the education center and a 15 minute walk to the hub.

The actual space itself was updated, modern, and very nice. Best of all, we were right underneath our friends Brooke and Tyler, who had kids the same age as ours. Being so close to friends meant spontaneous hangouts, leaving snacks on each other’s doorsteps, and tossing up and down supplies for each other. We loved this (and so did the kids).

Our unit was a 2-bedroom, but it’s possible to book anything from a one-bedroom to a three-bedroom with Boundless.

When you’re on the Boundless website, you’ll notice they have standard spaces and then something called “home plus”. Effectively, these are spaces that Boundless has determined are nicer and cost a little more. With a home plus, you might receive a bigger balcony, a yard, or something extra with your space.

What we loved most about our Boundless lodging was the weekly house cleaning.

Not a luxury we are typically accustomed to, but quickly embraced. House cleaning days were like Easter and Christmas morning all rolled into one. No dirty dishes and fresh sheets and we didn’t have to lift a finger? Yes, please (I’m being overdramatic, but it truly was great! We miss it).

If you sign up for Boundless Home Plus, you will receive twice-weekly house cleaning instead of just once.

You don’t have to stay in a Boundless apartment, but most people do. (A few people who were in Portugal longer term did have their own apartments.) When I say we loved our apartment, I mean we loved it. It was beautiful, modern, recently remodeled, and had everything we needed it.

And if it didn’t have something we needed, we could always put in a request with the Boundless staff.

4. The Daily Walks to School

Of all the things I enjoyed about Boundless, I think the walks to school were one of my favorites. Each morning the kids would go out the door and immediately see their friends. They would be so excited to walk next to them or hold hands. Not to mention, there is a large castle at the top of that mountain that we could see as soon as we stepped out of our door every morning.

This type of experience was the complete opposite of how we were accustomed to dropping the kids off at school. Previously, we would drive them for 10 minutes, drop them off at a door, and say goodbye. It would be rare for us to encounter other parents, let alone have the opportunity to engage in a conversation with them.

With Boundless, we walked with other families every day. We would congregate after drop off and talk about our plans for the day. Sometimes we’d spontaneously go get coffee or a meal or hop in a cab and go to the beach.

This is the type of community experience we had hoped for with Boundless. The ability to spend our days with other people in a similar stage of life.

5. The Community

A big reason we wanted to do Boundless was to make friends with other families who had similar values.

For five years, we hosted a conference for RV Entrepreneurs. We’d spend an entire month camped next to other nomads & entrepreneurs. We’d find ourselves going on random hikes or grabbing coffee with strangers. It was an accelerator for making friends with like-minded people and one of our favorite things we’ve ever done.

Our hope was for Boundless to be similar—and it was.

Every day, there were opportunities to connect and hang with new friends.

On Wednesdays, we would have pizza parties at one of the houses while the kids played in the yard. On Fridays, a group of us played Padel (a racquet game I fell in love with and dearly miss).

One of my favorite memories was going to a neighbor’s house for dinner. They’d prepared dough for the kids to make pizzas and we spent the evening laughing and having a great time. To have these types of community experiences while in a new country was magic.

6. The Hikes*

Technically this should fall under the community section, but I’m making it its own thing. Every other Thursday Boundless coordinates a hike with team members, weather permitting. They were a huge highlight for both Alyssa and me.

I decided to skip one of the hikes along the coast and then everyone came back and said it was the best hike of their lives (I did not miss any more hikes after that).

*This does not happen in every Boundless location, but most offer at least some hikes.

7. The Boundless Teaching Staff

I’ve never felt great about dropping Ellie off at daycare. Back in Colorado, it felt like her teachers were there for a paycheck. Turnover was constantly happening in her school with staff. It was a job for people, not something they genuinely wanted to do, and the level of care reflected that. It was a nagging feeling for me every day.

With Boundless, I didn’t have this feeling at all.

Instead of someone showing up for a paycheck, their teachers were in it because they loved what they did. Teaching was purposeful for them. You could see how connecting with and teaching these children completely lit them up.

Throughout our Boundless cohort, we experienced some interpersonal issues with other kids (typical stuff you’d encounter at most schools), but I felt great about the Boundless teaching staff.

8. The Location

Sintra was walkable and very hilly, but a beautiful setting. It has a lot of history and beautiful palaces.

Before arriving I didn’t realize just how much of a tourist hub it was. Every day we’d watched hundreds of people get off the train to explore the castles and palaces. The center of town was bustling for almost our entire cohort (it did calm down in November a little bit, but we were surprised at what a major destination it was). It’s one of the most popular day trips from Lisbon.

While the town of Sintra was pretty, what we loved most was access to the coast. Specifically, we fell in love with a town called Cascais. It was a 20-minute Uber ride for us each way, but worth it.

Cascais is an expat hub with a coastline that looks just like the Pacific Coast Highway (minus all the traffic). It has a lot of great restaurants and one of the best parks/playgrounds we’ve ever been to.

Toward the end of our trip, both Alyssa and I mentioned how we could easily see ourselves long-term in a place like Cascais. If Portugal hadn’t changed their golden visa requirements while we were there, we would’ve considered buying a house there. We loved it that much!

Update: Now that we’ve done a few more Boundless locations (spoiler alert, sorry!), we will have to write a post sharing which ones were our favorite! Sintra might actually come in last place…and we still loved the area.

9. The Boundless Leadership Team

One cofounder and two team leaders visited Sintra during our cohort. They met with many individual families to gather feedback and ideas on improving the program.

To me, this spoke volumes about the Boundless team and their commitment to continually improving and refining the business vision.

What I Didn’t Like About Our Boundless Life Experience

Before diving into this part, I want to share a disclaimer.

Each of these items I share below was first brought to the Boundless team while we were on-site in Sintra. They were all addressed and brought to resolution during our time there.

My approach when giving critical feedback is always to go directly to the source and, if necessary, share it publicly (via a review like this one). I intend not to knock Boundless down a peg but share my genuine experience with the program. I believe it’s essential to share both the positive and negative aspects for all families considering the significant investment of time and money to participate in Boundless.

Further, since our cohort ended, we’ve seen Boundless work to implement this feedback across all locations. And we’ve joined more cohorts with Boundless Life since then, and seen improvements as a result.

1. The Wifi at Coworking Space

Boundless Life offers a few core services (not all listed here): apartments for families, an education center, community activities, and a coworking space.

A critical component of a coworking space is usable internet.

For the first several weeks of our cohort, the internet was spotty and intermittent at the coworking space. Most days it was completely unusable.

We skipped out on hiking up to the coworking space for events like yoga because we couldn’t stick around after and work in the space and we knew it would take at least 30 minutes just to hike there and back. (Oh yes, it was a HIKE to get to this Hub, straight uphill, lots of stairs, and crowds of tourists in the way.)

Several days during this period, I watched other cohort members pack up to leave because they couldn’t work.

This was confusing because we were not the first cohort in Sintra. I would have thought this would have been prioritized and figured out in a previous cohort.

I later learned that they have cycled through various internet companies, trying to get better Wi-Fi into the space, to no avail.

The coworking space itself is a beautiful building. However, it’s older, and the walls are dense. Local providers haven’t been able to deliver fast internet consistently.

Some days the internet worked okay, others it did not (it often depended on how many people were there). During our cohort, Boundless changed providers and this did improve the internet. However, due to the initial experience, most people ended up working out of their apartments.

This was a bummer because part of the Boundless experience (we assumed) was working alongside other entrepreneurs and digital nomads. Instead, maybe 2-4 people used the space.

I spoke with a family in the Tuscany cohort (Italy) who reported having similar issues with the coworking space. He said on days when there were a bunch of people there, the internet was incredibly slow.

Our wifi at home was great and we never had any issues with it, so we often worked from home—me from the desk and Alyssa from the kitchen table. On days when the weather was good, we’d set up outside.

But we felt like there was something we were missing out on since the hub wasn’t the community workspace we were counting on.

2. The Kids’ Extracurricular Activities

Before arrival, Boundless sources a handful of extracurricular activities for the kids. If there are enough students who sign up, they coordinate the activity. Some of these activities included surfing, which was a big hit among both adults and kids within our cohort.

Another activity being offered was soccer.

We’ve always felt bad that our traveling meant missing out on group sports for Ellie. She’s so energetic, we knew she would love soccer. We had no idea that Boundless coordinated all of these extracurriculars, but we were glad they did.

Excited to try something new, we signed up Ellie. Unfortunately, she was sick during the first day, so she missed this practice. We noticed that several students dropped out after the initial practice, as they were either unimpressed or did not enjoy the first class. But we opted to send her anyway.

Since Ellie had never played before, I was excited to go and watch her learn. Growing up, my dad went to every one of my practices and games. It was always a fun bonding experience.

However, Boundless discouraged parents from attending. They didn’t explicitly say not to go, but it was more like parents shouldn’t go with a look that said, “Why would you want to go, you helicopter parent!” A few parents were still going, not eager to let their three and four-year-olds travel by car to a sports arena they’d never seen with coaches they’d never met in a foreign country.

I also learned beforehand that a Boundless staff member or teacher was not riding with them to practice. Boundless had contracted with a local transportation company to drive the kids (10-15 mins away).

This didn’t sit well with us or other parents.

A random person whom none of these kids knew was going to load them up in a minivan and drive them somewhere they’ve never been. Even though this was a vetted and preferred travel partner, it made us feel uneasy.

Nerves aside, we learned our friend would be taking an Uber to the field to watch the practice, so we opted to trust Boundless’ process and let Ellie attend anyway. No one wants to be the helicopter parent. After all, we were here in Portugal because we trusted Boundless and wanted to push our comfort zone.

Then I got these texts from our friend.

“It feels very uncomfortable.”

“They just walked into two new coaches who didn’t introduce themselves and hardly speak any English and the kids have no idea what they should be doing.” (The coaching staff changed from the first class to the second, so these coaches were new to every kid.)

“Ellie just needed to go to the potty and I’m so glad I was here to help.”

“It’s absurd that no one from Boundless is here.”

“Ellie is not comfortable participating yet. I am trying to help her at least play with the ball. The coaches are not engaging her at all. Zero percent. No attempt to help her join them.”

Then we received this picture.

Ellie is at one end of the field lying on a ball. The coaches on the other.

I immediately felt angry, frustrated, and sad.

Sad for Ellie.

Frustrated at myself for letting this situation happen.

Angry at Boundless for dropping the ball.

I immediately hopped in an Uber and went to the soccer field. I showed up as it ended. Then I rode back with the transportation company and one other parent who attended. In the car, she messaged me:

“I think it will be better to find a coach ourselves and bring him to our yard.”

Later on, I learned that when Ellie needed to go into the bathroom, our friend took her, and none of the lights worked. She used her phone as a flashlight. If she hadn’t been there with Ellie, would two strange men whom she had just met and couldn’t communicate with her have taken her into a dark bathroom?

The whole situation felt frustrating.

I think what hurt most of all in this scenario is the loss of trust we felt with Boundless. We are here in a foreign country and trusted them with the most important humans in our lives.

The story in my head is that they didn’t do a very good job vetting a soccer club partner nor did they think through the experience overall. In what world would it make sense for three and four-year-olds to ride in a van with a stranger, no parents, and no Boundless staff members? 

On our ride back to the education center after the failed soccer practice, a three-year-old asked me to open her snack because she couldn’t do it by herself. This is just one of many reasons why there should have been a staff member with the kids.

After this day, every single remaining kid dropped out of soccer. Boundless apologized and tried to source another soccer partner, but it never happened.

To be fair, the business Boundless Life has chosen has a LOT of logistics. Balls will inevitably get dropped.

But when the ball is your four-year-old child, that is not acceptable.

I will reiterate that after this experience, we sat down with the Boundless Operations manager and went through this experience in detail. Apologies were given, and steps were taken to prevent this situation from happening again. It is my understanding that, moving forward, Boundless staff members will accompany the kids to these activities.

3. The Local Boundless Team

To say we were not impressed with the local Boundless team would be an understatement. There were several situations where a communication ball was dropped, either with us or with other families. Without giving all the details, we saw this a little too often:

• Families had to switch apartments at a moment’s notice.
• A family went without electricity and internet (they didn’t have a fridge for a week!).
• A family had to relocate and book (more expensive) lodging in a nearby town due to a black mold issue that was making all of the kids sick
• Multiple families had issues with their wifi not working or going out frequently

In each of these situations, the circumstances weren’t the primary issue (though mold is bad). In my opinion, it was a lack of ownership and responsiveness to address them in a timely and helpful manner. The story in my head is that there wasn’t a leader stepping in to really own these problems and bring them to resolutions quickly and effectively. We saw it happen again and again.

The first two weeks of school, everyone—kids and parents—got an awful stomach bug. Everyone was collapsing like dominoes. To stop the bug, the team decided to close the school. This was done suddenly via a WhatsApp message that caught all the parents off guard, especially since almost every kid had been through the bug already. Between the bug and the closure, our kids spent one day in school over the course of ten days.

This was partly a standard start of school, par for the course experience. However, I’ve never seen a school close suddenly due to a stomach bug. This didn’t sit well with any of the parents, particularly those of us who were working.

We were told the GM in Sintra left before our cohort started. Someone was promoted to fill that spot, and she quit (or was fired, we don’t know) before the end of our cohort. We saw her at the welcome party and then saw her once after that before she disappeared from events and group chats. I believe some of the turnover likely led to communication gaps and dropped balls.

Boundless boasts its “concierge” service, but I don’t believe they lived up to it.

We lucked out with only minor problems that needed to be addressed, such as the peephole in our door breaking and falling out. This was a five-minute fix that took nearly a month and some gentle nagging to get it fixed! We were told it took so long because the person who handles maintenance was out of town. I wonder if this was also why someone didn’t have electricity for a week?

For us, this was a little thing, but perhaps indicative of how all communication and incidents were handled.

4. The Lack of Community Facilitation

*This point is more subjective and more so something I think can be improved (versus something that went wrong). 

Boundless coordinates numerous community events—like hikes, local experiences, cooking classes, potlucks, karaoke nights, etc. These are a great way to connect with other families.

However, it felt like a missed opportunity for the local Boundless team to engage more with the community. Typically, a Boundless team member would open the coworking space for the event, and we wouldn’t see them again. It was like, “Here’s the key, enjoy your meetup, bye.” Sometimes someone from Boundless wouldn’t be there at all.

For these events, there was often no introduction or context given for the night; it was just a space provided for the families to do their thing. Some games were sitting on a table, and a TV was turned on to YouTube if people wanted to sing along to videos. (But no actual karaoke machine, much to everyone’s disappointment since karaoke was listed as the activity for the evening.)

There were probably five potluck nights on the calendar during our cohort, which we, as parents, quickly came to see for what it was: a lack of effort to plan actual events. 

Even the Halloween party was labeled as a “pay $20 per person” event that said, “Hey, this is a potluck, so make Halloween treats and hike for 20 minutes uphill, carrying the food and your two-year-old.” (My wife’s words, not Boundless’s.)

Meanwhile, one of the moms noticed that other Boundless locations were hosting free Halloween parties. She went to bat for the cohort and fought to get the event either catered or free as a potluck.

We paid $80 for our family of four to attend (which is still crazy to me, considering it was at the hub and with around 60 people there, Boundless brought in a pretty penny in profit). There were other Boundless events that felt worth it, like the parents cooking night or wine tastings, but there were definitely a few where it felt like the team was just phoning it in.

I think Boundless team members could have done a better job of engaging with these events. Kicking off the night with a few words, spending time with the cohort, etc. We left the cohort feeling like we didn’t really know or often see the team running the show.

Boundless did a great job at their opening and ending “connections” times. These were the only times when the Boundless team members actively participated and engaged with our cohort. But we were underwhelmed with many of the coordinated events in between.

5. What Surprised Me About Boundless Life

It feels weird to list this as a negative from our Boundless experience, as it was a big surprise for us.

Boundless really markets itself as a solution for digital nomad families, so we expected to meet many families who were experienced travelers working on the road or running a remote business.

Instead, many of the families in our cohort were taking a leave of absence from work, had sold a company, or were on early retirement with their kids. Of the few families who were working, many of them had never tried working remotely while traveling.

In fact, most families treated this experience less like living and working abroad and more like an extended vacation. Families were off every weekend to nearby spots in Portugal or jetting off to other places across Europe and northern Africa.

This blew us away, and something I share perhaps less as a negative and more about me wanting to hedge expectations for any other traveling families who might want to sign up for Boundless. There were only three families of the 21 in our cohort who were full-time traveling. The other 18 were new to traveling long-term, some had never been to Europe before, and many had never tried something so unconventional.

For those reasons, five families left during our cohort. 

(Although one guy’s reason for leaving was “When they say concierge service, I expect to get a washcloth at 3 AM if I need a washcloth at 3 AM” so take that with a grain of salt.)

As I mentioned early, some of the core Boundless team came to Sintra to meet with families. This was why. The staff on the ground was clearly overwhelmed and ill-equipped while some families were very unimpressed and upset and rushing to leave.

Overall the crowd of people in attendance was just a bit different than we expected and we still made great friends, but just another example of how Boundless’s marketing didn’t quite match up with what we experienced.

How Much Does Boundless Life Cost?

We paid $7,112.29 per month for our three-month cohort. In total, it was $21,336.87* for the Boundless program. The pricing is changed often and will depend on whether or not you sign up for multiple cohorts (where you’ll receive a discount). They also charge prices in Euros, so you’re subject to the exchange rate at the time you pay.

What we paid included our two-bedroom apartment (with weekly housekeeping), coworking space, and education center for both kids. This price did not include the extracurricular activities or extra Boundless coordinated trips, which incurred additional fees.

At first glance, Boundless seems pricey, and it is. However, when I added up our monthly expenses to live in Colorado I realized it wasn’t too far from what we were spending in the US.

In the US, I calculated we spend roughly $5,000 for some of our “core life costs”, such as our mortgage ($2,000), childcare ($2,000), car/insurance/gas, etc ($1,000).

We calculated that we’d be spending a couple of thousand more per month, but it wasn’t as bad when compared next to each other. We wouldn’t be paying for gas, mortgage, or utilities while in Portugal because we rented out our house.

Plus, I later realized that the costs of groceries and eating out in Portugal are roughly half of those in the US (or less).

In general, I feel the value of what Boundless provided for the cost was fair.

*These prices also change seasonally and vary by location. Your prices could be much higher or lower.

Would I Do Boundless Again?

This is a question friends and fellow cohort members have asked us.

The answer, despite some of the missed expectations and setbacks, is yes.

Here are a few reasons why:

#1 It’s the only real turn-key solution for digital nomad families (at least for now). 

If Alyssa and I want to travel to a new country and stay for a few months, we have numerous logistics to figure out. Where should we stay? How can we find a family-friendly accommodation? Could we invite friends along for the adventure so we aren’t alone? How can we accomplish some work while also exploring the new place?

Boundless takes care of all of this. Essentially, logistics is the primary service that Boundless offers. They vet an area & then figure out everything so you don’t have to.

Could we travel without the schooling component and coworking and community?

Sure. And we do.

While I write this we just wrapped up a month near Austin and plan to spend several more months traveling this year.

However, each new destination we plan comes with a lot of things to figure out (what neighborhood to stay, childcare, work, etc).

Boundless solves a pain point for long-term family travelers. It creates a viable option to build community AND work while you travel.

#2 I believe the Boundless Life experience will keep getting better.

While I shared some of our less-than-stellar experiences above, one thing I will reiterate is that Boundless actively listened and responded actively through all those scenarios. Not always as fast or clear as we would’ve liked, but action was always taken.

Several leaders from the company visited Sintra during our cohort and actively met with as many families as they could. In listening to Boundless share their priorities and initiatives moving forward, I believe they are willing to address problems and get better. We tuned into their recent forum and heard the staff talk about how a team member will always transport and attend extracurricular activities, which was one of the biggest problems we faced during our time in Portugal.

#3 The overall experience was positive.

Despite its ups and downs, the overall experience with Boundless Life was positive.

Our kids became close with other families from all over the US (and the world). A few days ago Ellie Facetimed with her friend from Israel who she misses dearly. She tells me all the time about her “best friends forever” from Boundless.

Eli (our two-year-old) went from saying a few words to saying everything. He made a best buddy in class and they spent all day playing cars next to each other.

I learned how to surf and got to explore Lisbon and the surrounding area with Alyssa and new friends.

We got to travel to a new country together as a family and learn about the culture, the food, and the people. Most of all, we got to do it alongside others in a new and beautiful setting.

My Takeaways About Boundless Life

Boundless has hit on a big need. They are not only serving the growing community of remote working families looking to switch it up but also the many Americans searching for alternative education options. A place where they feel safe sending their kids.

The future cohorts are booking up quickly, and demand is high. What the Boundless team has built is impressive given their short time in existence.

When I think about some of the shortcomings we experienced, I don’t chalk them up to Boundless being a bad company. I think they are a startup with some growing pains, a lot of logistics, and ambitious growth plans. Alyssa and I are following along closely to consider booking future cohorts with them (we have our eyes on Spain!).

If you made it this far in this post and have any more questions about our experience with Boundless, feel free to comment below. I’d be happy to answer any of them that I can.

FAQs

What are the Boundless Life alternatives?

While there are quite a few co-living types of companies catered towards singles or couples, I don’t know of another one catered towards families at the moment.

Is Boundless Life legit?

Yes, Boundless Life is a legitimate hospitality and educational company. They provide lodging, a Montessori-style school program, and coworking for digital nomad families.

Is Boundless Life worth it?

For us, Boundless Life was worth it because of the overall experience and the people we met. The costs are high, but fair and we have great memories of our experience.

Where does Boundless Life have locations?

Boundless Life has locations in Greece, Bali, Portugal, and Italy. They are currently expanding to Montenegro and Spain.

Is Boundless a good first school for my toddler?

Many parents in our cohort had never put their kids in a daycare or school before. Older kids adapted pretty quickly, though there were always the goodbye tears. Younger kids often did half days or a couple of days a week to adjust.

As someone who has had kids in multiple daycares and childcare options, I would say Boundless will spoil you for taking your kids to school. The teachers are amazing, meals and snacks are provided(!), class sizes are small, and they take the kids outside often. It shines compared to all of the places we’ve had our kids.

Our son was nearly two when our cohort started and he celebrated his birthday at school. (Everyone got cake and sang to him, so so sweet!) We put him in a summer daycare program leading up to Boundless so he would understand the concept of school before our time in Portugal. Personally, I think this worked out amazingly and he adjusted to school in Sintra very quickly.

Is Boundless Life Too Good to be True?

Since you’ve heard from me a lot, I also wanted to include a brief review from my better half. Alyssa also echoed most, if not all, of my sentiments above.

Before attending Boundless, we never heard a bad word about the company or anything slightly negative online. We felt it was too good to be true. Certainly, some things weren’t so Instagram-worthy (which is why we wrote this Boundless Life review!).

Like all experiences, there were ups and downs. No wifi at the coworking space was frustrating considering we were paying for a coworking space we couldn’t use. Feeling like our daughter was put in a dangerous situation was horrifying (forever grateful for the mom who attended soccer practice and could fill us in on what was happening). The way the staff handled things was just okay, even though we knew they had a lot on their plates.

There’s more I could say, but I know that even though it wasn’t perfect (nothing is), we would 100% sign up again. We actually did sign up for cohorts for 2024, but we’ve got a family wedding that’s tying us stateside for a couple of months.

If you’re considering Boundless, here are a few things to consider:

• Have you traveled outside of your home country before? Will you be able to adapt to the cultural differences that come with moving to a foreign country for three months?
• Do you want to slow travel and live abroad, or do you want to hop around Europe? Boundless is built for slow travelers, though many in our cohort used it as a home base for traveling to neighboring countries. (If you want to hop around more, Italy would be the location I would choose since it’s more central to all of Europe.)
• Will you be working abroad? Is this okay with your employer and will you need to keep US hours? No one wants to take a 10 PM meeting on a Friday night in Portugal (shoutout to our friend Tyler though for taking these in stride and joining us for wine afterward).
• Do you have at least one child to enroll in Boundless’s education center? At least one child in your household must be enrolled. I recommend enrolling all of your kids, if they are old enough.

For more information about Boundless Life, including current costs, dates, and locations, check out their website. There were good and bad parts, but I would do it all again.

Are You Considering Boundless Life?

If you’re considering joining Boundless Life after hearing about both the positive and negative aspects from our initial experience, I highly recommend it. 

I’m updating this post today in 2025 as I sit in the most beautiful apartment I’ve ever had in the middle of Tuscany enjoying our fourth Boundless cohort. We gave Boundless another chance and let me just say that our experience in Sintra was the exception, not the norm.

Greece was incredible.

Montenegro was stunning.

Italy is delicious.

I’m booking a cohort in Uruguay this week.

We had a very meh first experience with the Boundless team and it set us up to be blown away by every experience since.

If you read this blog post and decide to book Boundless, all Boundless families now have a referral code. Our referral code is: ALYPAD32 Using this code will get you (and me) a discount on your upcoming reservation. We wrote this blog long before Boundless rolled out their referral program, but have heard from so many of you who booked after reading, so I hope this discount will be meaningful for you!

If you have any specific questions before committing (because as I mentioned, it’s not a cheap purchase!), feel free to comment on this post or send us an email.