Worldschooling Communities & Hubs For Nomadic Families (2024)
If you’re considering joining worldschooling communities around the globe, then you’ve come to the right place.
While we have been worldschooling for years, we have noticed that worldschooling communities and hubs have become much more abundant in the last few years. As travel has become more accessible and more people are able to work remotely, there are more families looking for a solution to find community and education while traveling.
This challenge for traveling families has led to the emergence of worldschooling communities. These communities and hubs offer a unique opportunity for families to combine travel and education, creating a rich and diverse learning experience for children.
This is great news for nomadic families or families looking to take a short sabbatical, as you’ll have lots of worldschooling options to choose from!
I will be keeping this post updated as best as possible with world schools that I find in my research, but please make sure to subscribe to our worldschooling & travel newsletter, as I highlight new worldschools, family group trips, family travel gatherings and world school pop ups!!
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What Is Worldschooling?
Worldschooling is really just seeing the world and learning about various cultures, history, food, and landscapes by experiencing it first-hand. It’s about interacting with the world around us instead of just reading about it from a textbook.
Worldschooling is an educational philosophy that emphasizes experiential learning through travel, cultural immersion, and real-life experiences. The education involved in worldschooling can vary depending on whether a family is traveling alone or with other nomadic families.
Rather than following a traditional curriculum, worldschoolers believe that the world is their classroom and that there is no better way to learn than through experiencing new cultures, languages, and environments.
Families may stay in one place for an extended period of time or travel frequently from destination to destination. Children learn through hands-on experiences, such as visiting historical sites, immersing in local way of life or learning new skills from experts in that region.
Worldschooling encourages a love of learning, independence, and adaptability, and provides children with a unique and diverse education.
In recent years, more worldschooling communities have popped up. Some of these are permanent education centers, while others are pop-ups for a specific duration. There are also more options to meet up with worldschooling groups in various cities around the world.
Worldschooling Communities And Hubs
There are several worldschooling communities that cater to the needs of nomadic families who want to educate their children while traveling the country. Below are a list of some worldschooling communities, schools, hubs and pop-ups to check out.
Some are informal and loosely organized and others are more structured. You’ll find some schools are permanent, others pop up for a short period of time, some are traveling communities and others are hubs that gather in specific towns around the world.
Please note that the list is for easy access to information and we don’t personally have experience with every one of these worldschools. This is meant to be a list to help you start your search, provide you with ideas and show you the possibilities!
Also, make sure to note what is included and not included in the various pop-ups. Many times the ones that seem very affordable are less costly because they don’t include accommodations or all activities.
Here is a list of worldschooling communities and family travel groups that you may want to look into. Some of these worldschool options start in 2024 & 2025 so you can plan ahead:
1. The Hub Project (Used to be called Worldschool Luxor Egypt pre 2024): This was a popular worldschool pop-up in Luxur Egypt that is now running various Hubs in Egypt and potentially elsewhere.
2. Boundless Life: Permanent locations in Portugal, Greece, Italy & Bali (with more locations to come). They provide accommodations, an education center for kids and co-working hub for parents, plus a variety of community activities and a concierge type of service. I go into more detail below on our experiences, as well as include a discount code for your first stay. You can also see more here: Boundless Life Review! (We have attended Boundless Portugal, Syros, Tuscany & Bali and are happy to give you our feedback of each location – just shoot us an email.)
3. Quartier Collective: Family gatherings and caravans focusing on unique travel experiences together with other families.
4. Worldschool Pop-Ups: focuses on affordable short-term gatherings around the world for families
5. World Traveling School: This is a new Montessori-inspired worldschooling option for year-round education + travel in 2025! Teachers, classmates, school and parents all travel. The school travels to 3 locations a year across Latin America to cater to parents’ US/Canada-based work schedules.
6. Worldschoolers Bucketlist Pop Ups: focuses on short-term pop ups with some STEM-based learning programs.
7. Worldschool Database: a nice comprehensive list of various worldschools, communities, hubs and popups.
8. Worldschooling Pop-Ups: another directory of upcoming worldschooling pop-ups.
9. Project World School: focuses on immersive learning programs around the world for teens and young adults
10. Traveling Village: friends of ours are part of starting up this worldschooling experience. They plan to travel for four months as a group to multiple locations around the world, starting in 2024. I believe they are full for their first session, but worth looking into if they continue in the future.
11. Forever Wild: They have pop up worldschool programs throughout Asia in 2024, but I believe they are sold out! Africa & Egypt worldschool options are on their radar for 2025.
12. Unschool Adventures: I recently heard of this one as having good tours for teenagers.
13. The Hive: a permanent school option in Cabrera, Dominican Republic, which takes short term worldschoolers in 6-week sessions. They follow an unschooling approach and project-based learning. I have more details on our experience below.
14. Noma Collective: They are really geared towards digital nomads, typically singles or couples. However, in summer 2023 they tried a family program for a month and I had heard they planned to do it again in summer 2024.
If you’ve attended any of the above world travel programs, world schools, hubs, pop ups, etc, PLEASE write me and let me know your feedback. I’d love to hear what you love and don’t love! Likewise, if you know of other world schooling programs you think should be on this list, let me know.
Schools For Traveling Families
While there are many worldschooling options and more pop-ups emerging all the time, below are our reviews of worldschools that we loved.
Boundless Life School Review
📍Boundless Life Permanent Locations: Sintra Portugal, Syros Greece, Tuscany Italy, Sanur Bali (and more opening every year)
➡️To get 600 Euro off your first stay, use my name: MichelleSchomp
Boundless Life is a worldschool with permanent locations opening around the world. This program is really filling a void in the worldschooling community by offering more of a flexible longer-term upscale solution for families. They provide nice accommodations, a co-working space for parents to work/gather and an education center for kids to go to school!
The education is more of a 21st-century forward-thinking approach, combining Montessori methods with Finnish Education and project-based learning. Each cohort focuses on a United Nations Sustainable Development Goal as well.
Currently, the school is for children ages 1-12 years old. There are two classes for younger-aged children and two classes for older children, divided into groups depending on age instead of grade.
Note: While Boundless has said that they do plan to expand beyond 12 years old, currently, there isn’t a program for kids over 12 years of age.
Boundless Life provides the education center (the school), housing accommodations (various bedroom sizes depending on your needs), and a co-working space for parents to work. They also set up many activities for parents (such as hiking, yoga, wine tastings, etc) as well as family activities (such as fishing, beach days, olive picking, soccer games, etc).
They provide housekeeping, some transfers, and other concierge-type services. In other words, a lot is included in their packages, making it one of the most comprehensive worldschooling community packages that we have found. Boundless Life makes it really easy for families because they provide so many services.
As part of their services, Boundless also chooses the education centers, housing and co-working spaces to be within walking distance from one another.
Boundless Life Locations
Currently, Boundless Life has four locations open. Once a location opens, it is permanent. The idea is that they will have dozens of locations all over the world.
The education centers will have the same look, feel and schedules so that kids feel immediately comfortable with the same setup, no matter which location they choose.
Locations include Sintra, Portugal (outside of Lisbon), Syros, Greece (an island near Mykonos), Pistoia, Italy (in Tuscany) and Sanur, Bali (on the coast).
We have been to their locations in Portugal, Greece, Italy, and Bali!
Sessions/Cohorts
Right now, you can either commit to a 3-month session (cohort) or a 6-week summer cohort. They have also considered adding a December month long option as well.
The 3-month sessions run January/February/March; then April/May/June; then September/October/November.
The 6-week session is more like summer camp and runs July through mid-August in 2023. However, they are changing the summer dates to 4 week sessions in July & August 2024.
Afterschool Activities
Boundless Life has options for extra-curricular activities after school, as well as other optional activities. Our kids participated in sailing after school at a beach in Syros, Greece and absolutely loved it.
Many of the afterschool activities take place at the school. However, for obvious reasons, for sailing, the kids took transportation that was provided. You could go to watch by taking a taxi or by renting a car in Ermoupolis.
School Lunch
Nutritious local food is important to us when we travel. There have been schools that our kids have attended in which we don’t eat the school lunch because it isn’t in line with our nutritional and health values. However, Boundless Life is a true breath of fresh air in this category!
They provide healthy, nutritious snacks and lunches for children every day. The goal is to source local organic food when possible and have a variety of lunches and snacks for the kids throughout the week!
Other Notes About Boundless Life
Unlike worldschool pop-ups or hubs (which are typically more like family camp, where parents and kids participate in most activities together in short-term non-permanent locations), Boundless Life offers more of a local lifestyle in permanent locations with a school structure (where parents drop their kids off at the education center just like school).
Neither one better nor worse, just different experiences!
All About Boundless Life Worldschool
Because we get so many questions about Boundless Life and our experiences in their various locations, we made the video below to review Boundless Life and answer some common questions that we get asked.
We also wrote a whole post reviewing Boundless Life, going through the nitty-gritty about each location, pricing, the education centers, coworking spaces, community programming and more.
➡️Boundless Life promo code: Use my name MichelleSchomp, to get 600Euro off your first BoundlessLife stay!
The Hive School Review
📍The Hive Location: Cabrera, Dominican Republic
We completed a session at The Hive school in the Dominican Republic. This is more of an unschooling approach with children under 6 in one classroom and those 7-18 years of age in another classroom. Each session focuses on one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
It is set up to welcome worldschoolers in 6-week sessions with options to continue for longer periods of time. Our kids loved it (they kind of love everything!) and they adapted quickly.
Sometimes I feel like we get lucky with such great groups of worldschoolers. We made some great friends through The Hive and the community was really wonderful. I do think you need to approach these worldschooling communities with an open mind, be willing to step out of your comfort zone and have unique experiences.
It was wonderful to see what project-based self-directed learning looks like. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what would come of the six weeks, as, at times, the school seemed disorganized. Yet, I was beyond impressed with the outcome of the children’s projects, their presentations and overall enthusiasm for learning during their time at The Hive.
The Hive also has a nice variety of afterschool activities for the kids to try various activities (drama, art, crafts, soccer, yoga, etc). They have community housing, although we opted to stay at a private villa.
Kids can opt to take The Hive School Bus, which picks up at locations around Cabrera. This is super helpful, as the school is not within walking distance (well, the roads aren’t walkable). We opted to have a car during our time in Cabrera, but know many other families who got by without one.
Lunch is included, as well as snacks throughout the day. During our time there, lunch seemed to lack variety, but I believe they were working to improve it.
Overall, we really enjoyed our time at The Hive. It was a perfect six-week experience and we were lucky to have met so many other wonderful families.
Other Schools to Consider
We haven’t personally been to the following schools, but they are popular options for worldschooling families and worth checking out in your search for alternative schools around the world. Note that these fall more under the permanent formal worldschool categories instead of a worldschool pop-up.
- Green School: locations in Bali, South Africa & New Zealand
- Casa del Las Estrellas: Waldorf School in Costa Rica
- Isla Academy : an international school in the Dominican Republic
FAQs About Worldschooling
Below are some answers to some common questions about worldschooling.
What is a Worldschooling Hub?
Worldschooling hubs are communities or centers that offer resources, support, and connections for families who want to combine travel and education for their children. These hubs provide a space for worldschoolers to meet, connect, and share experiences, as well as access to educational materials and opportunities.
A worldschooling hub can take various forms, such as a physical location like a co-working space or a meet-up location.
What is a Worldschooling Pop-Up?
Worldschooling pop-ups tend to be short-term worldschools that operate like temporary family camps. These events can take place in various locations around the world and are designed to bring together worldschoolers and provide them with an opportunity to connect, share experiences, and learn from each other.
Worldschooling pop-ups may include workshops, talks, and activities related to travel, education, and cultural immersion. They may also offer opportunities for children to learn and play together and for parents to network and exchange ideas.
Is Worldschooling the Same as Unschooling?
No, worldschooling and unschooling are not the same thing, although they have some similarities.
Unschooling is a type of homeschooling where children are given the freedom to learn what they want, when they want, and how they want. This means there is no set curriculum, textbooks, or traditional classroom structure. Instead, children learn through experiences, play, and exploration, with parents acting as facilitators and guides. This tends to lead to more self-directed learning.
On the other hand, worldschooling is a type of education where families use travel as a means of learning. Worldschooling families often travel to different parts of the world to learn about other cultures, languages, history, and geography. They may use various resources, including museums, historical sites, and local people, to create a rich learning experience for their children.
For example, we take a more self directed approach to world schooling when we travel on our own outside of the world school hubs and pop-ups. You can see this world-learning approach of cultural exploration, language, interacting with the locals, learning about history and environment in our family itinerary for Colombia, as well as our 10 days in Jordan.
While unschooling and worldschooling both prioritize individualized learning and experiential education, they differ in their approach. Unschooling is more focused on letting children lead their own learning while worldschooling is more focused on using travel as a tool for learning.
How Can I Afford Worldschooling?
We have met families that have left their traditional life and opted for a more permanent nomadic lifestyle and others that take a few weeks to enjoy worldschooling. What always strikes us is the various ways that families afford worldschooling.
We’ve met families that own businesses, rental properties, are consultants, work remotely, are budget-conscious, and spend more freely. You name it, we’ve probably seen it. The beauty is that worldschooling is accessible with some planning and creativity.
Here are some tips that can help you to afford worldschooling:
✔️Create a budget: Before embarking on a worldschooling journey, create a spreadsheet to track your expenses, as well as keep track of travel information.
✔️Travel slowly: One way to save money on travel expenses is to slow down and stay in one place for a longer period of time. By renting an apartment or house for a month or more, you can often negotiate a lower rate and save money on food and transportation.
✔️Use homestays or house-sitting: Instead of staying in hotels or vacation rentals, consider using homestays or house-sitting opportunities. These options can be more affordable and offer a more authentic cultural experience.
✔️Work remotely: Remote work is more accessible and a great way to finance your worldschooling journey. By working while you travel, you can earn income and offset some of your expenses.
You can read more about our journey to traveling full-time and worldschooling on our About Us page.
Conclusion: Worldschooling Communities & Hubs For Nomadic Families
The best part about all of the new worldschooling communities and pop-ups is that you should be able to find something that fits your family’s needs.
Our biggest tip is to go into each experience with an open mind and a desire to connect with others. Know that not everything will go exactly as planned but chances are it will be one of the best experiences of your life!
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