How it started, how it's going
2022
Launching the idea of Traveling Village
At the end of 2022, we, Michelle and Nikolaj, launched a one-page website with the first idea for Traveling Village. It was a brief description of our dream and only had a few things clearly defined. For example, we knew we wanted 20 families so it would feel more like a village than just a group trip. We had no idea how, or even if, we could make it happen, so our first step was to find a small group of families willing to go all in to help make it real.
The idea for Traveling Village actually started all the way back in 2017 during a hiking trip in Nepal with our previous company, Refuga. The idea kept resurfacing after we had kids, and after taking our first longer trip as a family of four, we finally decided to launch the concept.
2023 - 2024
4 founding families creating TV1
Our call for funding families got great feedback, and we were lucky to get in contact with three other families from Denmark, India, and the USA. There wasn’t a big interview process, but after a few initial calls, everything just felt right. The first group call was set up soon after.
The group quickly fell into a rhythm of having two calls per week and started sharing tasks. We had to figure everything out from scratch, and what now feels straightforward was, at the time, completely new.
Only the two Danish families had met in real life before, and all four families didn’t meet in person until the very first day of Traveling Village. It was a huge moment after more than a year of working together. We owe a massive thank you to the other three founding families: Andy and Irene, Nanna and Leheng, and Nritya and Kiran. TV wouldn’t have happened without them!
2024 - 2025
Creating both TV2 and TV3
We went into TV1 thinking it could very much be a once in a lifetime thing, so when we got home from the trip nothing was planned beyond that. It was an experience that had to settle and that we knew would impact our lives.
Some of the overall theories that we started out with worked out, we had an incredible experience ourselves and the feedback was great. After digesting the experience from TV1, we wanted to continue building TV, both the next villages but also as a concept. Luckily, Andy and Irene were up for also being founding families on TV2 and TV3, that we have created together.
2025 - 2026
Planning a TV4
TV4 is still a question mark. We have been so focused on creating TV2 and TV3, but the thoughts of a TV4 happening in the future has definitely started. We are speaking with families, exploring new locations and seeing how the overall idea could develop.
Our dream explained
Before having kids we were traveling as very typical digital nomads. We wanted to have a lifestyle with a lot of traveling with kids, but we also quickly realized that it does take a village to raise kids.
After having kids we have grown increasingly interested in the way we structure life, where all families live in small silos without being part of a community living nearby. When we did our first 6-month trip with 2 kids, we realized that traveling and living abroad with kids is amazing, but it also required a lot from us. Especially the social element and stability are things that we missed.
This is an idea that started forming in 2017 when we were expecting our first child. In 2024 the first Traveling Village happened after one year of working on the logistics. We now hope we can use this concept and idea, to keep experimenting with lifestyle, challenging ourselves, and learning more about living differently with kids.
We have two kids, who are both home full-time (no school or daycare), and a big part of this project is to experiment with a different way of bringing up kids and to let them learn through exploring and to give them a lot of free play. With TV we hope to create an environment with a lot of space for self-directed learning, where learning about different cultures is built and where we both kids and adults get comfortable with being in a community.
We try to put as much information about the concept on the website, but if you have questions or ideas, you are always welcome to reach out.
Best wishes,
Iris, Kai, Michelle and Nikolaj (5,7,35,39).
