The UNSETTLED Experience

EMBRACE THE UNKNOWN.

We co-create remarkable experiences for independent professionals who refuse to settle in their pursuit of growth, meaning, and adventure.

Unsettled experiences are designed for those who seek greater freedom, independence and mobility in life and work. Each experience is an unbounded and unexpected adventure of a lifetime, crafted to break your routine and inspire new perspectives while still allowing you to stay productive. We also host a Lifestyle Incubator program, a 100% virtual retreat experience that offers a deeper dive into re-writing your career path in a way that aligns your values, interests, and skills… without leaving home.

Our community attracts the intellectually curious life explorers – entrepreneurs, creatives, freelancers, and mid-career professional from all backgrounds – who live and work differently, and seek the unconventional path in various aspects of their lives.

We believe that the best experiences are not passively consumed, but actively co-created. Unsettled experiences are not “guided” in the traditional sense, but facilitated and curated in a way that leaves us open to new perspectives, ideas, conversations and challenges. Each experience combines elements of personal growth, lifestyle experimentation, productivity and adventure into one incredible journey into the unknown.

In each destination, we provide the essentials you need to feel connected, comfortable, and collaborative: accommodations, workspace, local experts, curated local experiences, workshops, and an exceptionally diverse community.

For many of us it’s like finding a second home. So welcome home…
 

 

Curated Global Community

We curate a diverse and exceptional community of global professionals who live, work, and travel differently. Join over 2000 members from 80+ countries who’ve lived – and still live – Unsettled.

Insider Experiences

A full-time Experience Leader & local expert on each trip. Dinner parties. Immersive local experiences & workshops. Weekend adventures. Surprise events. Urban scavenger hunts. We are your platform for incredible shared experiences.

Comfortable Housing

You’re not a twenty-year-old back-packer. We get it. You’ll have a private room in a unique house, apartment, or villa with a quality mattress, linens, and comfortable workspace. 

Workability

Wifi is a non-negotiable. We need it as much as anyone else. With a coworking space, SIM cards, and wifi at your accommodations, you can ensure your personal and professional projects keep running smoothly.

How Do I Start Living Unsettled?

Unsettled is a curated community. We look for people who want to co-create meaningful travel experiences. To join us on an experience, you can apply for any of our flexible upcoming trips and adventures. Or, you can sign up for our online Lifestyle Incubator program if you’re looking for a more structured program. Don’t worry. The application is free. And we really don’t care about your resume. We just care that you want to engage, learn, and grow with us.

For us, living Unsettled is not just about where you live. It’s about exploring what makes you feel alive. We design experiences rooted in a foundation people, place, and purpose that break your routine and leave you feeling inspired and connected.

Who is Unsettled for?

Unsettled brings together the intellectually curious – creatives, entrepreneurs, artists, freelancers, and professional misfits from over 80 countries – asking the big questions of life and seeking a more meaningful form of travel.

On any given retreat, our average age range is mid-30s to early 40s — yet some of our alumni in their 50s and 60s have the most rewarding journeys, and some of our 20-year-old participants are loved for the energy they bring. From CEOs, CMOs and CFOs to farmers, designers, architects, captains, scientists, rare book collectors, illustrators, painters, poets, professional coaches, and more, we are global and inclusive. Basically, if you’re not an asshole, you’ll fit right in.

These retreats are ideal for: 

  • anyone going through a professional transition or looking for a structured sabbatical

  • location independent freelancers and consultants

  • creatives who thrive in movement and change

  • entrepreneurs and business owners

  • solo travelers seeking a more meaningful, community-driven way of traveling

What Does Living Unsettled Look Like?

This is your experience. On our retreats, we provide a platform for meaningful conversations and unique local experiences, but keep the structure lite and you fill in the rest. You live like a local, finding balance between being productive and exploring. Everything is optional, and you can plug in as much or as little as you need.

In any given week living Unsettled, you can expect a calendar filled with unique experiences curated by our local team, peer-to-peer workshops and themed conversations,  facilitated sessions, family-style meals, happy hours, and plenty of free time to work, learn, or explore as you wish. Most nights, participants rotate hosting & cooking group dinners, or exploring the local spots so that everyone gets equal opportunities to create an experience through food and conversation.

There’s always an adventure to be had. Here’s what one of your days could look like:

7:30am: Wake up and grab a coffee. It’s still quiet around the house. Hopefully, you meditate, journal, read, or do almost anything besides look at your phone immediately.

8:30am: You grab breakfast at home or at a nearby coffee shop with a few friends; everyone is moving at their own pace in the morning. Or, perhaps you decide to hit a local yoga / fitness class. If you’re in Bali, maybe a surf lesson 🙂

9:30am – 12:30pm: You check your inbox and calendar, and you realize that you have some time on your hands. You grab a friend, and go visit that market everyone’s been talking about. You get an early lunch, and then head back to the house to grab your stuff.

1pm – 8pm: You open your laptop and go “heads down” for a couple of hours to #getshitdone. A fellow participant is hosting a workshop on website design at 2pm, and your experience leader is hosting one on Ikigai (a Japanese philosophy around finding purpose) at 5pm. You skip the first workshop, but decide to join the second.

8pm: Group dinner. Two participants (from Italy naturally) just made a delicious fish for the group that combines a local catch with traditional Italian cooking. They lead a group conversation at dinner about balancing love and work life. You admit to loving the food and your work at least as much as anyone in your life at this moment.

10pm – Midnight: You have a few more work tasks you want to finish off today, so you find a quiet group of 5 or 6 people working at the house and you finish out your day. You go to bed tired, well-nourished, and ready to do it all over tomorrow.

Our Experience Philosophy

Unstructured

This is not traditional group travel. We don’t follow a flag or hop on a bus. We explore, we get lost, we live in the moment. Yes, there are some key experiences we host and a deeply thoughtful curation and calendar of events to explore. However, we believe that experiences are more powerful when we step into them and take ownership over what happens in the moment. We provide the platform. You choose your own adventure.

 Unexpected

No two trips are ever the same. We engineer for serendipity, but we do not overthink it. We show up and find ways, in the moment and throughout the experience, to create secret meetups, popup adventures, or hidden ways to invite participant along for the unexpected. We take risks when they show up and invite the opportunity to push ourselves. We’ll explore some of the city’s “unmissable” sights, sounds, and adventures, but be prepared to embrace the unknown. 

Unbounded

We don’t limit ourselves in the depth of our conversations nor the outcomes we can imagine for ourselves. We remove the expectations placed on us, and create a space where you can push your comfort zones, challenge your perspectives, and discover new ways of working, living, and being. When we live and travel unbounded, we are unconstrained by limits. It’s a mindset and an approach to everything we do.

… And Still Unsettled

Don’t worry. This isn’t a free-for-all. As with any Unsettled experience, we’re obsessed with quality over quantity, and craft each experience with the intention of inspiring a deeper sense of growth, meaning, and adventure in our lives. We tap into the creativity, cultural context, local philosophy & spirituality, and innovative elements of each destination as a way to bring greater perspective and learning to our work and professional lives. Learn more about our experiences…

Ready for your next adventure?

However you choose to live your time Unsettled, the best part is the choice is ultimately yours…

Unsettled is a global community for those who value meaningful human connection. 

Growth | Meaning | Adventure