Uploaded September 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In this episode of The Layover, we sit down with Joe O’Connor, a full-time traveling dad, worldschooler, and co-founder of Global Family Home Rentals, or GFHR—a community-driven rental platform built for families pursuing slower, more intentional travel. After years of dreaming about long-term family travel, Joe and his partner, Linds, eventually packed up their traditional life and began spending months at a time abroad with their daughter, living in places like Portugal, Greece, Italy, and Hawaii.
Joe shares how their experience as a traveling family exposed one of the biggest challenges in the nomadic family lifestyle: what to do with your primary home while you’re away—and how to find trusted, affordable, family-friendly homes abroad without relying on traditional short-term rental platforms.
Joe breaks down how GFHR is:
- Helping families rent or exchange homes for 30+ day stays
- Creating a vetted, invite-only community built around trust and transparency
- Offering homes priced at cost, rather than for profit
- Supporting worldschooling families with homes designed for real family life
- Making slow travel more affordable by unlocking primary residences around the world
- Encouraging families to choose destinations based on homes, community, and lifestyle—not just tourist demand
The conversation also explores worldschooling, flexible education, micro-schools, remote learning, and how travel can become one of the richest forms of education for kids. Joe reflects on his family’s time in Syros, Greece, where his daughter learned, played, rode bikes, and built a life in the community—not just a vacation itinerary.
Whether you’re a parent dreaming about long-term travel, a worldschooling family looking for housing solutions, or simply curious about what it takes to build a more flexible life around travel, this episode offers an inspiring look at how families can move from watching the dream online to actually living it.
🏡 Learn More
Explore Global Family Home Rentals at gfhr.co, or connect with Joe O’Connor on LinkedIn.
Want to dig deeper into a city or neighborhood?
Check out our award-winning city guides at lostin.com/collections/guides -- we pour all of our love for travel into every guidebook, which includes recommendations for hidden restaurants, shops, and activities far from the well-known tourist areas and off the radar of mainstream travel accounts.
We also share daily travel inspiration, city stories, and behind-the-scenes moments across our social channels, follow us to stay connected wherever you roam.
Connect with us
Web: lostin.com
Instagram: instagram.com/lost_in_travel
Facebook: facebook.com/lostintravelguide
TikTok: tiktok.com/@lostin_travel
In this episode of The Layover, we sit down with Joe O’Connor, a full-time traveling dad, worldschooler, and co-founder of Global Family Home Rentals, or GFHR—a community-driven rental platform built for families pursuing slower, more intentional travel. After years of dreaming about long-term family travel, Joe and his partner, Linds, eventually packed up their traditional life and began spending months at a time abroad with their daughter, living in places like Portugal, Greece, Italy, and Hawaii.
Joe shares how their experience as a traveling family exposed one of the biggest challenges in the nomadic family lifestyle: what to do with your primary home while you’re away—and how to find trusted, affordable, family-friendly homes abroad without relying on traditional short-term rental platforms.
Joe breaks down how GFHR is:
- Helping families rent or exchange homes for 30+ day stays
- Creating a vetted, invite-only community built around trust and transparency
- Offering homes priced at cost, rather than for profit
- Supporting worldschooling families with homes designed for real family life
- Making slow travel more affordable by unlocking primary residences around the world
- Encouraging families to choose destinations based on homes, community, and lifestyle—not just tourist demand
The conversation also explores worldschooling, flexible education, micro-schools, remote learning, and how travel can become one of the richest forms of education for kids. Joe reflects on his family’s time in Syros, Greece, where his daughter learned, played, rode bikes, and built a life in the community—not just a vacation itinerary.
Whether you’re a parent dreaming about long-term travel, a worldschooling family looking for housing solutions, or simply curious about what it takes to build a more flexible life around travel, this episode offers an inspiring look at how families can move from watching the dream online to actually living it.
🏡 Learn More
Explore Global Family Home Rentals at gfhr.co, or connect with Joe O’Connor on LinkedIn.
Want to dig deeper into a city or neighborhood?
Check out our award-winning city guides at lostin.com/collections/guides -- we pour all of our love for travel into every guidebook, which includes recommendations for hidden restaurants, shops, and activities far from the well-known tourist areas and off the radar of mainstream travel accounts.
We also share daily travel inspiration, city stories, and behind-the-scenes moments across our social channels, follow us to stay connected wherever you roam.
Connect with us
Web: lostin.com
Instagram: instagram.com/lost_in_travel
Facebook: facebook.com/lostintravelguide
TikTok: tiktok.com/@lostin_travel
