Schooling, healthcare, timing and the questions that matter most when relocating with children. Drawing on research from Savills' international education specialists and Pelagos's own experience advising relocating families.
Of all the questions we are asked at Pelagos, none arrives with more emotional weight than the one posed by parents: "will this actually work for our children?" Property, tax structuring and Golden Visa thresholds are solvable problems. A child's education and wellbeing is not something any family treats as a line item — and rightly so.
Research from Savills' international education specialists, and our own experience guiding relocating families into Greece, point to a consistent set of considerations that matter more than almost anything else when a family with children is weighing a move.
The single most common mistake we see is families falling in love with a property and a location before properly investigating whether the local schooling options genuinely work for their children. Specialists in international education consistently advise that families seek recommendations from multiple sources — other relocated families, relocation agents, and expat communities — while taking any single strong opinion with appropriate caution, since the loudest complaints online are not always representative of the typical experience.
Most parents instinctively gravitate toward the educational system they and their children already know. That instinct is sound, but it makes it essential to be honest about long-term plans from the outset — including whether a transition to UK boarding school is anticipated for secondary years, as is common among families based in the Ionian islands where full secondary international schooling options remain limited outside Athens.
"It helps to be reasonably clear about your long-term plans, whether that's transferring to a boarding school in the UK or continuing locally — because the right answer for a six-year-old is not always the right answer for a sixteen-year-old."
Athens offers genuinely strong international schooling — British, American and IB curricula with established reputations and a critical mass of expatriate families. The Athens Riviera in particular has become a magnet for relocating families specifically because of this combination of coastal living and serious educational infrastructure.
The islands tell a different story. Corfu has good options for primary-age children but limited choice for secondary-age students requiring a full international curriculum. Families who have made island life work for the long term have typically combined strong local or international primary schooling with boarding arrangements — most commonly in the UK — for secondary years. This is a significant family decision, not a minor logistical detail, and it deserves serious thought before a property purchase rather than after.
Athens has excellent private hospitals and international-standard healthcare infrastructure. The islands vary significantly. North-east Corfu and the larger islands have functioning hospitals and good general practice, but specialist and emergency care for serious conditions often means a flight or ferry to Athens. Families with children who have ongoing medical needs should map healthcare access as carefully as they map school options — and we always raise this directly with clients during the Discovery Programme, rather than leaving it for them to discover later.
Family relocation specialists consistently recommend beginning serious planning six to twelve months before a move, particularly where competitive international school places are involved — Athens's best schools, like their counterparts in London or Geneva, can have waiting lists. Younger children typically adapt to relocation more easily than children who are already established in secondary education with academic continuity and friendship groups at stake — a factor worth weighing seriously when deciding the right moment to move.
We do not believe in selling families on a location before being honest about what it actually offers their children. Our role during the Discovery Programme is to map your family's specific requirements — ages, school needs, healthcare considerations, your own work pattern — against the realistic offering of each Greek location, not the marketing version. For some families, that means Athens. For others, it means Corfu with a boarding plan for secondary years already factored into the decision. Either can be the right answer. What matters is making the choice with full information, not finding out the gaps after the purchase is complete.