From Toronto To Athens: Elena Tzavara’s Journey With XpatAthens

By Maria Ermides

~ It’s 2004, and Athens is alive with the energy of the Olympics. Stadiums are rising, the city is being “cleaned up”, and for Elena, director at XpatAthens, a lifelong dream of making Greece her home is just beginning.

Today, many know XpatAthens as the go-to-place for navigating life in the city and beyond. But its origin story is far from linear, marked by unexpected twists and turns, from the excitement of the early days of the .com buzz to the turbulence of the financial crisis.

Usually working behind the scenes, Elena stepped into the spotlight for this interview to share, in her own words, the challenges and triumphs of building a platform driven by passion and a whole lot of trust. We’ll also delve into the future of XpatAthens and what’s to come!

I grew up in Toronto, Canada. Greek dad, Canadian mom, and coming to Greece in the summer was part of our life.

We grew up culturally very Greek. Even my mom identifies very much as a Greek. And at a young age, as a teenager, I had decided one summer, yeah, I'm gonna live here.

And it became a reality right after university. Literally the day after I graduated, I was on a plane — I said: Okay, see you later, Mom. I'll be in Greece!

Yeah, totally. The decision to move was probably when I was about 15, the feeling of knowing that I was gonna go. It was a very distinct summer—I remember returning to Toronto and spending weeks crying, saying, ‘I just want to go back, I just want to go back.

And then during university, I had done a program in Italy, and I remember there was a distinct moment that I said to myself, okay, I'm doing this. I absolutely remember all of it. I was in Siena, I was in the city and I was alone. I had gone for a walk and it was a moment of...oh man, I just need to live in this. This is how I wanna feel all the time! But I didn't want to live in Italy, I knew that I wanted to live in Greece, but it was Europe. It was that connection with the energy of things, let's say, very different to where I grew up. So yeah, there were distinct moments.

My mom always said she knew that she’d lose one of her three children to Greece. She said she just didn't know which one it would be! And she was always supportive.

Of course, she made sure that I had a degree, that I had something lined up professionally. She created the support network around it so I could fall back on something if I needed to.

My dad—he was supportive. He was always one foot in Canada, one foot in Greece. When he left, he left with the intention of coming back. And so, my dad, he questioned it more so, I think, than my mom did. But generally he was ok with it too.

Greece was always home. Not Athens, but my dad's village, and all of my extended family was here. So it was very comfortable for me.

There wasn't a shock. I came during the summer and I just never left—which was a dream come true. Because every summer I would leave, and be sad to leave, crying on the way back on the airplane. It feels like a lifetime ago. But it was a very distinct time. I was young, so I feel like it was another lifetime ago because I was in my 20s. At the time, I was just feeling high on life—you know, I was so excited to be here. I was so happy that I finally got to live in Greece. Oh, my God!

The thing is, Athens has a very distinct energy, so it always feels alive. It's what makes us love it—love being here. It's what has made us want to move here. In my case, anyway.

Has it changed? Yes. But without teetering. It's still has the same energy at its core. But let's say the dynamic of the collective—what's going on around you, what we see, the people that are here, what's happening—yes, it's definitely different.

For me, it was… there was no adjustment. It was what I always wanted to be doing, so it just felt really normal. I adjusted right away, and I was happy that I wasn't leaving to go on an airplane back to Toronto.

I was fortunate in that way because I came with a community in place. I had family—and that's huge. And I also had friends. All of my friends from university—we all moved back to Greece! So that wasn't challenging. Like I said, I just slipped right in.

I was kind of winging it for a while—although I wasn’t telling my parents that… 

No, I wasn't spending all my time on the beach—not just floating around. I looked for job opportunities that required English. I spoke Greek, but not to the level of my English.

I grew up in a family business, and I've had an entrepreneurial bug since I was a teenager, maybe even younger than that. In addition to this, my work experience until this point was in luxury retail sales, so I had a really good work experience for my age.

I ended up getting a management position in retail for a British company at the time, at the Athens Airport. And it was a great experience. But life took me back to Toronto, and I stayed until 2006. As of 2006, I was back in Greece permanently.

So then, I applied for a job—totally out of my industry—in travel. It was a startup at the time. It was incoming luxury travel from the U.S., so all of the work was in English. I could speak the language of the luxury world; it was a young startup with a Greek that had studied in the U.S., who had recently repatriated. We jived, and it worked. I was there for close to 10 years. I was head of sales for several years, then I went into product development, and we expanded into a few different markets in the time that I was with the company.

XpatAthens came into my life in 2012. I was at the travel company and pregnant with my first child, which is a whole new phase of life. I say that it came in like I was standing at the right corner at the right time. XpatAthens just kinda showed up. There was a “for sale” sign on the website. My brother happened to be following the website. I didn’t really follow it at the time. And he sent it to me and said, “Call them.” And so I did, I called!

The gentleman who started the website was British, and had decided to leave Greece (the early signs of the economic crisis were over the horizon). At the time, it was a really great blog. Maybe even one of the first websites that spoke English in Greece. Imagine many of us were still using dial-up internet. You know, the kind we used to connect the cord to the wall for!? Websites were not very common in Greece, let alone ones that were in English. 

Anyway, three friends picked it up at the time, so we went into a partnership. Within two years, it was just me running the show. I’m still very good friends with the other two, but life just… you know, it unfolds and we go in different directions. 

I was doing XpatAthens alongside my full-time job in travel. There was some knowledge crossover—I knew things from my day-to-day work, and then I would talk about them on XpatAthens; writing content and creating newsletters.

At the time, experiences were a big thing. It was an up and coming trend—walking tours and food tours were really new. Boutique hotels were on the rise, and new restaurants were opening too. It was a very different landscape to what it is now. There were very few resources giving recommendations, especially in English. I remember writing about the first sushi place that opened up, and the first wine bar. Now there are too many to count. It was a very different time.

So this (English) content was very rich and much needed for locals and internationals and travellers alike. It was very valuable information, people loved it as did Google! I always say that XpatAthens was like getting a degree in digital marketing and content, and maybe even a master’s in how to survive the worst of the worst. I learned how to build websites, create digital content; also things like search engine optimization, the importance of keywords, mass content audits, communication channels, branding, all of that sort of thing. And actually XpatAthens has grown today without a marketing budget (we never had the money). This platform has grown totally organically.

Because I really love unfolding vision, I thought—okay, what am I going to do with this really great platform? Step by step I started to turn this great blog into something more. I ended up rebranding (not a name change, but a completely new look and feel); changed the website, and started slowly building some service around it. Soon it was more than just a really great blog—it started to become a community resource that people depended on.

At the time, the most logical place for revenue was advertising. Except that we were just at the beginning of the crisis. And what was the first thing that people cut out of their budgets? Yep, advertising. So XpatAthens quickly went from high potential to hanging on from a thread. Money was the biggest challenge along the way for XpatAthens. Everything was always run on a shoestring, and actually I usually say a thread-string budget. Because really, based on what was happening around us—it was just not the right time. Technically, XpatAthens really shouldn’t have survived. Young mom, full-time job, crisis, and no money—it was a recipe for closure.

Well, it wasn’t just Greece—it was a global financial crisis. Here, it got really messy in 2015. We got the tail end of it, but it hit with a vengeance. The crisis really hit hard.

It was a very different time of life, and it lasted for several years. A lot of unemployment and civil unrest. Every single person was affected. Take the example of capital controls—we all went to the ATMs, and no one could get money—every single person was affected.

XpatAthens was a big part of my life at that time. 

I remember I was on a flight to Toronto on the morning when the capital controls came into effect—we couldn’t access money. Everything was being restricted. Something had also happened with the XpatAthens website, and I was on the phone with my developers. I’ll never forget it—I was checking-in my luggage, couldn’t access money, problems with XpatAthens, and there was a distinct moment of ‘oh boy, are we going to stay here like this?’

I knew I wanted my life here in Greece, there was no question that this is where I wanted to be. I also felt very fortunate about having a choice—we could leave if we wanted (or needed) to. We always had Canada to go to, and this was huge. But aside from that, we also had our villages to go to, too if we needed—and I say “we,” because it was my husband and I, and our young son at the time. (There are now four of us, I had two kids along the way.)

So essentially we were pushed to the point of asking ourselves: Okay, what if we have absolutely nothing? What do we do? Where do we live and raise our family? Both of the companies we were working for had already downsized, we both had our salaries cut; not just us, this was a reality for everyone in Greece. And we were among the lucky ones who still had jobs that were able to pay us.

 

So what's the next step after that? Unemployment. And does the government even have money to pay unemployment? Who knows. So we actually asked ourselves: Where's the best place to be poor - Canada or Greece?

And we decided that it was in one of our villages in Greece, and actually my husband’s village because we could live off the land if it came to not having money for food. Thankfully it never came to this. Thankfully we had options. But we made it work — on threads for a good couple years — but we made it through. Just like all of our friends and family did too. This period of life was really a testament to the resilience of the Greeks and how they somehow pull through in the toughest of times.

For me, XpatAthens was always more than a passion project; I felt the connection with the community, I knew the content touched lives and this meant something for me. My income continued to come from elsewhere, and I’d say that XpatAthens was my creative outlet. Because I could write, it kept me intrigued, and there was always a sense of purpose.

During the crisis, we started to write about very practical things like capital controls, what to do with your money—we created content around the landscape of what was happening. Somewhere around 2019, things got better. 

As we were climbing out of the crisis, COVID hit. We were just starting to see light at the end of the crisis tunnel. Travel was getting back on track, and people were starting to feel like there was a little bit of money moving around again. But we were all still very cautious. 

And just as we were starting to breathe again, news reports of COVID began. And we all know what that meant. Downscale and pull out the ‘budget strategy called threads’ again.

The one thing that has always been consistent with XpatAthens is that I always kept it digitally healthy. It was always very well kept, plus we had great developers.

And so, the money was not always there, but it was always a platform that—I knew, there was always a very deep knowing—there’s a reason why it’s here. I just couldn’t say ‘XpatAthens is no more’. It was such a well followed website, people trusted us, it felt like we were holding each other’s hands in some funny way.

So you can imagine how many times my husband, my family, my friends, and even I would say: Why are you doing this? What’s the point Elena? It’s these ‘why questions’ that send you soul-searching, you really go deep. And so I questioned absolutely everything. 

As you can imagine, it became an emotional journey. I didn’t want to ‘give up’, I wanted to survive. I wanted it to live and grow into its full potential. It was really less about how long it had taken to grow or how many hours of work I’d put in. It was always more of this ‘core feeling’ — this is too important of a resource, we’re a community of people.

Not to mention that the traffic was still good. Like I said, it was digitally healthy. It was a digital garden, it was a home. And it doesn’t make sense to just turn off the lights in this home.

Interestingly enough, over the span of 13 years, I’ve tried to sell. I’ve even tried to gift it away. All very interesting experiences. Each one of those times taught me something new (about myself). This all became a very personal story. XpatAthens has been a pivotal part of my personal growth, and professional development. I wouldn’t have the business I have now if it weren’t for XpatAthens.

I learned so much about the digital world. I learned so much about content. I learned so much about me. It was learn-as-you-go. I didn’t know how to upload content. Sure, I was a good editor and copywriter, but XpatAthens taught me how to do everything. It’s been a personal and professional development school.

There’s always been vision—remember I love unfolding vision. But there’s also been so, so much shift and change—for me personally, but also on the collective scale. The landscape of things has really shifted. To be totally honest, I got tired (even exhausted). So I did step away for a little while. I decided, okay, I’ll keep XpatAthens healthy (but quiet for a little bit), and I’ll focus on my other business. I needed to detach. To completely detach my own stories, to completely detach my emotional connection. To see where I was misaligned; to feel exactly what was ‘me’ and what wasn’t.

It was important to do this because XpatAthens always felt larger than me; I always felt a bigger purpose of things. And so I knew this was not my startup. This is not my little side hustle. It’s not my main business. It was all of those at certain stages, plus all of the learnings that came with it all. 

And so, that’s what I did for over a year. I paused and allowed the shift. Get clarity and align with true purpose. And then, somewhere around the end of 2024, I started slowly reconnecting again. I had to cut it off in order to reconnect. To feel it out. I knew there was something there, but I couldn’t see it. I had lost my ‘visionary senses’. It’s important to note here that I had a team member to keep the platform alive, without Angeliki XpatAthens would have died, and I would not have been able to take the time I needed to detach and regroup.

Step by step 2025 has been about slowly reconnecting with the landscape of things. Now, post-COVID, there were things called the digital nomad visas and co-working spaces. These didn’t exist before. And, of course, we’ve all gotten to the point where we have 5G on our phones (we’re no longer dialing up)! It’s a very different landscape now.

We’ve put ourselves back on the map again. For a while, it felt like we were a sailboat just coasting in calm, peaceful waters. And now, we’ve really been active in sharing and telling stories again.

I never felt XpatAthens as a traditional business. It wasn’t a cool new startup or a side hustle. There has always been a strong following (we continue to have 200–500 visitors daily), and we still haven’t paid a cent for marketing (yes we’re still growing organically)! People arrive at the website because they find it useful, because they’re enjoying it. This is what has always been important to me.

Also, it’s always been far more than trying to find money to pay the bills—sure that’s been part of the journey. But the community, meeting people, knowing that someone is actually sitting down with their coffee and reading it. We’re speaking to people and touching their lives in a way. XpatAthens continues to speak to this international community of people, and their needs have really shifted post-COVID. Property needs have shifted, legal needs have shifted, accounting needs have shifted—and of course we all have unique individual needs.

We’ve created a lot of content in the last months around these very practical needs. And now we’re starting to develop that content into more storytelling—the stuff that we really love!

There’s a new dynamic of energy that’s unfolding. So we’re following, listening and connecting — first with ourselves and then with each other — but really also allowing the unfolding of a new story without pressure, and without ‘you have to do something with this.’ 

What does this mean for the future of XpatAthens? Today we are a Greek non profit organization called ΟΛΟΙ ΜΑΣ ΟΝΕ (meaning we are all one in Greek) and we’re super excited about telling Greek stories, personal stories, cultural stories... all of the stuff that gives you goosebumps. All of the great stuff that we love about living here. All of the great reasons why our international community chooses to make a life here. Because we love this beautiful country wholeheartedly. We’re letting things happen, one step at a time. 

In a span of 20 years—it’s a lifetime—so much has shifted collectively, let alone in my personal world. I went from moving to Greece as a 20-something, super excited about life, and completely carefree. And then once you start to have responsibilities, rent to pay, children—life gets serious, in a sense. And that’s the space I’m in at the moment: I’m learning how to have fun, feel lighter, and truly savour where I am. 

It’s always been fun, but just in a different way. Every phase has been different. Becoming a mom is a whole period of time. At least for me it was. Having infants is very different from having toddlers. And that’s very different from having a teenager. So at every stage, I’m learning a new me. There’s constant adjustment and constant growth. Am I the same person? No—but yes.

Greece is such a special place on Earth. There’s so much that’s wonderful about it. And there’s also so much that’s not exactly ideal, or things that are unexplainable, or simply don't make sense. We joke about this all the time—in the span of one day, you can feel every single emotion there is, just by walking down the street. It’s incredible. But that, in itself, is amazing. It is as it is, real, raw and perfectly human. And this is why we love it.