Madeira for digital nomads: come and work with us

And what’s big, Gonçalo Hall – an outside work advisor who helps launch a new digital nomad community in a tiny village in the Portuguese Autonomous Region of Madeira – actually means small.

When the pilot project starts on February 1 with support from the Madeira Regional Government and StartupMadeira in the red-roofed village of Ponta do Sol, it will be ready to house up to 100 remote workers in a co-working space and surrounding village housing. . And plans to expand into other buildings – both in the village and elsewhere on the island – are also in the works.

As with all things with Covid-19, circumstances are constantly changing. On January 29, in response to the dramatically increasing Covid-19 outbreak, Portugal extended its lockdown and closed its land border with Spain. Citizens are not allowed to travel abroad for 15 days.

Plans to launch continue and that leaves the project organizers waiting to see how things will go: if they build it, will remote workers come?

Finding more freedom and following passions

So far, around 75 digital nomads have committed to be among the first to work in the picturesque village of about 8,200 inhabitants, wedged in a green valley on Madeira’s southwest coast, with a pebble beach in front.

Hall, who is in Madeira and has already met with some of the digital nomads, said there are expected to be around 40 on site on February 1, with Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Ireland and the Czech Republic among the nationalities. represented.

The co-working hub is housed in the John Dos Passos Cultural Center, and accommodation in 40 different homes and a hotel in Ponta do Sol are already secured for the remote workers, said Carlos Soares Lopes, CEO of StartupMadeira, a company. incubator involved in the project that provides support to companies on the islands.

American Jenn Parr, who lives with her husband in Porto on the Portuguese mainland (and can travel to Madeira since coming from an EU country), registered as part of Madeira’s digital nomad village and arrived in Madeira on Sunday.

The 37-year-old mindful early childhood educator from Maryland said she is ‘not a big city person’ and is drawn to the island’s wildlife and hiking, mild weather (winter highs soar in the low 60s) and the chance to be in to be around independent fellow workers.

“The co-working space appeals to me,” she said. “It can be inspiring to meet people who are entrepreneurs or who have found ways to create more freedom in their lives and follow their passions.”

Parr and her husband interviewed potential roommates they met through the project’s Facebook and Slack groups to share a three-bedroom apartment between Funchal (Madeira’s capital) and Ponta do Sol, which will cost € 1,800 ( costs about $ 2,200) per month.

Gabe Marușca and Ralu Enea, a Romanian couple who have been working remotely in Madeira since September 2020, recently heard about the nomad village and are considering meeting with other growers.

After shopping between places like Bali, Cyprus, Malta and Spain, Marușca said the 34-mile-long island popular with sun-drenched tourists from the UK offers “the full package”.

Marușca cited mountain and ocean access, affordability, friendly locals and “high-speed internet” among Madeira’s advantages, in addition to its manageable size, which he says is more conducive to community-finding and lingers longer than larger places where he has been.

Small place, big dream

Hall, the advisor who helps launch the project, said the idea to start a digital nomadic village on the island known for its eponymous fortified wine struck him during a visit in September 2020.

After traveling and working around the world for much of 2018 and 2019 while chasing waterfalls in Bali and tasting street food in Thailand, he visited Madeira for a work conference for the first time since childhood.

“The landscapes are like something I’ve never seen before,” Hall said of the archipelago, which is made up of four islands (only two of which are inhabited) and located just north of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, closer to Morocco. than the European mainland.

“I thought, ‘I know the digital nomad community, why don’t people come here?’ ”

Ponta do Sol was selected to test the project, which is expected to expand to other areas around the island, said Lopes of StartupMadeira.

The co-working space is being prepped with room for just 22 desks and chairs inside to start (some covered outside seating is also available). In accordance with the island’s social distance and Covid-19 rules, colleagues will use the space in shifts, with access to strong Wi-Fi, a printer and the all-important coffee machine, Hall said.

The hope for the project, even before expanding to other areas, is that digital nomads will spread across the island to live and play and inject money into a local economy hit by the pandemic presenting ‘major challenges’ has posed for locals whose livelihoods depend on tourism, Lopes said.

During the initial rollout phase from February 1 to June 30, there is no charge to use the co-working space and be part of the community, although a minimum stay of one month is required.

Networking events, skill-sharing seminars on topics like cryptocurrency, yoga classes and walking tours are already being thrown around as group activities for the community.

There are no plans to charge people to be a part of the community in the future, Lopes said, adding that the goal of the project is to prepare the local community for growing new business around the niche market .

Co-working – but you have to get there first

Residents of the European Union and Schengen countries may enter Madeira, but must check with the authorities in their home country for travel guidance and be prepared to show a negative Covid-19 PCR test before arriving on the island.

For now, most US-based Americans looking to join the digital nomad village for more than just Slack will have to wait, with non-essential travel to Portugal and the European Union still limited due to Covid-19.

“While there are currently many countries with travel restrictions to Portugal such as the US, Canada and Brazil, we welcome the registrations of these nationalities as we believe that while they cannot currently travel to Madeira, they can already get to know our island and plan their future, ”said Lopes.

Locals welcome the prospect

Lopes said the response from local landlords, businesses and even lawyers on the island so far has been “ very positive, ” and many expressed interest in being part of the initiative by adjusting their home prices to monthly rates for the digital nomads and by offering long-term interest. car rental rates.

For a fee, island attorneys can also help digital nomads stay longer on the island by guiding them to apply for non-tourist visas, including the Portugal Golden Visa and the D7 residency permit.

Luis Vilhena, a Portuguese architect who has lived in Madeira since 1989 (he came for a six-month job and never left), said that once you get here, the island is easy to love.

“The landscapes are inspiring, it’s safe – you can swim in the sea in the morning and hike in the mountains in the afternoon,” he said. “It’s also close to (mainland) Europe.” The flight from Lisbon takes approximately 90 minutes.

Ponta do Sol, he said, appears to be a natural place for the digital nomad village with its easy access to mountain biking, sailing, surfing and other adventure activities.

Francisco Fontes, who is from Madeira and recently returned to the island with his Italian girlfriend when his financial job in the United States was remote, said Ponta do Sol, with its winding alleys, tiled roofs and pebble beach, is comparable to ‘the villages along the Italian coast of Amalfi. “

“It’s very small. When you think of a nomadic village, it really is,” he said. “A place where you would get out and meet the other people from the project.”

Fontes said his grandmother, who was from Ponta do Sol and is no longer alive, would have liked to see her village revived.

“She always said she would love to see the cinema in town come back to life, just like it did in the 1930s when her father built it,” he said.

“I think initiatives like this can really bring back some of what Ponta do Sol was originally built for,” he said. “And I haven’t heard anyone say anything bad about it either, so that’s always a good sign.”