Madeira to digital nomads: Come work with us

And in general, Gonçalo Hall – an external job consultant helping to start a new digital nomadic community in a small town in the Portuguese Autonomous Region of Madeira – actually means small.

When the pilot project opens on 1 February with the support of the regional government Madeira and StartupMadeira in the red-roofed village of Ponta do Sol, it will be ready to house up to 100 remote workers in a cooperative space and surrounding town housing. . And plans to expand to other buildings – both in town and elsewhere on the island – are also underway.

As with all things Covid-19, conditions are constantly changing. On January 29, in response to the country’s dramatically intense Covid-19 outbreak, Portugal extended its exclusion and closed the land border with Spain. Citizens may not travel abroad for 15 days.

Plans to launch continue and it leaves project organizers waiting to see how things will play out: if they build it, will there be workers coming from afar?

Find more freedom and follow passions

So far, about 75 digital nomads have committed to being one of the first to start work in the picturesque village of about 8,200 residents tucked away in a green valley on the southwest coast of Madeira, with a pebble beach .

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

The collaboration center is housed in the John Dos Passos Cultural Center and accommodation in 40 different homes as well as a hotel in Ponta do Sol are already secured for the remote workers, says Carlos Soares Lopes, CEO of StartupMadeira, a company. incubator involved in the project that provides support for businesses based on the islands.

American Jenn Parr, who lives with her husband in Porto on the Portuguese mainland (and has been able to travel to Madeira since arriving from an EU country), has registered to be part of Madeira’s digital nomadic town. and arrived in Madeira on Sunday.

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

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

Parr and her husband interviewed potential roommates they met via the Facebook and Slack groups of the project to share a three-bedroom apartment between Funchal (Madeira’s capital) and Ponta do Sol for € 1,800 (approximately $ 2,200) per month food.

Gabe Marușca and Ralu Enea, a Romanian couple who have been working remotely in Madeira since September 2020, recently heard from the nomadic town and are considering joining to meet other remote workers.

After Maru tussenca jumped between places like Bali, Cyprus, Malta and Spain, the 34-kilometer-long island popular with tourists from the United Kingdom offered a complete package.

Marușca listed access to mountains and the ocean, affordability, friendly residents and ‘blazing fast internet’ among the benefits of Madeira, in addition to the manageable size, which he said is more conducive to finding a community and longer than larger places where he was.

Small place, big dream

Hall, the consultant who is helping launch the project, said the idea of ​​starting a digital nomadic village on the island, best known for its fortified wine of the same name, 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 he was a child .

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

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

Ponta do Sol has been selected to test the project, which is expected to expand to other areas on the island, StartupMadeira’s Lopes said.

The collaboration space is prepared with space for only 22 desks and chairs inside (with a covered outside seating available). In accordance with social distance and the Covid-19 rules on the island, employees will use the space in shifts, with access to strong WiFi, a printer and the main coffee machine, Hall said.

The hope for the project, even before it expands to other areas, is that digital nomads will spread across the island to live and play, and raise money in a local economy affected by the ‘major challenges’ pandemic provides for locals whose livelihoods depend on tourism, Lopes said.

During the initial roll-out phase from 1 February to 30 June, there are no costs associated with using the collaboration space and being part of the community, although a minimum stay of one month is required.

Networking opportunities, skills sharing seminars on topics such as cryptocurrency, yoga classes and hiking outings are already being thrown around as group activities for the community.

There are no plans to encourage people to be part of the community in the future, Lopes said, adding that the goal of the project is to prepare the local community to grow new businesses around the niche market.

Collaborate – but first you have to get there

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

For the time being, most Americans in America who want more than just Slack to join the digital nomadic town will have to wait, with non-significant travel to Portugal and the European Union still limited due to Covid-19.

“Although there are currently many countries with travel restrictions to Portugal, such as the USA, Canada and Brazil, we welcome the registrations of these nationalities, because we believe that although they are not currently able to travel to Madeira, they are already getting to know and plan our island. 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 that there has been a lot of interest in being part of the initiative by adjusting their house prices to the monthly rates for the digital nomads and long-term offerings. car rental rates.

For a fee, island attorneys can also help digital nomads stay longer on the island by guiding them through non-tourist visa applications, including the Portuguese Golden Visa and D7 resident permit.

Luis Vilhena, a Portuguese architect who has lived in Madeira since 1989 (he arrived at work for six months and never left there), said that once you are here, the island is easy to love.

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

According to him, Ponta do Sol seems to be a natural place for the digital nomadic town with its easy access to mountain biking, sailing, surfing and other adventure activities.

Francisco Fontes, who hails from Madeira and recently returned to the island with his Italian girlfriend when his financial job came down in the United States, said Ponta do Sol, with its winding alleys, branched roofs and pebble beach, is similar to the villages along the Amalfi Coast of Italy. ‘

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

Fontes said his grandmother, who was from Ponta do Sol and no longer lives, would like to see new life breathed into her village.

“She always said she would like to bring the city’s cinema back to life as it did in the 1930s, when her father built it,” he said.

“I think this kind of initiative can bring back a little bit of what Ponta do Sol was originally built for,” he said. “And I have not heard anyone say anything bad about it either, so it’s always a good sign.”