Coliving, Coworking and Socialising for Digital Nomads
Madeira has been a popular tourist destination for years, and there’s something for every age and interest. There are surf spots and hiking routes, luxury hotels with sunshine guarantee, quiet places in the mountains, a harbour for the biggest cruise ships in the world and city life. Madeira has a lot to offer for visitors.
Fuelled by the pandemic in 2020, Madeira also became a melting pot for digital nomads with the first digital nomad village in the world. Many expats originally came as digital nomads, fell in love with the island and turned into digital “staymads”. Therefore, there is a big community of expats and digital nomads in Madeira that is very welcoming for new arrivals.
Coliving in Madeira
Before Charlie went to Ponta do Sol, or a business retreat with The Nomad Escape and Nomad Island Fest, she stayed for three weeks at Homeoffice Madeira, a coliving in the mountains near Santo da Serra. It was one of the first colivings she found during her research, and she had a good impression. It seemed to be a little oasis in the mountains far away from the hustle of the city. That was what she wanted: a few weeks of quiet, productive time in nature.
The house at Quinta do Cabeço Alto
The house is a big villa with a massive garden. There are six bedrooms, some of them can be shared, and each room has a desk. There is a big living room, communal area and a well-equipped kitchen. The garage has been converted into a games room with some additional desks and there is also a little gym room. There is a terrace upstairs and additional seating at the front porch facing the garden with power plugs to also work from there. There are a pizza oven, a pond and a trampoline in the garden. You literally have everything you need to be productive at home and never leave the house.
The nearest grocery shop is a 15-minute drive from the house and there are two cars available for all housemates to share. The cost for the cars is split equally amongst them on a weekly basis. The grocery shopping is done communal. You have a shopping list in the kitchen where everybody can add what they need and the cost for the groceries is split equally, unless somebody wants anything special.
Socialising and cooking together
Since the grocery shopping is done for the group, it is also not unusual to cook together multiple times per week. Everybody in the group can add a little of their local cuisine. During Charlie’s stay there were two brothers also staying at the house who were half Irish, half Brazilian and she got introduced to a delicious Risotto and Beef Stroganoff. Markus from Sweden cooked a pasta with a red-pepper-cream-sauce whilst the Germans liked to keep things easy with simple Pasta dishes. However, Charlie and the other girls spend one whole afternoon in the kitchen preparing snacks for a sunset hike to Pico do Areeiro .
The downside of this system is that somebody has to drive to the shop to buy the groceries and so it happened that Charlie attempted to boil Lasagna pasta. It was the only edible thing at the house. It was a successful experiment in the sense that Charlie found out that it doesn’t work. The pieces of Lasagna pasta will stick together in the pot and won’t be cooked evenly. Everybody learned their lesson that night and decided to do some grocery shopping the next morning.
Homeoffice Madeira is a lovely place to stay, but it is based on community and if you’re unlucky, you’re sharing the house with people that aren’t matching your vibe.
Other Colivings in Madeira
Charlie shortly visited another coliving in Madeira during her stay. Two of her housemates from Homeoffice Madeira moved there and she went with them on the first day. The house is in Santa Cruz, has multiple bedrooms, a living room and communal area, a kitchen and a wine cellar. There is a big terrace and a garden with plenty of fruit trees. From the roof terrace, you can see the runway of the airport and watch the planes landing and taking off. It is a 3-minute walk into town where you find cafes and restaurants and a few shops.
There are other colivings in different parts of the island, for example Outsite and Banana coliving in Ponta do Sol where the digital nomad village is. Charlie hasn’t been there and can’t tell you much about them. Most nomads and staymads, decide to get a place in Funchal to stay longer on the island. You can still find beautiful penthouses with pools there, however prices keep on increasing in the capital. Another digital nomad whom Charlie had met earlier in the year in the coliving in Gran Canaria also was in Funchal for a few months and had rented an AirBnB with a friend. There are plenty of options for digital nomads in Madeira and everybody will find the right place for them.
Medical insurance in Madeira
The island of Madeira belongs to Portugal and as such, it is part of the EU. That means that your European Health Insurance card is valid and you can get emergency medical treatment. However, it does not replace medical or travel insurance. Services like repatriation, private treatment and ski or mountain rescues are not included. For that added piece of mind, it is advisable to take out a separate insurance.
Charlie’s go to travel medical insurance is SafetyWing as it has been specifically created for digital nomads and longer stays abroad. It covers, among other, hospital stays, special diagnostics and emergency dental treatments. Loss of checked luggage is included too and you have the option to add action sports and electronics theft to your policy. All of that together made SafetyWing the best option for Charlie’s needs.
When you sign up for SafetyWing, you have the option to take out insurance for a single trip of a determined period of time or you can sign up for an auto-renewal every month for global coverage (that’s the best price option!). In case you forgot about insurance in the planning stage of your trip, you can even sign up if you’re already abroad.
What you want to keep in mind for Madeira is that you might venture out to remote areas. In case of emergency, you dial 112 and get help as quickly as possible. That however, can be tricky if you’re up in the mountains or in a remote area. Physical distances in Madeira might seem short, but the drive is quite often longer than expected. Please do not take any unnecessary risks just because you got a great travel medical insurance.
Places to work from in Madeira
If you’re like Charlie staying at Homeoffice Madeira, you probably don’t need another workspace because it is what the name suggests, a homeoffice. For everybody else, there are a few coworking spaces in Madeira and coffee shops for laptop workers.
Workspaces in Funchal
The main coworking space in Funchal was busy when Charlie was there and didn’t accept any new members. There was a new coworking space that had just opened in the west of Funchal: Sangha Cowork. Charlie worked from there a few times and enjoyed the sea view from the spacious room with the big window front. There are hot desks and fixed desks available, and you can also choose to sit on a bench by the window. Coffee and water are available in the kitchen. The coworking space is on the first floor of a hotel and you could also eat at the hotel bar. Charlie didn’t dare to ask about using the pool, but you can see it from the workspace. There are also multiple places for lunch in the area. You can book a day pass for €18 or become a monthly member for € 200 if you’re staying a bit longer.
There are a few coffee shops and restaurants in Funchal where you can work from. Charlie’s favourite place is Art Food Corner between the Cable Car station and Rua da Santa Maria in Funchal. You can sit downstairs in the café for an hour. If you want to work from there for longer, you can go upstairs where you find an art gallery and coworking area. The coffee and food are great in this place and you have stable Wi-Fi and power plugs available.
The best place to get lunch in Funchal is Prima Caju where they serve healthy food with only natural ingredients, and it has a beautiful interior. It gets busy at lunch time, but if you go there in the morning or afternoon, you can make it your perfect workspace.
Other digital nomads also recommended the following places, but Charlie hasn’t tried them: LAND coffee, Next Hotel, Three House and Loft.
Workspaces in other locations
What digital nomad village would it be if there wasn’t a coworking space in Ponta do Sol. It is in the middle of the town at the top floor of the John Dos Passos Cultural Centre and free to use. You should register though at digitalnomads.startupmadeira.eu to book a desk and to get access to their Slack community.
Whilst Charlie was in Madeira, they were about to open another workspace near the airport which could be worth checking out in the future, and another one in Machico.
Socialising in an international group
There are digital nomad communities in Funchal, Ponta do Sol, and Machico and they all get together regularly for lunches, dinners, music, and dance evenings or sports. They have a WhatsApp group to organise these events. If you’d like to join them, it’s best to follow Madeira Friends on Instagram or just talk to people in the coworking space.
The biggest event for all digital nomads is the weekly Sunset Social Purple Fridays. It is a party at the cliff deck of the Estalagem Hotel in Ponta do Sol with a different DJ every week, organised by the hotel, NomadX. and Madeira Friends. It is free but you need a ticket that you can book on Eventbrite a few days in advance. There is a shuttle from Funchal. You must reserve your seat by emailing info@pontadosol.com The reason why they call it Purple Fridays is the colour of the sky that you can see from the cliff deck at sunset. What better place to mingle with other digital nomads on a beautiful island in the Atlantic Ocean?
