My thoughts 🧠 🧠

After watching too many Linkedin’s posts about digital nomads, remote working and things like that , I’ve decided to “buy” the “7-day trial for digital nomads” with destination one of the most famous locations for digital nomads in Europe: Fuerteventura🏄‍♂️ 🏄‍♂️!!

Fuerteventura has become a popular destination for remote workers and digital nomads looking for a change of scenery. The island offers a great work-life balance, with its beautiful natural landscapes and year-round warm weather and you can smell the so-called “Slow life”.

The chance came thanks to a friend, our unofficial guide through the island Tommaso, which was staying in Fuerte for a month and so why not join him on Fuerte with my friend Paola? Even if it was only for a week (from 9th to 16th of February) we’ve had the chance to travel, discover and see a lot of new things, try new experiences (Yeah I’ve tried to surf but with poor results 🤣🤣), and connect with people from all over Europe!!

During my staying there I had the chance to meet a lot of very interesting and stimulating people who, contrary to what I thought, were doing everything but developers (yes I am biased)!! I've met copywriters, bloggers, influencers who travel Europe in vans, video makers, social media managers and many other roles. The first night, as soon as we arrived, we got to meet a lot of people through a community event for remote workers. It was quite a fun night and we had the chance to discuss with a lot of people from different cultures and different work. There were a lot of people which moved to Fuerte, so I've taken the chance to talk with them about a lot of things and they helped me by giving me some nice advice and telling me their stories, why they moved in Fuerteventura and the problems that they had in their motherland. I was really amazed by the number of people, even my age, who moved to Fuerteventura to live. Also I was amazed by the fact that bars in Fuerte had Aperol Spritz 😲 😲 (after been there I understood that it’s nothing to be surprised, in the island there are more Italian than spanish people).

I honestly think that having the chance to travel while working (even if you need to adapt a little bit) is one of the greatest benefits of working in the digital sector. It has always been tight for me to have to travel only with vacations (so about 20 days a year), Why do I have to suppress my desire to travel because of the work, especially now that I’m young, to do a work where I can easily work from literally anywhere there is a laptop and a Wi-fi connection ??? I have never been able to fully live with the fact that I had to plan my trips based on my remaining vacations and that I could not exceed them. Thanks to remote working now this limitation is lifted and I can travel at the time I prefer and when (more or less) I want!!! Obviously working in a company gives some limitations compared to being a freelancer, but I think that for now, I’m okay with these kinds of limitations.

Reflecting back on it with a cool mind, this trip has clarified a lot of my thinking about how I would like to live my future work life, I hope this post will serve a minimum to make people understand the immense potential of this work methodology. The world is changing and people have begun to reevaluate their life priorities. Personally, I have come to the conclusion that the world of work has changed toward a new approach: more and more people are looking for a way to combine "personal life" with "work life" in order to gain a new freedom, flexibility and the chance to try as much experiences as possible. This before was only a dream that was achievable at retirement age but now people, especially we young ones, see the work in a profoundly different way from our parents, we want to use the work as a tool to live a better life, not spending the whole life after that.

The change in the mindset about work it's clear, especially in Italy when it comes to the number of companies which our parents changed. My dad changed only 3 companies in his life, instead I'm at my third company at 23 after 5 years of working. In Italy the previous generation thought about the work in a different way: our parents just needed a work to continue their life, the so-called permanent place (Posto fisso) .
This concept of “live a better life” is very personal and changes from person to person, for me for example working is a way to live a life without lacking anything. This means that I don’t want/need a Ferrari or a Lamborghini, I just want a car, I don’t want/need the vacations in 5-star hotels , I just want to travel , even hostels are fine. I hope that these examples explain well what I mean.

The so-called Slow life 🍹 🍹

In Fuerteventura, you have the chance to really smell this kind of life, everyone is very relaxed and at peace. It's a completely different lifestyle compared to the one that you live in big city (Big city lifeeee), everyone is very calm, available to help and talkative, the exact opposite than Milan. Also we can say that Fuerte is an Italian colony since it was full of old Italian guys which retired from work and bought an house there, probably there were more Italian than locals.

All seems super cool... but the prices 💸💸??

Firstly let's say that this period it's not the best one to evaluate how much a country is pricy since the really high inflation is compromising this aspect.

But honestly, even with inflation, the prices were not so bad, I've spent more or less 250 € for an apartment right in front of the sea for 7 days (so 42€ per night) with a private pool. A very good price if it wasn't that the service was not the best... I've found my bed all dirty and the room was filled with insects, so I had to exchange my room with the suite for the same price , an affair !!

The flight was more or less 160 € with luggage and prioritary access, I saw that you can find better prices if you're flexible with the hours (or if you don't need a luggage :D) and with the days.

The prices of food is lower than the average Italian city near the sea, it's not cheap but also not too much pricy, you can refer to this Numbeo link to find out some of the prices of the most common things like coffee, food and so on. In total for 7 days with car rental (1 day - 43 € more or less), surf teacher (40 €), food etc.. I've spent more or less 350 €, so 50 € per day. I could definetely be more careful but I think that I've not spent too much, considering that I always ate out in restaurants (except one night). So for this trip in total, I've spent in total more or less 750€. To be honest there were more cheaper solutions (especially the apartment) but since I wanted the most out of this experience I've gladly choosen this options (and also it was close to the apartment of our friend).

Talking with people which comes to Corralejo more often than me they said that the prices recently have really grow a lot, there was this girl which was saying that the last year she paid 600€/per month to rent an apartment, now the exactly same apartment costs 900€, this is probably due to the inflation but also to the fact that Fuerteventura is becoming trendy, and this trend can become problematic for the people which lives there.

Even if it was quite expensive in the end, I've really enjoyed my time there and it taught me a lot so I'm really happy in the end to have spent this moneys.

But then... do you recommend it 🤔🤔??

If you love the beatiful natural landscapes and you would like to try surfing it's definetely the place for you! the temperature are always more or less 18° degrees during European winter (I've encountered also 24° degrees and I've go sunburn) so it's a perfect place for people which would like to skip the winter season in their country and enjoy some good waves in a very chill place. Also you have the chance to meet a lot of stimulating people from all over the Europe and do some networking. Also the prices are still affordable, even if I fear that if the island will become even more trendy the prices will definitely become unsustainable.

I hope that this article can be useful in some way , let me know your toughts about Digital Nomads, Remote working and so on! Also if you've been in Fuerte I would like to know your opinion.

PS: In the photos, if you’re an anime fan you can spot an anime reference, which anime is it? Let me know in the comments the manga name if you can guess it!!