7 Reasons to Avoid Lisbon︱Portugal’s Propaganda Targeting Digital Nomads
Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, has recently been aggressively promoting itself as a top destination for digital nomads. With its sunny weather, low cost of living, and vibrant cultural scene, it’s no wonder that Lisbon has caught the attention of remote workers around the world. However, before you pack your bags and hop on a plane, it’s important to consider a few key factors that the Lisbon propaganda conveniently avoids mentioning. Here are seven reasons to think twice before joining the wave of digital nomads flocking to Lisbon.
1. Overcrowding: With the influx of digital nomads and tourists, Lisbon has become overcrowded and congested. The once tranquil streets are now filled with hordes of visitors, making it challenging to enjoy the city’s charm and relax in peace. Queues for popular attractions are longer, cafes are packed, and finding accommodation can be a struggle due to high demand.
2. Rising Costs: While Lisbon may have been relatively affordable in the past, its popularity has caused living costs to soar. Rent prices have surged to unprecedented levels, and basic commodities and services have become more expensive. The once wallet-friendly destination has quickly transformed into a pricey spot that can strain the budgets of digital nomads trying to make their remote work sustainable.
3. Limited Housing Options: Despite efforts to accommodate the growing number of digital nomads, finding suitable housing in Lisbon remains a challenge. The significant increase in demand has led to a shortage of available apartments and co-living spaces. Many digital nomads end up settling for subpar accommodations or paying exorbitant prices for quality housing.
4. Unreliable Internet: As digital nomads rely heavily on a stable and fast internet connection, Lisbon’s digital infrastructure leaves much to be desired. Numerous expats have reported frequent connectivity issues and slow speeds, making it difficult to conduct remote work efficiently. Amidst Portugal’s push to attract remote workers, its internet infrastructure has failed to keep up.
5. Language Barrier: While Lisbon is a popular tourist destination, English proficiency among the local population is relatively low compared to other European cities. This language barrier can create challenges, especially for those who need assistance with administrative tasks or in their daily interactions. Communication hurdles can slow down productivity and lead to frustration.
6. Lack of Work-Life Balance: Lisbon’s appeal as a tourist destination can sometimes overshadow the realities of daily life for digital nomads. The city’s lively atmosphere and numerous cultural activities make it easy to get caught up in the hustle and forget about work. This lack of work-life balance can be detrimental to those seeking a productive and focused remote work experience.
7. Visa Hassles: While the initial propaganda targeting digital nomads highlighted Portugal’s welcome of remote workers, the reality is that obtaining the necessary visas can be a complicated process. Navigating the bureaucratic hurdles and paperwork can be time-consuming and stressful, potentially delaying your ability to settle down and work legally in Lisbon.
In conclusion, while Lisbon may have its allure, it’s crucial to approach the city’s promotional propaganda with caution. Overcrowding, rising costs, limited housing options, unreliable internet, language barriers, lack of work-life balance, and visa hassles are all critical factors that Lisbon’s digital nomad propaganda conveniently overlooks. Before succumbing to the marketing hype, consider these seven reasons to avoid Lisbon and explore alternative destinations that offer a more conducive environment for productive remote work.
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Sorry, I appreciate your work and your niche and your work towards your niche. But as a former local (driven out to emmigrate due to not being able to afford rent anymore), there are some remarks and attitudes that come across as clueless, entitled, or otherwise this is a great troll.
Many of the comments, also from the other commenters here, are so full of entitlement. Also when complaining about tourists – you can call yourselves "digital nomads", but you're just as a "tourist with a laptop" who stays for longer. And the local effects are just the same, and so is the sense of entitlement and lack of humbleness.
Speaking of humbleness, that's a characteristic Southern Europeans appreciate, and tourists from richer countries often fail to bring or observe. And that lack of cultural awareness makes you and fellow colleagues frustrated, frustrates the locals, and ultimately proves people being out of place and a lack of worldly skills. It comes across as "I haven't interacted with any local, or anyone who has lived in Portugal for over 5 years, and here is what I think".
Lisbon is currently going through a Disneyland phase, so all tourists just see other tourists and lower-income countries "servants" to sell them French gelatos and Italian coffees. Locals have to work hard for rents they cannot afford further and further away from their work places, so this Disneyland can keep on growing and pretend to want to keep bringing tourists and digital nomads as yourself.
I respect your opinion, and I would agree that I wouldn't laptop work easily in Lisbon. What I really wanted to call out is the lack of awareness, lack of humbleness, and entitlement attitude, and I believe in Europe those are very important soft-skills that go a long way, professionally and personally.
them not allowing laptops lol… that's just horrible…
Great tourist selfies!
Europe is overhyped; Expensive, dangerous, racist, rude, bad customer service. Asia is the best.
Interesting video The Borderless Office.
As a portuguese immigrant living in u.s i can tell you…..lisbon is not even portuguese anymore…..its basically been sold out to tourists
I’m totally agree with you. There are more drawbacks for me. So I’m leaving this beautiful country in two weeks after living here for a year and a half! I’m leaving these expensive living conditions here to tourists.
Time to leave, man. Like you said, too many tourists.
there was literally a huge protest against digital nomads in Lisbon by locals, like people literally walking down the streets protesting against digital nomad during web summit 2021, locals DO NOT want digital nomads, they cancelled golden visa as well, only D7 visa is eligible but the cost has gone up. Thailand is the best digital nomad destination, no country even come close to thailand.
As e-Resident I prefer Faro than Lisboa – I can change the country when I want because my company is formed in Estonia thorugh e-Residency card .
CANNOT AGREE MORE WITH THIS GENTLEMAN REGARDING EVERY THINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
I live in Lisbon and fully agree, lot's of bureaucracy getting paperwork sorted not that many places to work from and indeed too many tourists everywhere. But like mentioned by someone else you seem to have bene mainly in the tourist parts. It's better to check around Saldanha.
You tried to go to the gym 4 times and it was randomly closed?? You can’t close a business randomly in Portugal. You have to keep with the opening hours otherwise you get fined. So I believe that there was a valid explanation for that gym to be closed that you just didn’t got to know
Find a coworker space and pay for it. Cafes not allowing laptops is reasonable cos the business model is on the earnings per table per hour. If I own a cafe, I’d do the same.
I will visit Portugal one day.
I disagree with you view point. It looks like you only visited the mostly touristic areas. I hope that you didn’t visited Lisbon to make this video in August because most of the Portuguese people and places are closed because it is a month of holidays to most of the Portuguese.
So as a Portuguese let me tell you, you're full of shiet. First you don't go to a tourist restaurant to work. There are thousands of other places that allows you to use laptop and they are more coffeeshops than restaurants.
Next about the wifi wft are you saying Portugal have fiberoptic all over the place so the internet is stable, just don't use what we call the free wifi, ask in the places for their password. Plus we have really good 5G and a card cost you 5€ with 10GB for 2 months.
Lisbon is not expensive to eat/drink, just avoid the tourist traps that exists is all countries. It's one of the cheapest places to have a drink at the End of the day one small beer cost you from 1€ to 1.5, ok if you go to the hipsters/ tourist places you will pay 3 or 4.
The Portuguese have a more relaxing way of life, that is one of the reasons more and more people are moving here, we rush as much as needed but never to the extreme like in other places. You wanna fast pace go to new york. We don't need you here, just don't come here telling bullshiet about the place.
As we say in Portuguese "não gosta arruma para o lado", in translation of the methafor for you, you don't like it you don't eat it.