Regions/Ericeira/Surf & cowork
Surf & cowork weeks in Ericeira
A surf town that grew a remote-work scene, not a coworking hub that added surf
Ericeira picked up a permanent remote-work population somewhere around 2020 and never lost it. That has produced something specific: surf houses where a decent share of the guests are working a normal week, so nobody schedules the good session at 11:00 on a Tuesday and expects you to be there. The practical shape of a working week here is a dawn session before your first call, a second one after 18:00 in summer when the wind drops, and one properly free weekday afternoon when the forecast justifies it.
- Fibre is standard in town; ask specifically about the house, not the town
- Dawn and post-18:00 sessions fit around a European working day
- Coliving and surf-cowork houses in and around the centre
- 45 minutes to Lisbon if you need to be in the city
Connectivity, honestly
The town has fibre and mobile coverage is good. The variable is the property. Converted quintas in the fields behind Ericeira sometimes run on a connection that is fine for email and bad for a six-person video call, and the listing will still say wifi included. Ask for a speed test screenshot from the actual house and ask how many desks share the line. Any operator selling a cowork product will have that answer ready; one that does not is telling you something.
Bring a local eSIM as a fallback. Portuguese mobile data is cheap, coverage on the coast is solid, and tethering has saved more calls than any router in a surf house ever has.
How much surfing actually fits
Three to five sessions across a working week, if you are honest about it. Summer helps: sunrise is early and light lasts past 21:00, which gives you two genuine windows a day. In winter the daylight shrinks to roughly 08:00 to 18:00 and you are realistically choosing between a dawn session and nothing.
The thing that ruins working weeks is treating every good forecast as unmissable. The reason Ericeira works is that it is consistent - there will be another day. Book a week here rather than a long weekend and the pressure comes off.
Ericeira or Lisbon as a base
Lisbon has far more coworking infrastructure, a bigger nomad community, and better flight connections, but you are 30 to 45 minutes from Caparica each way and the surf is less consistent. Ericeira has less infrastructure and a five-minute drive to the water. If your work is mostly asynchronous, Ericeira wins. If you need meeting rooms, events, and people to work near, base in Lisbon and accept the commute.
Common questions
- Is the wifi good enough for video calls?
- In town, generally yes. In rural properties it varies a lot. Always ask the specific house for a speed test rather than trusting the listing, and carry an eSIM for tethering as a backup.
- How many surfs a week can I realistically get?
- Three to five around a full workload. Summer gives you dawn and evening windows; winter effectively gives you one, because of daylight.
- Is there a coworking space, or do I work from the house?
- Both exist. Several surf-cowork houses have dedicated desk rooms, and there are independent spaces in town. If you need a door that closes for calls, specify that - a shared table in a common room is the more common setup and it is not the same thing.