Categories
Lanzarote Remote Working

Remote working in Lanzarote. Why now?

  • Lanzarote is located in the Canary Islands, barely a 4h-5h flight from the main European Capitals.
  • You probably heard it before: weather here is unbeatable, especially during the winter months. Rain is scarce and any sunny day will guarantee a minimum of 20º. Even in January or February.
  • Don’t need to pack much. 99% of the days of the year you will do fine with just shorts and a t-shirt during the day. A sweater or jacket for the evenings and you’re ready to go.
  • COVID-19 impact has been way lower than most places in Europe, perhaps due to the fact that life in Lanzarote is mostly done outdoors. Due to the great weather, most bars and restaurants are either open to the street or have large terraces. Same happens with shops, and even classrooms in schools have their windows open all year round. 
  • If you are a EU citizen you don’t need a VISA and you can move and work from Lanzarote from day one. You and your family also have access to our free public health service (soon I’ll add detailed instructions on the admin involved), with hefty discounts on prescription medicines.
  • Should you plan to stay in Lanzarote for a long period, getting a tax number is a straightforward process that will allow you to declare tax in Spain. Fortunately, we have way lower taxes than the rest of Spain and most of Europe, both Income taxes and VAT, so it is totally an option to consider.
  • Due to the global pandemic, there are many accommodation possibilities at prices that were unthinkable barely a year ago. From luxury villas or frontline apartments where you can disconnect for a month without costing you an arm and a leg, to more modest but very enjoyable villas with pool at very affordable prices for longer stays.
  • Broadband Internet is available throughout the island, and in 2020 deployment of Fiber Optic has reached almost every town, allowing for speeds between 300Mbps and 600Mbps in many tourist accommodations, including villas and appartments.
  • Lockdown safe – Thanks to the low COVID-19 rates, Lanzarote has only been confined during the first outbreak, when the whole country was forced into a lockdown. It felt very strange in the island since we stopped having new cases in mid april but we were still locked for a further month, but luckily “lockdown powers” have now be transfered to the different Regional Authorities in Spain, so the second wave of confinements are being done regionally, and luckily we have been able to avoid it until today.
  • Culturally and leisurely active – clearly things are not the same as pre-COVID, but we are fortunate to be still enjoying the possibility of going to the cinema (we even have open air ones!), theater or music concerts, even if with security measures in place and with reduced capacities. Likewise, we are surrounded by beaches that can be enjoyed all year round and there are countless natural treasures that are waiting for you to see them.
  • Daylight: The shortest day of the year has 10 hours of daylight, with the sun setting at around 6pm around the Winter Solstice. That’s plenty of time to enjoy many of the outdoor activities that can be done in Lanzarote: surfing, cycling, trekking, parasailing, diving, or just chilling by the pool. A dream for every digital nomad.
  • English speaking friendly: Everyone here is used to tourists, so mostly everyone speaks a decent amount of English, even in supermarkets or restaurants in rural areas.
  • Life is more than affordable (cheap?): Not only you save a ton in clothes, but supermarket shopping is inexpensive for European standards when avoiding shopping in the tourist areas. If you don’t fancy cooking, there are many restaurants providing daily lunch menus at prices that normally go around 10€-13€.