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A week of working from the Atlantic: does it actually work?

The living room at Casa de Sonho with its wood-burning stove and a view outside

More and more guests write to us wanting not two weeks of holiday but one week of work and one week off. That works surprisingly well here — provided you know a few things first.

The time difference works in your favour

The Azores run an hour behind the UK and two behind central Europe, all year round, because the islands change the clocks along with the mainland. In practice: when the working day starts at nine back home, it’s eight or seven here. You get a couple of quiet hours every morning before the first inbox opens, and you’re still there in time for the midday call.

Finish at five in the office and you still have three hours of daylight ahead of you here. In summer that’s enough for a swim and the sunset.

The technical side

The house has WiFi at 100 Mbit/s — enough for video calls, including several devices at once. Portugal is in the EU, so EU mobile plans keep working at no extra cost. Sockets are the continental European type; bring an adapter from the UK.

The big dining table in the kitchen is the best workspace in the house: daylight from two sides, room for two laptops side by side. There is no proper desk — if you type for eight hours straight, bear that in mind.

What you should know

  • Working outside rarely works. There’s almost always a breeze on the terrace, and in sunshine you can’t see the screen. Lovely for phone calls, difficult for actual work.
  • Mobile coverage is patchy out and about. In the mountains, on the crater rims and along some stretches of coast the signal drops out. For anything that matters, rely on the house.
  • Put the excursions in the afternoon. The weather is most reliable in the morning anyway — and that’s when you’ll be at the computer regardless.
  • Low season is working season. In October and November the island is empty, the water is still warm, and the viewpoints are yours once you’ve logged off.

Honestly, the hardest part isn’t the technology. It’s the view out of the kitchen window when the sun is over the Atlantic and the meeting has just gone into overtime.

Here you can see when the house is free.

Frank, Bärbel, Maren & Simon