Every year, my partner and I spend a few months in Portugal and work from there. Most of the time, we work from the same location, in the Lisbon area or the area around Coimbra / Serra da Lousã.
Although public WiFi is widely available in Portugal, in cafes and restaurants, we have our own setup. We both work for clients from our laptops, so we need a secure connection.
This blog post is a quick tip for anyone looking for an affordable internet connection while traveling in Portugal.
Every time we are here, we buy multiple 15-day all-access data cards. You can put these cards in a spare mobile phone and use it as a hotspot.
Instead of a spare mobile phone, we have a hotspot from Vodafone Portugal, which we bought years ago. It is available in Vodafone shops and Worten shops all over Portugal.
At our Portuguese home, we put it near the window and connect it to our combined two smartphones, two laptops, and two tablets.
We even stream our favorite shows with it.
It is not an ultra-fast connection, but the speed suffices for us.
If we go on a weekend trip, we take our hotspot and set up our mobile office wherever we are.
This works in most places, although we were in the Serra da Estrela near Torozelo for a week several years ago and didn’t have a connection there.
It’s time to check if this has already been improved very soon.
If not, then we have an internet-free holiday for several days. I love the Serra da Estrela, so you won’t hear me complain!
Even if we buy these cards for four months a year, the total cost is only 160 euros.
That is cheaper than a yearly subscription on one address here, plus this setup keeps us flexible. We can travel around Portugal and use our internet service wherever we go.
I am delighted with this solution; it works well for us.
I am also curious about other people’s solutions, so if you have a different internet arrangement in Portugal, please let me know!