Coding From Lisbon: A Month of AI-First Development on the Road

In March 2026, I spent 28 days working remotely from Lisbon. Not a holiday disguised as work, not a "workcation" where you half-heartedly check Slack between tourist attractions - a proper, full month of shipping software from a different country. It turned out to be one of the most productive and enjoyable months I've had in a while, and I want to share what worked, what didn't, and what I'd do differently.

The Setup

My base was an Airbnb apartment in Lisbon's business district. Most days I worked from there, but I also had access to a Spaces co-working location nearby. The co-working setup was brilliant - reliable internet, good desks, coffee on tap - right up until it wasn't. On my last Friday in Lisbon, I turned up to Spaces and got turned away at the door. The company my membership was through had gotten into some kind of dispute with Spaces, and my access was suspended without warning. Random and frustrating, but at least it happened at the end of the trip rather than the beginning.

The Travel Router That Saved Me

One piece of kit I can't recommend enough: the GL.iNet GL-BE3600 (Slate 7) portable Wi-Fi 7 travel router. Here's the problem it solves - every time you move to a new location (hotel, Airbnb, co-working space, cafe), you'd normally have to reconnect every single device to the new network. Laptop, phone, tablet, whatever else. With the travel router, you connect it to the local WiFi, and all your devices stay connected to the router's network. One reconnection instead of many, every time you move.

WiFi was solid the entire trip. Between the Airbnb and Spaces, I never had a connectivity issue that affected my work. The travel router handled everything seamlessly.

The Work

I shipped major AI projects during the month. I'm keeping the specifics vague here, but the volume of work I got through was genuinely surprising - even to me.

The reason? The AI-first manager pattern I've been developing. Rather than writing every line of code myself, I orchestrate teams of AI agents. On any given day, I'd have 5+ git worktrees open simultaneously, each running its own Claude Code session, each of those sessions potentially spinning up teams of sub-agents working on different parts of the codebase. I'd even run the same application on different ports across worktrees for parallel development and testing.

All of this ran on a single MacBook. The CPU and memory handled the load well, which still surprises me given how much was running concurrently. The battery, however, was a different story.

The Battery Situation

My MacBook's battery health is hovering around 80%, which means I had it plugged in the entire time I was working. An Anker powerbank lived permanently next to me as a backup. And then there was the travel adapter incident.

My first day at Spaces, I sat down, opened my laptop, reached into my bag - and realised I'd forgotten my UK plug travel adapter. No adapter meant no charging. I spent that entire session watching the battery percentage tick down, mentally calculating how many worktrees I could afford to keep running. Lesson very much learned. The adapter went into the bag that evening and never left it again.

The Routine

I kept a strict separation between work and exploration. On work days, I'd be at my desk by 9am and finish at 5pm. After that, the laptop closed and the city opened up. I booked 3 extra days off that month specifically for proper exploration without the guilt of knowing I should be working.

Every evening after work was spent walking. Lisbon is a city that rewards wandering - narrow streets that open into sudden viewpoints, tiled buildings catching the light, the sound of trams rattling through narrow streets. The routine of work-then-explore gave both halves of the day more meaning. Work felt focused because I knew the evening was mine. Evenings felt earned because I'd put in a full day.

Day Trips

I made it to Alfama multiple times (it's walkable from the business district and endlessly interesting), plus day trips to Sintra and Cascais. Both are highly recommended if you're in Lisbon for any length of time.

Sintra is like stepping into a fairy tale - palaces perched on misty hilltops, surrounded by forest. Cascais is the opposite vibe - a relaxed coastal town with a beautiful coastline and a laid-back atmosphere. Both are under an hour from Lisbon by train, making them perfect for a day off.

What Worked About Lisbon for Remote Work

The single best thing about working remotely in Lisbon's business district is that everyone is doing it. Cafes are full of people on laptops. Co-working spaces are busy. Even in parks, you'll see people working. The culture completely normalises it. You never feel like the weird person who brought a laptop to a coffee shop - you're just part of the scenery.

This matters more than you'd think. In some cities, working from a cafe feels like you're taking up space. In Lisbon, it feels like that's what the space is for. It removes a layer of self-consciousness that you don't even realise is there until it's gone.

The time zone also worked well. Lisbon is on GMT (same as London), so there was zero adjustment needed for meetings or async communication with my UK-based team. If you're working with European teams, Lisbon is one of the easiest remote work destinations you can pick.

What Didn't Work

The battery and adapter situation I've already covered. Beyond that, Lisbon's hills and cobblestone streets deserve a mention. The city is steep. The streets are paved with beautiful but uneven cobblestones that seem designed to turn your ankle. I'm genuinely surprised I made it through the month without injury. If you're planning to walk everywhere (and you should - it's the best way to see the city), bring shoes with good ankle support.

The Spaces membership suspension was annoying but ultimately minor since it happened at the end. If it had happened in week one, I'd have been scrambling to find a replacement, so it's worth having a backup plan for co-working access.

What I'd Do Differently

Two things:

• Stay longer. 28 days felt like I was just getting into a rhythm when it was time to leave. If I could do it again, I'd aim for 6-8 weeks. The first week is settling in, the last week is winding down - the productive sweet spot in the middle needs to be longer.
• Find a nomad-focused co-working space. Spaces is very corporate. Clean, professional, reliable - but zero community. Nobody talks to each other. A nomad-focused co-working space would have been much better for meeting other remote workers and building connections. Places like that exist all over Lisbon, and they'd give the trip a social dimension that I missed out on.

Food Recommendations

I'd be doing Lisbon a disservice if I didn't mention the food. Two places that stood out:

• Ristorante Donatella - an authentic Italian restaurant near Cais do Sodre and Pink Street. I went back twice in two weeks. On my second visit, the server recognised me and asked about my travels. That kind of warmth is hard to find.
• Il Mulino Lisboa - near the Altis Avenida Hotel. Great Italian food in a relaxed setting. If you're in that part of the city, it's worth a stop.

Yes, two Italian restaurants in Lisbon. I know. But these two places earned their spot on the list by being genuinely memorable.

The Bottom Line

Working remotely from Lisbon for a month confirmed something I've suspected for a while: the AI-first development workflow I've built isn't location-dependent. The same orchestration pattern that works from my desk at home works from a Lisbon apartment. The agents don't care where I am. The code ships either way.

What Lisbon added was a better version of the hours outside of work. A new city to explore every evening, new food to try, new streets to get lost in. The work didn't suffer - if anything, having a clear reason to stop at 5pm made the working hours more focused.

If you're a remote engineer thinking about working from another city for a month, my advice is simple: do it. Get a travel router, check your battery health, pack your travel adapter, and go. The work will be fine. The rest of your life will be better for it.