Digital Nomad Guide to Living in Spain in 2022

Spain has been a well-loved destination for remote workers and digital nomads for now, but its popularity has skyrocketed in recent years. So what do you need to know about Spain and its rules to enjoy your stay there? Here are the absolute essentials.

Visas in Spain are pretty straightforward. If you are a European Union citizen or from the Schengen area, you can enter without a permit. US citizens can enter the country without a visa for up to 90 days every 180 days, but any more extended stay will require long-term access. A long-term visa can be applied for for up to a year and can be renewed if you stay in the country at least for six months. It used to be that digital nomads applied for a non-lucrative visa, but the authorities stopped issuing those to nomads in recent years. There is also an official digital nomad visa in the works, but it will still take some time to be fully implemented.

Spain is not a very expensive country, especially by Western European standards, but there are still some costly places like Barcelona or Madrid. The essential item on your budget will be rent. Where in cities like Valencia, rent is somewhere between €500 and €1000 per month, Madrid’s cheaper rents begin at about €700 and average at about €1600 per month on the higher end.

And while some of this can be dealt with based on where in the city you want to live and how large an apartment you’re looking for, cities like Madrid and Barcelona will be far more expensive than the rest of the country. This also carries over to some services like meals in restaurants, tickets to concerts, theatres, etc. When it comes to groceries, clothing, or even gas prices, however, they should be roughly the same across the country.

The country is very well interconnected with a net of busses and trains. The trains are incredibly well maintained, air-conditioned, reasonably quiet, and the high-speed AVE trains even offer a stable WiFi connection helping many digital nomads focus on their work when they travel from city to city. The busses are also decent, making travel to smaller towns a breeze.

But even though the public transportation system is excellent, these connections will not get you everywhere. If you want to explore the rural side of Spain, you’ll be better off just renting a car for a few days. And as long as you plan on staying in bigger cities, travelling between them won’t be a problem.

A lifeline for most digital nomads, the internet in Spain is pretty good and stable on the whole. Large cities will have accommodation and cafés with good, strong WiFi connections and decent speed. However, if you’re planning on going to more rural areas, make sure you ask your landlord first or do some googling.

It’s the same with trains. While the high-speed trains have a good connection, more local trains might not have any WiFi. The internet connection in Spain is good when it’s there, but there are still many parts where this is not a norm. Your best bet is to buy a pre-paid SIM card with an internet connection which can save you in a pinch, but you can’t depend on it from month to month.