Test-Driving Life at the End of the Earth

I have seen the end of the world. They speak Portuguese there. 

The end of the world, it turns out, is a spit of land in Sagres, Portugal that juts out into the Atlantic—what the Portuguese called finis terra (the end of the Earth).  

There at the end of the walkway is the Ponta de Sagres Lighthouse, sitting atop sheer cliffs that rise 200 feet from crashing waves. 

This was my cubicle one day last week. I literally started writing this column there, sitting on a rock as a local fisherman was casting his line over the cliff and into the sea below. He pulled up four, silvery sea bream while I sat there thumbing my way through the top of this dispatch on a writing app on my phone. 

I found this spot by accident. Just happened to be driving along a coastal road in southern Portugal when I saw a large, 15th-century fort out on the headlands and decided to pop in. Not much inside really but a small, centuries-old chapel and the small lighthouse. 

Still, not a bad place to earn your living for a day. 

Which, I guess, is probably a good enough reason to write this dispatch about a largely overlooked corner of Portugal. 

Down here, at the end of the Earth, life is really laidback. Though this is the Algarve, geographically speaking, it feels so far removed from the rest of the Algarve, one of the most popular beach-vacation destinations in all of Europe. 

Where towns like Faro, Lagos, and Albufeira are home to 25,000 to more than 100,000 people, tiny Sagres in the far southwest corner of Portugal is home to 2,000—and it feels like that figure might be wishful thinking. 

I met a real estate agent here and she told me that even during the high season, “Sagres is pretty empty. We get tourists, of course. But nothing like the rest of the Algarve. We’re basically forgotten. Which makes it really nice, actually.” 

One of the big joys of my job is that I come across places like Sagres from time to time in my travels—these really cool, relaxed towns where I wouldn’t mind settling for months at a time. Punta del Estate, Uruguay. Corfu, Greece. Budva, Montenegro. Koh Samui, Thailand. 

Here in Sagres the vibe is very—and I mean exceedingly—1950s California surf town. I counted at least five surf shops. Again, this is a town of just 2,000 people. Five seems overly exuberant for such a teensy population. But everywhere I go, I see American and European tourists in vans packed with surfing gear. 

The geography and climate are very SoCal too. Not much rain through the year. Lots of sunshine almost daily. Mild winter temperatures in the 60s and 70s. Palm trees and succulents. In some ways, I feel like I’ve returned to southern Orange County or maybe San Diego County. 

In short…I really like it there. 

So much so that I’m looking to return in December with my wife, Yulia, to spend a week or two chilling out at the end of the earth.  

As I’ve noted in previous columns, Yulia has thoughts of relocating to Portugal to pursue citizenship and a Portuguese/European Union passport in her quest to obtain a second passport. And I see this as a good opportunity to use Portugal’s favorable and new digital nomad visa as the path toward that passport pursuit. 

That digi nomad visa is pretty darn cool and well-designed. You just need to prove about $2,900 a month in income and you can apply for a one-year or five-year visa that lets you live and work in Portugal (and at the end of five years, you can apply for citizenship and a passport). Better yet, unlike most such visas in Europe, the Portuguese version allows you to travel throughout Europe’s Schengen area without worrying about the 90-day tourist visa issue. 

Spending a few weeks in this corner of the Algarve would be a nice way to test-drive the country and particularly the Algarve. 

If you take away nothing else from this dispatch, let it be this: All over the world, there are quiet corners where you can truly relax with good seafood…lots of sun and sand…uncrowded beaches. 

Sagres is a case in point, but you’ll find other options in Costa Rica, France, Spain, Panama. These are places that deserve your time.