Digital Nomad in Las Palmas? Here’s How to Build a Life Here (Not Just Work From a Café)
💻 You already know Las Palmas ticks the boxes. Year-round sunshine, fast wifi, (more or less) affordable rent, a beach that’s easily reachable from basically anywhere in the city. Some random local coworking blog you read before you landed probably covered most of that.
What most guides don’t tell you is what happens after you step away from the laptop.
Because here’s the thing about nomad life that nobody really warns you about: the work part is mostly easy. You’ve figured that one out already. The harder part is building something that actually feels like home — finding your people, learning where things happen, not spending every evening alone in a good-looking apartment in a city you still don’t really know.
Las Palmas is genuinely one of the best cities in Europe to crack that. But it helps to know how.
Why Las Palmas Has Something Most Nomad Hubs Don’t
A lot of the world’s “top digital nomad cities” are great on paper and kind of lonely in practice. You get the coworking spaces, the fast internet, the Instagram-worthy streets — and then you realise everyone else is also heads-down in their laptop and nobody’s really talking to each other.
Las Palmas is different, and the reason is simple: it has the largest remote worker community in the Canary Islands, including expats and digital nomads alike, and the most diverse opportunities to meet like-minded people of any city in the archipelago.
The island’s proximity to Africa and its ties with Spain result in that much-loved Spanish culture — but with year-round pleasant weather and a splash of individuality. The result is a city that feels genuinely international without feeling generic. People here are curious, open, and usually up for something. You just need to know where to put yourself.
Step 1: See the City Before You Try to Work in It
In theory — this should be a no-brainer. You come, you discover first. Instead most land, find some beach coffeeshop (probably an overpriced one too 👀), and spend the first week in a 30-metre radius from their apartment.
Don’t… do that.
The Las Palmas Social Walking Tour was basically built for your first day or two on the island. An stroll from Vegueta all the way to Las Canteras Beach, with a local guide who gives you the kind of intel that takes most people months to figure out on their own.
Coworking-friendly cafés, which neighbourhoods actually suit your vibe, where locals eat, where to surf, which areas are worth exploring and which ones aren’t — all of it, filtered to what you actually care about. Plus churros. And a small group of people who, by the end of the tour, feel more like travel companions than strangers.
It’s the fastest way to stop feeling like a tourist in your own temporary city.
After this tour you will have what most look for years living here: All the good spots, all the important places, and a new group of friends and helpful contacts.
👉 Check out the Social Walking Tour →
Step 2: Find Your Community
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has emerged as one of Europe’s most vibrant digital nomad destinations, with its year-round sunshine, beautiful beaches, and growing remote work infrastructure.
The coworking spaces worth knowing about:
- White Forest (Guanarteme) — multiple spaces from single desks to phone booths and meeting rooms, with regular events featuring local and international speakers. More than a desk — genuinely community-driven
- Sky Coworking (near Las Canteras) — a cozy, homely workspace with a rooftop terrace, free coffee service, and a barbecue — perfect for informal gatherings after work
- Go Coworking — flexible desks, meeting rooms and high-speed wifi, with daily or monthly rental options
- Repeople — a coliving, coworking and community hub built for digital nomads, remote workers and professionals — great if you want your living and working situation sorted in one place
The coworking spaces in Las Palmas are genuinely social. Show up, work there for a day, and conversations happen naturally. Many people find their first friends in the city this way.
Step 3: Plug Into the Nomad & Expat Scene
There are active Facebook groups and Slack communities constantly buzzing with conversations, event announcements, and meetups — joining them before you even land is a smart move.
Key communities to look for:
- Nomad Vibes Las Palmas — perfect for younger digital nomads looking to share experiences, ask questions, and find out about local events
- Live It Up Las Palmas — popular Slack community, with a big network of WhatsApp groups and event planners
- Erasmus Las Palmas — for exchange students organizing various events
These communities move fast and fill up. Get in early.
Step 4: Turn a Working Week Into a Social One
Do you know what actually separates the nomads who love Las Palmas from the ones who find it lonely? The trick is: They treat the evenings like part of the experience, not just downtime between work sessions.
The city has a nightlife scene that’s genuinely easy to plug into — and unlike a lot of European cities, it’s not cliquey. People are here from all over, everyone’s in a similar situation, and the energy is warm rather than exclusive.
The Las Palmas Pub Crawl is the quickest way to get into it. You join a group — a mix of travelers, expats, and locals — and hit the best bars and nightclub in the city with guides who know the scene inside out. Free shots, good crowd, the kind of night that tends to go longer than planned and leave you with actual plans for the next day.
A lot of nomads do this in their first week and find it basically shortcut the whole “slowly building a social life” phase that usually takes months.
You come to alone to the party and leave with new friends. That’s our job! (Also: FREE SHOTS!)
👉 Get Your Spot on the Next Pub Crawl →
Step 5: Get Out of Las Palmas (At Least Once a Week)
This one’s a bonus but it matters. Gran Canaria is a small island with an enormous amount of variety — dramatic mountain landscapes, quiet fishing villages, surf beaches, sand dunes in the south. Getting out of the city regularly keeps things fresh and gives you something to talk about.
Day trips worth doing:
- Roque Nublo — the volcanic rock formation in the centre of the island, an easy hike with views in every direction
- Maspalomas dunes — the south coast’s famous sand dunes, a completely different world from Las Palmas
- Teror — a beautifully preserved colonial village about 20 minutes from the city
- Puerto de Mogán — small, pretty harbour town on the southwest coast, worth a Sunday
More on day trips from Las Palmas coming soon on the blog 👀
The Short Version
Las Palmas works for digital nomads because it has everything — and unlike a lot of nomad hubs, it also has a real social scene you can actually plug into. The community is there, the nightlife is there, the island is beautiful, and the people are open.
You just have to show up.
Start with the city: 👉 Join the Social Walking Tour →
Start with the party: 👉 Book the Las Palmas Pub Crawl →
Already living the nomad life in Las Palmas? Tag us 📸 — we want to see your setup: @laspalmaspubcrawl