Booked 1 month, stayed 3. Clearly something went wrong with my escape plan.

The Arrival

I arrived as a properly grumpy German — slightly suspicious of everything, comfortably stuck in my own bubble, and still recovering from a previous coliving experience that… let’s call it “character-building.” The kind of character-building where the main character trait you develop is distrust.

Three months and two extensions later, I left as a somewhat grumpy German — head full of great memories and at least five people I’d happily let crash on my couch. For a German, that’s basically a marriage proposal.

So what happened? The location? The house? The people? The management?

Annoyingly, it was all of it.

Fuzeta: The Town That Wouldn’t Let Me Be Miserable

Fuzeta is one of those places that quietly wins you over while you’re busy trying not to enjoy yourself. A calm little fishing town, friendly locals everywhere — and despite my best efforts at being unapproachable, not a single one of them took the hint. Rude, honestly.

The kind of place where you go for a “quick walk” and come back two hours later having had three conversations, a coffee you didn’t pay for, and a recommendation for someone’s cousin’s restaurant.

The Property: Charm With Footnotes

The property has its quirks. The coworking area and I have an understanding — I tolerate it, it tolerates me, and we both know it could be better. The kitchen and I have a similar arrangement. Think of it as a relationship built on mutual low expectations.

But the big garden and that “oh wait, is that the actual sea right there?” view paper over a remarkable number of cracks. It’s hard to complain about WiFi speeds when you’re staring at the Atlantic. Not impossible, mind you. Just hard.

The People: A Controlled Experiment in Cohabitation

Coliving is always a gamble. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes you’re just confused about what game you’re even playing. Over three months, I got the full spectrum — from instant friendships to polite nods that never quite evolved into words.

But this ever-changing cast of personalities and ages made it surprisingly fun. It’s like a reality TV show, except nobody gets voted off and the prize is just… having a nice time. Lower stakes. Better outcomes.

The Management: People Who Actually Give a Damn

Claire clearly cares — like, actually cares — about building a good community. Which, in the coliving world, is about as rare as a functioning printer. Together with the community managers during my stay, they somehow kept the whole thing running smoothly, even as management styles and approaches shifted over time. Adapting to that is part of the adventure. Or the curriculum. Depending on your outlook.

The Verdict

So here I am, looking ahead to the summer season, trying to figure out whether this was just a holiday romance with the Algarve… or the beginning of something more serious. The kind of question you normally ask about people, not postcodes.

Either way, I’m slightly less grumpy than before — which, for someone who arrived fully committed to being difficult, might be the biggest success of all.