Digital Nomad Burnout: Why Slow Coliving in Spain Beats the City

By: Tracy Bellevue

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The highlights of remote work are obvious: the flexible schedule, the new cities, the freedom of choice. But after a while, a lot of people hit a wall that's hard to explain to anyone who hasn't experienced it. 

You're halfway through editing a new post, feeling Instagram-ready, living the dream … until  you realize your mouth tastes like pennies and that stomach issue you waved off as "fine" has  stuck around for two weeks. 

You're dehydrated, financially drained, and may have picked up a new sensitivity to dairy  somewhere between French cheese lunches and one too many fondue nights in Switzerland. 

Suddenly your good friend 'Reality' is lowering your phone screen, taking your hand, and firmly  communicating to you that you're dehydrated, destabilized, financially drained, and may need to go somewhere and sit down for a beat. Technically living the dream, but also you’re exhausted. 

Newness Burnout 

It's not the kind of burnout that comes from sitting at a desk in the same office for ten years. It's  different. It's the burnout that comes from being constantly on the move, always navigating  something new, always starting over. A new city, a new apartment, a new routine, a new group of  people you'll probably lose touch with in a few weeks. 

After a while the excitement of "anywhere" starts to feel like nowhere in particular. The hostels  and co-working spaces blur together. You realize you haven't had a proper home-cooked meal in  months. You meet people and keep conversations surface-level because you both know you'll be  gone soon anyway. You're technically connecting with people everywhere, but you don't actually  feel close to anyone. 

The newness overload and an emptiness from a simultaneously social yet lonely lifestyle starts to take its toll.

Slow Down to Recharge 

The fast-paced nomad cycle, city to city, week to week, is genuinely stimulating for a while. But  humans aren't built to live at that pace indefinitely. We need familiarity. We need meals that aren't  rushed. We need to know the names of the people we're sharing a kitchen with, and to actually  see them again tomorrow.

A lot of digital nomads eventually realize that what they seek isn't constant movement. Its freedom from rigidity. Striking the balance is the key to a truly fulfilling nomadic lifestyle.

What most people are actually craving, even if they don't name it that way, is slowness. Depth  over novelty. Roots, even if they're temporary ones. That's exactly what the authentic Ruralco coliving space is built to offer digital nomads who are ready for a reset. 

What Ruralco Offers That Cities Can't 

Ruralco Coliving has the amenities city coliving spaces have plus nature all around: indoor  and outdoor coworking spaces, quiet rooms for calls, a rooftop with sweeping mountain views.  What it doesn't have is a rooftop bar,  an overpriced coffee shop next door, or a meeting room you  have to book three days out… but that's not really the point of comparison. 

Located in the mountains of Castellón, Spain, Ruralco’s value is in offering what city colivings can’t: hiking and biking trails that start at the front door, wild herbs and  fresh local produce, a pool for the hot months, olive groves, and a budding garden the whole house watches come along one season at a time. Nobody at a city coliving is harvesting  their own vegetables for tonight's dinner. 

It already sounds great, but on top of that, it's also just cheaper.  

A private room with a private bathroom at Ruralco starts around €550 a month, wifi and  coworking space included. Add the optional meal plan: €50 a week for 5 communal dinners and  you're still well under what a private room alone costs in a Lisbon or Barcelona coliving space,  which typically runs $900 to $1,200 a month before food is even part of the conversation.  Slowing down doesn't have to cost more.  

Here, it costs less. 

The pace here is genuinely slow. Not slow in a boring way, slow in a restorative way. There are  shared meals where nobody is checking their phone. Where evenings around a table stretch longer than anticipated due to good conversation with other interesting digital nomads from around the world. Can you imagine starting your mornings that start with a walk rather than a Slack notification?

The essence of a true coliving community is built via the longer stays - guests typically stay at Ruralco for a month. With the longer stay comes more interactions, and more indepth connections with your fellow colivers. You cook together, you explore the countryside together, you have honest conversations about what you're doing with your life and where you actually want to go next. Those kinds of friendships, the ones built in a slower environment with more time to actually develop, are a different thing entirely from the quick connections you make at a hostel bar. 

A Return to Something Simpler

There is something about rural Spain specifically that has a way of recalibrating things. The  landscape demands your attention. The culture genuinely values sitting with people and taking  time over food. The distance from cities means you're not filling every hour with input. 

You start sleeping properly. You start cooking again. You go outside because there's something  worth going outside for, not just to find the nearest coffee shop with decent wifi. 

For nomads who are tired, the fix isn't stopping… it's simply slowing the heck down. Ruralco gives you room to slow down without pressure, without a packed schedule, and without having to explain yourself to anyone. 

Sometimes the most adventurous thing you can do is stay somewhere long enough to actually  settle in. Foster a deeper connection with yourself via deeper connections with nature and with other travelers with a similar lifestyle.

FAQ: Digital Nomad Burnout & Rural Coliving in Spain 

What is digital nomad burnout? It's what happens when you've changed countries six times this year but still haven't changed your toothbrush. It's the exhaustion that comes from constantly starting over—new apartment, new grocery store, new Wi-Fi password, new friends—until you're in desperate need of some slowness and familiarity. 

Why choose a rural coliving space over a city coliving space? Because eventually the "best coffee shop for remote work" starts looking suspiciously like the last fifteen coffee shops you worked from. Ruralco still has the fast internet and workspace you need but with quiet sunsets, donkeys to feed kitchen scraps too, and hiking trails all around.

Where is Ruralco's coliving space located? In the mountains of Castellón, Spain. Close enough to the coast for a half-day beach trip, far enough away that nobody is trying to sell you a €7 oat milk flat white. 

Is rural coliving cheaper than city coliving? Yes. A private room with a private bathroom at  Ruralco starts around €550 a month, and €70 a week for groceries and other supplies. That's still well under the $900–$1,200 a month a private room alone typically costs in a coliving space in your average major city. 

Ready to slow down for a while? Find out more about life at Ruralco at ruralco.live.