Best Time to Visit Spain

Spring is the best season for the south. Seville, Córdoba and Granada run at 20-28°C from April, the orange trees in Seville’s streets flower in March, and the patios of Córdoba are at their best in the first two weeks of May, when the city’s patio competition opens private courtyards to the public for free. The Alhambra gardens are green and the Sierra Nevada behind it still carries snow. Spring is also when the big religious and civic festivals fall: Semana Santa in March or April and Seville’s Feria de Abril two weeks later. Both push Andalusian hotel prices to two or three times their normal level, so either book three to six months ahead or plan around them.

March is changeable everywhere. Madrid can be 18°C and sunny one week and 8°C and wet the next, and the north coast is still rainy. Valencia is the exception, with Las Fallas from 15 to 19 March and 18-20°C afternoons. May is the sweet spot for almost every region: long days, the sea warming to 18-19°C on the Costa del Sol, the Picos de Europa trails clearing of snow at mid-level, and beach towns open but not yet full.

June is still a good month nearly everywhere. Days are longest (sunset after 9.30pm in Galicia), the sea reaches 21-23°C in the Mediterranean, and the night of San Juan on 23 June brings bonfires and fireworks to beaches from Barcelona to A Coruña. The heat builds through the month in Andalusia.

July and August are a different story inland. Seville and Córdoba average highs of 35-37°C and regularly see 40-44°C during heatwaves, the Guadalquivir valley barely cools below 22°C at night, and Madrid sits at 32-34°C. Locals sightsee before noon, stay indoors from 2pm to 7pm and eat dinner at 10pm. If you must go south in summer, plan the Alhambra and the Alcázar for the first entry slot, book a hotel with a pool and air conditioning, and use the afternoons for travel on air-conditioned trains.

The coasts are where Spain goes in summer, and that is the problem. The Costa Brava, Costa del Sol, the Balearics and every Valencian beach town fill from the first week of July, peaking around 15 August, when hotel prices are at their highest of the year. The cooler choice is the north: San Sebastián, Santander, Asturias and Galicia have 22-26°C days, Atlantic water at 18-20°C and the year’s best chance of a dry week.

August is Spain’s holiday month, and it changes how the cities work. Madrid loses a large share of its residents from about 1 August, and especially in the second half of the month around the 15 August public holiday (the Assumption). Neighbourhood bars, family-run restaurants, tailors and some small shops put up a “cerrado por vacaciones” sign for two to four weeks, and a few well-known restaurants in Madrid, Barcelona and San Sebastián close for the whole month. Museums, major sights, chain restaurants and anything in a tourist zone stay open, and the cities’ own summer festivals fill the gap: Madrid’s La Paloma, San Cayetano and San Lorenzo street parties in Lavapiés and La Latina run in the first half of the month.

For visitors this cuts both ways. Madrid in August is hot, quiet and easier to get a table in, and hotel rates in the capital drop. The coast, the islands and the north are at their most crowded and expensive, with Spaniards on holiday filling every apartment. If a particular restaurant is a reason for your trip, check its August dates before you book.

The table shows average conditions in Madrid, the gateway for most trips and the best guide to the inland cities of Castile. Seville and Córdoba run about 3-4°C warmer all year, Barcelona and Valencia are milder in winter and less extreme in summer, and Bilbao and Santiago are wetter in every month.

Andalusia is the region where timing matters most, because its two big draws pull in opposite directions: the cities are best in spring and autumn, the beaches in summer. The mountains add a third option: the Alpujarras villages and Ronda are 5-8°C cooler than Seville.

The north runs on the Atlantic. Bilbao and Santiago de Compostela get rain on 12-15 days a month from November to March, and fog and drizzle are possible even in July, but September is often the north’s best month: warm sea, quieter beaches and the start of the cider and seafood season.

The Canary Islands are the answer to Spain in winter. Southern Tenerife, Gran Canaria’s Maspalomas and Lanzarote average 21-22°C highs in January with sea water at 19°C, and winter is high season there, the reverse of the mainland. The north-facing slopes are cloudier and greener, the peak of Teide (3,715 m) can be snowy from December to March, and the calima, a Saharan dust haze, can blanket the islands for a few days at any time of year.

• Cities and sightseeing: April-May and late September-October. Madrid, Seville and Granada are comfortable for walking all day, and the Alhambra and Sagrada Família still need booking but are not at their July peaks.
• Mediterranean beaches: June and September. The sea is 22-26°C, the beaches have space and prices are 20-40% below late July and August.
• Winter sun: November to March in the Canary Islands, with the Costa del Sol (17-18°C, often sunny) as the mainland option.
• Hiking: April-June and September-October in Andalusia and Mallorca’s Serra de Tramuntana; July-September for the Pyrenees, Ordesa and the Picos de Europa, where high trails are snow-free only in summer.
• Camino de Santiago: May-June and September. July and August are crowded with Spanish walkers and hot on the Meseta; winter means closed albergues.
• Skiing: December to April in the Sierra Nevada above Granada (Europe’s most southerly major resort, often skiable until mid-April) and in the Pyrenees, where Baqueira-Beret in Catalonia is the biggest resort.
• Food and wine: September-October for the grape harvest in La Rioja and Jerez, November-March for Galician seafood and Madrid’s cocido stew, and spring for white asparagus and artichokes in Navarre.
• Surfing: September to April on the Basque, Cantabrian and Asturian coasts, and year-round on Fuerteventura and Lanzarote.

Spain’s festivals decide hotel prices more than the weather does. Dates below are for 2026 and 2027; movable feasts follow Easter, which falls on 5 April 2026 and 28 March 2027. Local committees set the final programmes, so check before you go.

National public holidays are 1 and 6 January, Good Friday, 1 May, 15 August, 12 October, 1 November, 6 and 8 December and 25 December, and each region adds its own (Holy Thursday in most regions, Easter Monday in Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearics). When a holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday, many Spaniards take the Monday or Friday too, a “puente” bridge that fills trains and coastal hotels. The 6-8 December “puente de la Constitución” is the busiest of the year for city breaks.

The calendar for prices has three peaks and one long trough. Prices are highest on the coasts and islands from July to the end of August; in Seville during Semana Santa and the Feria, when a room that normally costs €100 can reach €300-400 with a minimum stay; and in Pamplona during San Fermín, when beds within reach of the old town sell out a year ahead. Barcelona and Madrid are busy almost year-round, with Barcelona’s crowds peaking from June to September and during the Mobile World Congress in late February or early March, when city hotel rates triple.

The cheapest weeks on the mainland are from mid-January to the start of March (outside Carnival and the February half-term holidays) and November, often 30-50% below spring rates. Many Balearic and mainland beach hotels close from November to March, so winter savings there come with shuttered seafronts. In the Canaries the pattern is reversed: winter is peak season and May to June is cheapest.

Sights follow the same rhythm. The Alhambra’s daily ticket quota sells out two to eight weeks ahead in spring and autumn, so book on the official Alhambra ticket site as soon as your dates are fixed. The Sagrada Família, the Alcázar in Seville and the Mezquita in Córdoba all sell timed tickets online, and the first slot of the day is the one to buy in any month.

• Spring and autumn: layers. Days of 22-26°C can drop to 10°C after sunset on the Meseta and in Granada, which sits at 700 m. A light rain jacket for the north, and comfortable shoes for cobbles.
• Summer: light, loose clothing, a hat, SPF 50 and a refillable water bottle (tap water is safe across Spain). Bring something to cover shoulders and knees for cathedrals and the Mezquita, and a light jumper for air-conditioned trains.
• Winter: a warm coat for Madrid, Castile and Granada, where nights fall below freezing in January; waterproof shoes for the north; a fleece for the Canaries’ evenings and the cold summit of Teide.
• Festivals: cheap white clothes and a red neckerchief are the San Fermín uniform; old clothes and goggles you can throw away for La Tomatina; earplugs for Las Fallas.