Lisbon in November: Weather, Sea Temperature, Crowds and What’s Open

LISBON · NOVEMBER · 38.7° N

November is when Lisbon stops performing summer and starts living indoors after five. The 1991-2020 normals put the average high at 63.7°F and the average low at 52.2°F, which is jacket weather with the jacket coming off by noon, and the sun is gone at 17:24 on the 15th.

What the month takes away is water and light: 4.51 inches of rain spread over 9.3 wet days, and 10 hours 07 minutes of daylight in mid-month. What it hands back is a city where Belém keeps its full 09:30 to 17:30 hours while the day is short enough to make the museum half of Lisbon the main event rather than the rainy-day plan.

On this page

• Lisbon weather in November63.7°F highs, 9.3 wet days, 10h07 of light
• Sea temperature and swimming63.7°F, and what that figure hides
• Crowds, prices and the tourist taxWhat we can price and what we cannot
• What’s open in November, and what it costsJerónimos EUR 18, Gulbenkian EUR 18, Oceanário EUR 25
• A two-day plan around a 17:24 sunsetHour by hour, both days
• November vs October vs DecemberFive rows, one station
• Is November a good time to visit Lisbon?Who it suits, who should move

Two notes before the figures. The normals below come from a single official station and describe a 30-year average, not the week you booked. And the sea reading is an average of daily maxima, which is the friendliest way anyone can state a water temperature.

Lisbon weather in November: average highs, lows and rain days

Every figure here comes from a thermometer rather than a model. IPMA, the Portuguese national weather service, publishes 1991-2020 normals for station 579, Lisboa Gago Coutinho, at 103.9 meters of altitude. That gauge gives November an average high of 63.7°F, an average low of 52.2°F and 4.51 inches of precipitation. A reanalysis grid cell would average the hills and the estuary into one square, and in a city that climbs 100 meters in ten minutes of walking, you have a right to know which of the two you are reading.

The 9.3 wet days are IPMA’s own count of days reaching at least 1 mm, or 0.04 inch, and 3.9 of them reach 10 mm, or 0.39 inch. Those thresholds are not the 0.10-inch line most American tables use, so the two counts do not swap. Split into a calendar, the month works out at roughly two days in three with nothing measured at all, and about four days carrying enough rain to end an outdoor plan before lunch.

The distance between 63.7°F and 52.2°F is 11.5 degrees, small by continental standards and wide enough to matter twice a day, at 08:00 and again once the sun drops. Pack the layer you can carry rather than the coat you resent: a mid-weight jacket, one rain shell, and shoes with real grip, because wet calçada is the least forgiving surface in the city. The rest of the bag is settled in our Portugal packing guide.

November 15 delivers 10 hours and 07 minutes of daylight, sunrise at 07:17 and sunset at 17:24, and Portugal is back on UTC by then, so those clock times are the local ones. Practical consequences: the last usable light at the miradouros arrives before 17:24, dinner happens in the dark, and any monument with a 17:00 last entry has to be a morning or an early afternoon, never an afterthought.

Can you swim in Lisbon in November? Sea temperature and what it feels like

Sea surface off Lisbon averages 63.7°F in November, from Open-Meteo’s marine series averaged over 2015-2024. One caveat rides along with that number: it is the mean of daily maxima, so it reads a shade warmer than a 24-hour mean would. It also lands on the same 63.7 as the air high, which is a coincidence of the calendar rather than a rule about the Atlantic.

At 63.7°F you can get in, and few visitors stay in for long without rubber. The morning water sits below that daily-max average, which is exactly when most people want to swim. Anyone counting on a beach afternoon is looking at the wrong month: October still reads 66.3°F. Surf lessons up the coast at Ericeira and the sheltered coves around Cascais keep running, in wetsuits, all winter.

Wind and swell are the gap in our data. No November wind or wave series for the Tagus mouth sits in front of us, so no figure goes here. The documented consequence is worth more anyway: Belém Tower, fully exposed on its riverside platform, can close whenever visitor safety is compromised, by the monument’s own notice. Check it the morning you plan to climb, and keep an indoor ticket in reserve.

How busy is Lisbon in November? Crowds, prices and the demand peak

Where November sits in the year’s price cycle is the one thing we cannot chart for you. No monthly hotel-price index or occupancy series for Lisbon sits in our data, so no crowd score is served here rather than a guess dressed as a statistic. What is fixed can be quoted: the monuments publish a single fare with no seasonal tier. The Jerónimos cloister is EUR 18, Belém Tower EUR 15, the Gulbenkian’s all-inclusive ticket EUR 18.

The booking with a real deadline in November is Jerónimos. The monument states outright that tickets should be bought online because they frequently sell out and then cannot be bought on the day of the visit. It publishes no lead time, so fix it the day your dates exist. Two quirks belong to the same visit: the cloister closes on Mondays, and the site provides no audio guides and no audio systems, so do your reading before you walk in.

Lisbon also charges a municipal tourist tax per night on top of the room rate. We could not read the amount on a primary source: the city’s information portal refuses automated reading and the Diário da República requires JavaScript. No figure is served here, because a number copied from a blog is worse than an admission. Ask your hotel to state the per-night amount in writing at booking, and treat it as a separate line from the rate you compared.

One line is worth paying up for in November, and it is transport. The 24-hour Carris/Metro ticket costs EUR 7.25. The version that adds the CP suburban trains to Sintra and Cascais costs EUR 11.40, and that EUR 4.15 gap is what turns the month’s one clear morning into a day out of the city. Paying a driver instead runs EUR 2.30 on a bus and EUR 3.30 on a tram, tram 28 included, against EUR 1.90 for the same ride loaded on a navegante card.

Things to do in Lisbon in November

A 10-hour day changes what you build the trip around. Indoor Lisbon keeps its hours while the light does not: the Gulbenkian runs 10:00 to 18:00 Wednesday through Monday, closed Tuesdays, at EUR 18 all-inclusive, EUR 16 for museum plus CAM, EUR 12 for the CAM alone and EUR 8 for the temporary shows. And the Oceanário’s cheapest slot, 16:00 to 18:30 at EUR 25 for adults, costs you no daylight in November, because by 17:24 there is none left to spend.

Belém sets the shape of a morning. The Jerónimos cloister is EUR 18, open Tuesday to Sunday 09:30 to 17:30 with last entry at 17:00, and the church keeps its own hours, Tuesday to Saturday 10:30 to 17:00 and Sundays 14:00 to 17:00. Belém Tower is EUR 15. Both give 50 percent off for over-65s, for ages 13 to 24 and on family tickets, and children up to 12 enter Jerónimos free. The Oceanário opens 10:00 to 20:00, last entry 19:00, for a visit of 90 minutes to two hours, with 5 percent off online.

Free in November means what free means all year, with one trap. The Acesso 52 admission at Jerónimos and Belém Tower is for Portuguese nationals and residents in Portugal, on any day of the year. Several guides still promise every visitor a free Sunday morning until 14:00, and an American traveler pays the full EUR 18 whatever the day. The Gulbenkian’s free windows are narrow too: Sundays from 14:00 for under-18s and named cardholders, Saturdays 18:00 to 21:00 for under-30s who join the free Cartão Gulbenkian. The miradouro circuit and the riverfront walk cost nothing in any month.

Lisbon in November: two-day itinerary and sunset time (17:24)

Day one belongs to Belém, and last entry sets the clock. Book the Jerónimos cloister for 09:30, take the church when it opens at 10:30, then climb Belém Tower before noon at EUR 15 if the river is behaving. Lunch late, ride back into the center by mid-afternoon, and be standing at a miradouro by 16:45. With the sun down at 17:24, dinner lands in the dark and a fado cellar at 21:00 stops being a late night.

Day two starts indoors, at the Gulbenkian at 10:00, unless it is a Tuesday, when the museum is closed and the Oceanário takes the day. Hold the 16:00 slot at EUR 25 for the afternoon, since last entry is 19:00 and no view is lost. If the forecast shows one of the 3.9 heavy days, drop the tower and add the CAM for EUR 12. If it shows sun, buy the EUR 11.40 24-hour ticket and put the morning on a train to Sintra.

Lisbon in November vs October and December

October is the warmer month by nine degrees at the top of the day, 72.7°F against 63.7°F, and by 2.6 degrees in the water, 66.3°F against 63.7°F. December drops the high to 58.8°F and the sea to 60.7°F. Rainfall is the column that surprises people: November carries the most water of the three at 4.51 inches, while December spreads slightly less, 3.94 inches, across more wet days, 9.7 against 9.3. All five rows come from the same IPMA station and the same 1991-2020 period.

Shift four weeks earlier and you buy a genuine beach afternoon plus a longer evening, at the cost of whatever October demand adds to a room, which our data does not measure. Move four weeks later instead and the rain barely eases while the high gives up another 4.9 degrees and the sea another three. Both neighbors have their own file: Lisbon in October and Lisbon in December.

Is November a good time to visit Lisbon?

Straight answer: yes if your Lisbon is monuments, museums, hills and long dinners, no if your Lisbon involves the ocean. A 63.7°F high over a 52.2°F low is comfortable walking weather in a city that punishes heat, and 9.3 wet days out of 30 leaves a majority of dry ones. Families who promised the children a beach will feel shortchanged by a 63.7°F sea and a 17:24 sunset.

If the answer is no, move earlier rather than later. October holds 72.7°F days, a 66.3°F sea and 8.3 wet days, the best of the three columns on every line, and the same case for the wider country is laid out in our Portugal month-by-month verdict. December keeps November’s rain and takes the warmth.

What only November hands over, in one line: a sea still reading 63.7°F at the warm end of the day under a sky that is dark by 17:24, the last of the three months where an Atlantic dip and a full evening indoors fit into the same day.

The last word

Settle the transport before the sightseeing. Buy the EUR 0.50 navegante card at the first metro machine and load zapping in one of its fixed amounts, EUR 3, 5, 10 and upward, because a metro ride off that balance costs EUR 1.72 while the identical ride tapped with a contactless bank card costs EUR 1.92, and the card reloads for a year if Lisbon earns a sequel. Then let 17:24 write the schedule: monuments in the morning, museums until six, and the long table the month was made for.

Sources & data for this guide

• November normals (high 63.7°F, low 52.2°F, 4.51 in, 9.3 and 3.9 rain days) · IPMA, 1991-2020, station 579 Lisboa Gago Coutinho, altitude 103.9 m · checked Sep 10, 2026
• October and December normals, same station and same 1991-2020 period · IPMA · checked Sep 10, 2026
• Sea surface 63.7°F, mean of daily maxima 2015-2024 · Open-Meteo Marine API · checked Sep 10, 2026
• Daylight 10h07, sunrise 07:17 and sunset 17:24 on Nov 15 (UTC, local in November) · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 10, 2026
• Fares: EUR 1.90 Carris/Metro ticket, EUR 0.50 card, EUR 1.72 zapping, EUR 1.92 contactless, EUR 7.25 / 10.35 / 11.40 day tickets · Metropolitano de Lisboa 2026 tariff PDF · checked Sep 10, 2026
• On-board fares EUR 2.30 bus, EUR 3.30 tram, EUR 4.30 funicular, EUR 6.20 Santa Justa lift · Carris, Novo Tarifário 2026 · checked Sep 10, 2026
• Jerónimos EUR 18, hours, Monday closure, sell-out notice, no audio guides, Acesso 52 eligibility · Mosteiro dos Jerónimos official Visitar page · checked Sep 10, 2026
• Belém Tower EUR 15 and weather closures · Torre de Belém official Visitar page · checked Sep 10, 2026
• Gulbenkian EUR 18 / 16 / 12 / 8, hours 10:00-18:00 Wed-Mon, free windows · Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian · checked Sep 10, 2026
• Oceanário time-slot prices, 10:00-20:00 hours, last entry 19:00, 5 percent online · Oceanário de Lisboa tickets page · checked Sep 10, 2026
• Admission: the municipal tourist tax amount could not be read on a primary source (city portal returns 403, Diário da República requires JavaScript) · attempted Sep 8, 2026
• Admission: no monthly hotel-price or occupancy series for Lisbon is in our data, so no crowd or price index is quoted · checked Sep 10, 2026
• Ticket prices, hours and closures change · confirm with each operator when you book.