Faro in December: Weather, Sea Temperature, Crowds and How It Compares to November and January

FARO · DECEMBER · THE ALGARVE

Faro spends the summer working as an arrival hall for other people’s beach weeks. In December the airport keeps running and the town gets itself back: orange trees inside the old walls, a working fish market, a lagoon that empties and refills twice a day behind the marina. Daytime air averages 62.8°F, warm enough for a shirt and a jacket while the sun is up and firmly not warm enough once it goes.

What the date removes is the swimming holiday and the long afternoon: the sea reads 63.4°F and the light is gone by 5:17 pm in mid-month. What it leaves is the part summer buries, which is the walking. The old town, the ferry pier, the salt-pan tracks east of the city and the barrier islands are all on foot or on a short crossing, at low-season volumes.

On this page

• Faro weather in December62.8°F days, 49.5°F nights, 7 rain days
• Can you swim in Faro in December?A 63.4°F sea, and how that figure is measured
• Is December low season in Faro?Low season, minus the holiday week
• Things to do in Faro in DecemberThe walled old town, the ferry islands, the salt pans
• Two days in FaroA plan built around a 5:17 pm sunset
• Faro in December vs November and JanuaryThree months, five figures, one table
• Is December a good time to visit Faro?Who should book it and who should shift four weeks

Faro is the Algarve’s capital and its airport, and most of what you want to know about the town does not move with the calendar: our Faro guide holds the base, and the Algarve guide holds the coast on either side. Every figure here is dated to December.

Faro weather in December: average highs, lows and rain days

The normals above come from IPMA, the Portuguese sea and atmosphere institute, and specifically from station 554 at Faro: a real thermometer 5 meters above sea level, not a reanalysis grid cell averaged over a chunk of coastline. Its 1991-2020 series puts the December average high at 62.8°F, the average low at 49.5°F and the month’s precipitation at 3.54 inches. One caveat travels with those numbers. The instrument sits on the eastern Algarve coast, so it describes Faro, not the high ground inland, which runs colder and a good deal wetter.

Seven days in an average December collect at least 0.04 inch of rain, so roughly one day in four is wet. Note what that count is and is not: IPMA logs a rain day at 1 mm, while most American tables start at 0.10 inch, and the two figures do not swap. A day in this total can be twenty minutes of drizzle or six hours of it, and the normals do not separate the two. Three of the seven are heavier, which is where December earns its reputation.

Between the average high and the average low sits 13.3°F, a modest spread that still catches people out, because the drop lands exactly when you are sitting still outside. Pack for two temperatures in one day: a layer you can shed at 1 pm and a real jacket for the walk back at 7 pm, plus a rain shell rather than an umbrella. Our packing guide has the full winter list.

On December 15 the sun rises at 7:36 am and sets at 5:17 pm local time, Portugal running on UTC through the winter, for 9 hours 41 minutes of daylight. That single figure shapes the trip more than the temperature does. A ferry, a beach walk and a long lunch fit comfortably inside it. Add a museum and something happens after dark, so pick which thing that will be before you leave the room.

Can you swim in Faro in December? Sea temperature and what it feels like

The water off Faro averages 63.4°F in December, from the Open-Meteo marine series over 2015-2024. How that number is built matters as much as the number itself: it is the mean of daily maxima, the warmest reading each day, so it sits a shade above a true 24-hour average. Read 63.4°F as the top of the range you are likely to meet, not the middle of it, and expect an early-morning entry to be cooler still.

At that temperature the first thirty seconds take your breath and then the body settles. This is a short swim for people who already swim cold at home, not an afternoon in the water, and children will not stay in long. Surfers on the ocean side of the barrier islands wear full wetsuits at these readings. One practical detail: the sea is 0.6°F warmer than the average daytime air, so getting out is the uncomfortable part, and a towel and a dry fleece in the bag are worth more than the swim.

We could not verify December wind or wave statistics for this stretch of coast, so we quote none. What geography gives for free is this: Faro’s own waterfront faces the sheltered Ria Formosa lagoon, and the open Atlantic swell breaks on the seaward side of the barrier islands, a ferry ride away. The lagoon side stays flat on days when the ocean beaches do not.

How busy is Faro in December? Crowds, prices and the holiday week

December sits squarely in the Algarve’s low season, which is a fact of the calendar rather than a discount: the region’s visitor year is built around summer flights and school holidays, and neither applies for most of this month. We found no occupancy series and no monthly hotel-rate series for Faro, so we crown no month the cheapest and quote no percentage. What we can say is that the airport, the old town and the island ferries are operating at their quietest volumes of the winter half.

The exception inside the month is dated and rigid. Christmas and New Year’s Eve fall where they fall, and rooms, restaurant tables and rental cars behave nothing in that week like they do in the first ten days of December. How far ahead Faro properties actually fill is something we could not verify, so no lead time in weeks appears here. The workable rule: lock the holiday nights when you book the flight, and keep the rest of the month loose.

On the municipal tourist tax, we have nothing verified. We could not confirm whether Faro levies a per-night charge in December or at what rate, so we give no amount and no exemption rules. Ask at check-in whether a tax is added on top of the rate your booking platform quoted, and budget for the possibility rather than the figure.

The line where spending more genuinely changes a December trip is indoor warmth. Southern Portuguese buildings are designed to shed summer heat, and a listing that advertises air conditioning may or may not have a unit that heats. Write to the host and ask specifically about heating in the bedroom before you book, because the outside low averages 49.5°F. Second on that list is a car for the coast east and west, priced in our rental guide.

Things to do in Faro in December: the old town, the lagoon islands and the salt pans

Walking is the December dividend. An afternoon crossing the walled old town, the marina front and the salt-pan tracks east of the city is a pleasure at 62.8°F and a chore under summer heat. The same month brings the lagoon’s winter waterbirds, which spread across the pans and mudflats within sight of the runway, and that combination of cool air and standing water is what the Algarve’s other seasons do not hand you.

The named targets: the Cidade Velha inside its walls, entered through the Arco da Vila, with the cathedral and the Carmo church and its bone chapel a few streets apart. The Ria Formosa Natural Park boardwalks and the lagoon-side trails toward Ludo. And the ferries from the Porta Nova pier out to Ilha Deserta and Ilha do Farol. We could not verify current December ferry timetables or fares, nor museum hours and admission, so none are quoted here: read the operator’s board at the pier before you commit the afternoon.

December does not change the sandbars, only the air over them. With the water at 63.4°F and the air at 62.8°F, Ilha Deserta becomes a walking beach rather than a swimming one, which is a better use of a two-mile strip of sand than August ever allows. The return crossing carries more weight than it does in summer: with the light gone at 5:17 pm, take a boat back with an hour of daylight in hand rather than the last one listed.

Free in December, and worth the hours: the old town lanes and the walls, the marina promenade, the paths along the salt pans, and the fish market building in the morning. Whether Faro’s municipal museums run free-admission days or reduced winter hours this month is something we could not confirm, so we name none of them as free and none as open. Tavira, an easy train ride east, is covered in our guide to it.

Faro in December: a two-day itinerary

Day one starts at 9, well after a 7:36 am sunrise, in the old town while the lanes are cold and empty. Take the late-morning ferry out to the islands so that lunch lands between 1 and 3 pm, the warmest slot the month offers, and walk the sand with the jacket on. Be back at the pier by 4. Sunset at 5:17 pm turns the marina into the evening’s best free hour, and dinner in Portugal starts late enough that you will not be early.

Day two goes east: the salt pans on foot in the morning for the waterbirds, then the train to Tavira for the afternoon and back before dark. If the day is one of the seven wet ones, keep it inside the city instead. The old town streets are short enough to duck between shelters, the covered market works in any weather, and the churches and museums of the walled quarter sit within four blocks of each other, so a downpour costs you a walk rather than a day.

Faro in December vs November and January

All three columns come from the same station and the same 1991-2020 period, so they compare cleanly. November runs 4.5°F warmer by day than December and holds the water at 65.3°F. January cools the air by only another 1.5°F but takes the sea down to 62.0°F, and it is the driest of the three by a wide margin: 1.94 inches against December’s 3.54, and six wet days against seven. December is the wet one, with 1.6 inches more rain than January for barely a degree of extra warmth.

Shift four weeks earlier and you buy the warmest water and the longest afternoons of the three, at the cost of a coast that has not fully emptied and no holiday atmosphere in town. Shift four weeks later and you trade 1.5°F of daytime warmth and 1.4°F of sea temperature for the driest month of the winter, with 1.94 inches of rain spread over six days. Our January page takes that month apart in the same terms.

Is December a good time to visit Faro?

For a walking trip, yes without hedging. Days at 62.8°F, a lagoon full of winter birds, ferries running to near-empty islands and a compact old town add up to a genuinely good four days. For a beach holiday, no. A 63.4°F sea and 3.54 inches of rain are not what anyone books the Algarve for, and families with small children who expect water time will spend the week negotiating.

If the answer is no, the fix depends on what you wanted. Chasing warmth and water, go four weeks earlier: November hands over 67.3°F days and a 65.3°F sea. Chasing dry weather for hiking and driving, go four weeks later: January drops to 1.94 inches across six wet days, the driest reading of the three, and asks only 1.5°F of daytime warmth in return. The twelve-month view sets both against the rest of the calendar.

One thing December alone does: it is the last of the three months with the sea still above 63°F, and the only one that carries the holiday week inside it.

The last word

Book Faro in December for what you can do on foot, and treat any swim as a bonus that 63.4°F water may or may not grant. Then protect one afternoon: 3.2 days in an average December drop 0.39 inch or more, and those are the ones that rearrange a plan rather than interrupt it. Leave the indoor half day, whichever it turns out to be, unbooked until the night before.

Sources & data for this guide

• December normals: average high 62.8°F, average low 49.5°F, 3.54 in of precipitation, 7.0 days at 0.04 in or more, 3.2 days at 0.39 in or more · IPMA, climatological normals 1991-2020, station 554 Faro, altitude 5.0 m · checked Sep 23, 2026
• November and January normals (67.3/53.4°F and 61.3/46.9°F, 2.97 in and 1.94 in, 6.6 and 6.0 rain days) · same IPMA station and same 1991-2020 period · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Sea surface 63.4°F in December, 65.3°F in November, 62.0°F in January, all as the mean of daily maxima 2015-2024 · Open-Meteo Marine API · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Daylight of 9 h 41 min on December 15, sunrise 07:36 and sunset 17:17 UTC, converted to Europe/Lisbon (UTC in winter) · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Scope caveat carried from the source: these normals are measured on the eastern Algarve coast at 5 m and do not describe inland high ground, which is colder and wetter.
• We could not verify Faro ferry timetables and fares, museum hours and admission, any municipal tourist tax, occupancy or hotel-rate series, or December wind and wave statistics: no figures for those appear above.
• Place descriptions and packing advice are editorial. Opening hours and boat schedules change in winter · check operators when you book.

To plan your stay

• Best Time to Visit Faro: Weather, Sea Temperature and the Quiet Months
• Faro in January: Weather, Sea Temperature, Crowds and a Two-Day Plan
• Faro in November: Weather, Sea Temperature, Crowds and a Two-Day Plan
• Faro in February: Weather, Sea Temperature, Crowds and a Two-Day Plan

Nearby places

• Albufeira, Portugal: The Three Zones, the Beaches and the Old Town Hill
• Carvoeiro, Portugal: the Cove, Algar Seco and the Seven Hanging Valleys Trailhead
• Tavira, Portugal: the Island Ferry, the Old Town and Where to Stay