Ericeira in March: Weather, Rain Days, Daylight and How It Compares to April

ERICEIRA · PORTUGAL · MARCH

You have already picked Ericeira. What is left to settle is whether the third week of March gives you enough: enough warmth on an exposed headland, enough light after five, enough dry hours to be outside on purpose. The official normals put a March afternoon at 65.1°F and a March night at 50.5°F, with 2.63 inches of rain spread across the month. Those are fleece figures, not swimsuit figures, and they come with close to twelve hours of daylight.

Where an answer belongs to Ericeira in any month, our town guide holds it. March gets the comparison instead: February on one side, April on the other, same station, same 1991-2020 series, so the gaps between them mean something.

On this page

• Ericeira weather in March65.1°F days, 2.63 inches of rain, 7.2 wet days
• What to wear in MarchThe 14.6°F swing between afternoon and night
• Crowds and prices in MarchWhat we verified, and the lodging tax we could not
• Things to do in Ericeira in MarchRibeira d’Ilhas, Foz do Lizandro, the cliff walk
• A two-day plan around twelve hours of daylightSaturday and Sunday, hour by hour
• March or April in EriceiraHow February, March and April compare
• Is March a good time to visit?Who it suits, and who should shift the dates

Every number below carries its source.

Ericeira weather in March: average highs, lows and rain days

The figures here come from IPMA, Portugal’s national weather service, and specifically from its 1991-2020 normals for station 579, Lisboa Gago Coutinho. That is a real thermometer in a real screen rather than a model grid cell, and it stands inland at Lisbon’s airport, not on the Ericeira cliffs. Read 65.1°F by day, 50.5°F by night and 2.63 inches of rain as the regional signal they are. On an exposed Atlantic headland the same air feels cooler once the wind reaches you, and the high ground inland runs colder and considerably wetter.

An average March records 7.2 days with at least 0.04 inch of rain, which works out at roughly one day in four. Of those, 2.3 pass 0.39 inch, the sort of rain that ends a beach walk rather than interrupting it. Watch the thresholds before you compare anything: IPMA counts from 1 mm, while most American tables start at 0.10 inch, so the two sets of rain days are not interchangeable. Expect a March week to hold one genuinely wet day, several bright ones, and at least one that does both before lunch.

Between the 65.1°F afternoon and the 50.5°F night sits a gap of 14.6°F, and you feel all of it on a coast with nothing between you and the ocean. Layers you can shed at noon and put back on at six do the job: a fleece, a windproof shell that closes at the neck, shoes that tolerate wet sand. Our Portugal packing guide handles the rest of the country, where a Douro morning and an Algarve afternoon ask for different bags.

On March 15 the sun rises at 6:45 a.m. and sets at 6:45 p.m. local time, a clean twelve hours of daylight. Plan around it and the afternoon stretches: a five o’clock walk is still a walk in full light, and dinner starts after dark without costing you anything. The last half hour of that light lands on west-facing cliffs, which is the only free thing in town that comes with a schedule.

How warm is Ericeira in March?

Averages hide the extremes at both ends, and March here does not have dramatic ones. A normal high of 65.1°F and a normal low of 50.5°F leave a daily swing of 14.6°F, tighter than most American readers expect from early spring. Warm days beat the average and cold nights undercut it, and a single thirty-year series cannot tell you which of the two your particular week will serve.

In practice that means a long-sleeve layer plus a jacket at eight in the morning, one layer by two in the afternoon if the sun holds, and the jacket back on when the light drops. Sitting still on a terrace at 65.1°F with wind off the water asks for more clothing than walking the same cliff does. Nobody needs a winter coat in an Ericeira March, and nobody gets through the month in a T-shirt either.

We found no frost-day count in the IPMA normals we read, so we make no claim about freezing nights beyond the obvious: a mean low of 50.5°F sits a long way above 32°F, and it is measured inland rather than at the shoreline. As for the water, we could not verify a March sea-surface temperature for Ericeira, so we give no figure. If you find one elsewhere, check what it averages. Many tables publish a mean of daily maxima, which reads a little warmer than a full 24-hour average.

How busy is Ericeira in March? Crowds, prices and the demand peak

We found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for Ericeira, so we crown no month cheapest and none dearest. What the calendar says is plain: March lands before the Portuguese summer, and 65.1°F afternoons do not fill beaches. For the countrywide shape of when demand climbs and what a week costs, our best-time guide and trip-cost guide carry the detail.

How far ahead March accommodation fills is something we could not verify either, so treat the next line as judgement rather than data. With 7.2 wet days in an average March, the booking worth paying for is the one you can move. A flexible rate and a room you would not mind spending a rainy afternoon in beat a rigid bargain, and our where-to-stay guide sets out how Portuguese coastal towns usually divide up.

We could not verify a municipal lodging-tax rate applying to Ericeira, so we give no percentage and no per-night amount. Ask the property what it collects before you arrive, and read the tax line on the confirmation rather than assuming the headline rate is the total.

Spend the extra euros on the room rather than the restaurant. Nights averaging 50.5°F and 2.3 days over 0.39 inch of rain make heating, hot water and somewhere to dry a coat or a wetsuit worth more in March than a view is. Ask two questions when you book: does the room have heating, and is it switched on in March?

Things to do in Ericeira in March

With 65.1°F afternoons and daylight running 6:45 to 6:45 on the 15th, March hands you whole days outdoors at a temperature that makes walking comfortable rather than hot. February gives the same coast at 60.3°F, and a headland at 60.3°F with wind on it is a different proposition entirely. That 4.8°F is the practical difference between the two months.

The stops worth naming are the beaches and the paths that join them: Praia dos Pescadores below the old town, Praia do Sul, Ribeira d’Ilhas to the north under its long curve of cliff, Coxos beyond it, and Foz do Lizandro at the river mouth to the south. We could not verify opening hours, entry prices or parking charges for any of them, so we quote none. They connect on foot and by a short drive, and the fish restaurants sit in the streets above the harbor.

Air temperature climbs 4.8°F from February to March at this station and another 2.7°F into April. Ocean water does not follow that curve at the same speed, and we hold no March value for it. So the seasonal change you notice at Ribeira d’Ilhas in March happens above the waterline, not in it: the same wave, the same sand, with 65.1°F over the cliff path instead of 60.3°F.

Free in March: the cliff walking, the beaches themselves, the harbor, and that last half hour of light at 6:45 p.m. Budget for town parking as an unknown rather than as zero.

Ericeira in March: a two-day itinerary

Start late on day one. Sunrise at 6:45 a.m. has little to offer in a month averaging 50.5°F at dawn. Out of the door at nine, coffee in the old town, then north along the cliffs toward Ribeira d’Ilhas so you arrive as the 65.1°F part of the day arrives. Lunch by the water around two, the beaches south of town from four, and back in the center by 6:15 for the final half hour of light. Dinner after dark costs you nothing at this time of year.

Day two runs south on foot toward Foz do Lizandro, which is the flatter half of the coast and the easier walk in wind. If the sky turns out to be one of the 2.3 heavy days, move inland instead: Sintra and Lisbon both make indoor days from here, and our getting-around guide covers the bus and train logic. We could not verify March fares or timetables, so confirm both before you commit the morning to them.

Ericeira in March vs February and April

Across the three months the temperature moves one way only: 60.3°F, then 65.1°F, then 67.8°F by day, and 47.1°F, 50.5°F, 53.2°F by night. Rainfall slides the other way, 2.80 inches to 2.63 to 2.50. Rain-day counts barely budge at 7.8, 7.2 and 7.7. April therefore arrives warmer and slightly drier on the monthly total, without being meaningfully less likely to rain on the day you had planned something.

Push the trip four weeks later and the gain is modest: 2.7°F on the afternoon, 2.7°F on the night, 0.13 inch less rain over the month, and half a day more with measurable rain. Pull it four weeks earlier and you hand back 4.8°F by day. That is the bigger of the two steps, and it decides whether the cliff walk needs a hat.

Is March a good time to visit Ericeira?

Yes for walkers, photographers, anyone who came to watch the Atlantic do its work, and anyone who wants a coast without heat. No for swimmers, and no for a trip whose whole plan collapses when roughly one day in four turns wet. Families who need a beach day every day will find March a frustrating negotiation with the sky.

If the answer is no, April is not the rescue: 2.7°F and 0.13 inch do not turn this into a swimming month. The months that might are the summer ones, and we have not read their normals for this station, so we send you to the countrywide calendar rather than guess at figures we do not hold. For a wetsuit trip, March already works.

Of the three months we hold normals for, March carries the fewest rain days at 7.2, alongside twelve hours of daylight and afternoons already at 65.1°F, and that combination does not repeat in February or April.

The last word

Book March if the trip is built on walking, watching and eating, and move it if the trip is built on swimming. One caveat to pack alongside the fleece: the thermometer behind every figure here sits 103.9 m above sea level at Lisbon’s airport, inland from any surf. On the Ericeira headland that same air reaches you with the ocean attached to it, so treat 65.1°F as the ceiling of a pleasant afternoon and dress for the coast rather than for the airport.

Sources & data for this guide

• March normals, high 65.1°F, low 50.5°F, 2.63 in · IPMA (Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera), 1991-2020 normals, station 579 Lisboa Gago Coutinho, 103.9 m · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Rain days, 7.2 at 1 mm (0.04 in) and 2.3 at 10 mm (0.39 in) · same IPMA series · checked Sep 23, 2026
• February and April normals used in the comparison table · same IPMA series, same 1991-2020 period · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Sunrise 06:45 and sunset 18:45 on March 15, converted to local time · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Editorial admission: the nearest official station is inland at Lisbon’s airport, not on the Ericeira cliffs, and it does not describe high ground or other stretches of coast. We could not verify a sea-surface temperature, a lodging-tax rate, occupancy or room-rate figures, venue hours or parking charges for March, so we publish none of them.

To plan your stay

• Best Time to Visit Ericeira: Month-by-Month Weather, Rain Days and the Quiet Season
• Ericeira in February: 60°F Highs, 7.8 Rain Days and a Surf Coast at Local Size
• Ericeira in April: Weather, Rain Days, Crowds and a Two-Day Plan
• Ericeira in January: Weather, Rain Days, Daylight and How It Compares to December and February

Nearby places

• Cascais, Portugal: the Town Beaches, Guincho and Where to Stay
• Sintra, Portugal: Pena, Regaleira, Tickets and the One-Day Plan
• Pena Palace Tickets and Visit Guide: Prices, Time Slots and Crowd Strategy