Carvoeiro in November: Weather, Sea Temperature, Rain Days and What It Costs You

CARVOEIRO · NOVEMBER · 37.1° N

November hands Carvoeiro a decent deal. Afternoons still reach the high 60s, the ocean has not finished cooling, and you can park near the square without circling it three times. The official normals put the average high at 67.3°F and the average low at 53.4°F, with 2.97 inches of rain spread across the month.

What the date takes back is evening light and the swimming habit. The sun sets at 5:23 pm in mid-November and the sea averages 65.3°F. Both are workable for a week of cliff walking and long lunches. Neither is the Algarve of the brochures, and picking a date means knowing exactly what shifting four weeks either way would buy you.

On this page

• Carvoeiro weather in NovemberHighs of 67.3°F and 6.6 rain days
• Sea temperature and swimming65.3°F, and what it feels like
• Crowds, prices and when to bookLow season, and what we could not price
• Things to do in Carvoeiro in NovemberAlgar Seco, Praia da Marinha, Benagil
• A two-day plan built around the lightTwo days, with sunset at 5:23 pm
• October or December instead?How the three months compare
• Is November a good month to go?Who should book it, who should shift

Every figure here comes from the IPMA station at Faro, a real thermometer 5 meters above sea level, sitting east of Carvoeiro. The western half of the Algarve coast runs cooler and windier than Faro, and the hills inland run colder and far wetter, so read these normals as a coastal figure rather than a regional one. The sea temperature comes from somewhere else entirely, the Open-Meteo marine model averaged over 2015-2024, and it is flagged as such each time it appears.

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

IPMA, the Portuguese national weather service, publishes the 1991-2020 normals for station 554 at Faro: average high 67.3°F, average low 53.4°F, 2.97 inches of precipitation over the month. That high is a shirtsleeves afternoon in sunshine and a fleece the minute a cloud parks over the village. As a mental model for an American reader, it lands close to a Boston day in late May, warm enough to eat outside at lunch, cool enough that nobody hunts for shade.

Measurable rain falls on 6.6 days in an average November, counted at IPMA’s threshold of 1 mm, or 0.04 inch. US tables normally start counting at 0.10 inch, so the two sets of rain days are not interchangeable and ours reads wetter by construction. Call it wet weather about one day in five, with a proper soaking of 0.39 inch or more on 2.7 days. Nearly three inches falling on fewer than seven days means concentrated hours, not a gray fortnight.

The spread between day and night is 13.9°F, and it shows up at dinner time rather than at dawn. Pack for two climates in one suitcase: a t-shirt layer for the trail, a real sweater and a light rain shell for after dark. Rentals along this coast are built to shed summer heat and many have no central heating, so socks and something with sleeves belong in the bag. Our packing guide has the full Portugal list.

Daylight on November 15 runs 10 hours 14 minutes, sunrise at 7:09 am and sunset at 5:23 pm local time. Portugal’s clocks go back at the end of October, so the evening collapses early: by six it is fully dark, and a coastal walk started at four is a walk finished in the last usable light. Plan the outdoor half of each day before lunch and let the dark hours pay for the restaurant.

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

The sea off Carvoeiro averages 65.3°F in November, from the Open-Meteo marine model over 2015-2024. Read that number with one caveat the source itself carries: it is the mean of daily maxima, the warmest reading of each day, so it sits a shade above a true 24-hour average. October holds 67.3°F and December drops to 63.4°F, which makes November the last month on this coast with water still in the mid-60s.

In practice, 65.3°F is swimmable for anyone who gets into the Atlantic at home in June without theatrics. Everyone else will manage a plunge, a shout, and a towel. Kids last less time than their parents promise them, and the cove at Praia do Carvoeiro loses direct sun early in the afternoon once the cliffs get in the way. A shortie wetsuit turns the swim from a dare into a proper hour, and surf schools rent them up the coast toward Lagos.

We could not verify monthly wind or wave figures for Carvoeiro, so no page of ours will quote you a November swell. What our climate source does flag is that the western Algarve runs windier than Faro, and boat operators here cancel when the sea gets up rather than push through it. Treat any cave trip as a plan with a backup, and ask about sailing conditions the morning of, not the week before.

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

November sits in the hollow of the year, after the October shoulder and before the Christmas and New Year weeks. That much is a calendar fact, visible in the opening hours of half the restaurants on the main street. We found no monthly occupancy or room-rate series for Carvoeiro, so we crown no month cheapest and quote no percentage drop. What we can say plainly is that the village is at its emptiest between the last flights of the autumn and the holiday arrivals.

Booking pressure in November is not about selling out, it is about closing down. Some places shut for the season, and the ones that stay open keep shorter hours. Two or three weeks ahead is usually enough for a room, but confirm directly that the property, its pool and its restaurant are actually operating on your dates. Flights matter more than beds here: fares into Faro thin out in the off season, as our flights guide explains.

On the lodging tax, we could not verify a municipal rate applying to Carvoeiro in November, so we give no figure and no percentage. Ask the property at booking and expect the answer in writing on the invoice rather than at checkout. Our Portugal trip cost breakdown covers the categories that do carry published numbers, and this is not one of them.

The one budget line worth stretching in this month is the room itself, specifically a heated pool, a fireplace or a balcony that catches the low afternoon sun. With the sea at 65.3°F and darkness at six, the place you sleep becomes the place you spend the back half of the day. A rental car is the other line that changes the trip, since off-season bus frequencies make the coast east and west of the village harder to reach on a whim.

Things to do in Carvoeiro in November

This is the walking month. The coastal trail east of Carvoeiro is exposed limestone with almost no shade, and a 67.3°F afternoon turns a July ordeal into a genuinely pleasant morning. The same applies to the drive: the cliff parking areas that overflow in August sit half empty, and you can reach a viewpoint at ten and still have it mostly to yourself. Photographers get the other bonus, a sun that never climbs high enough to flatten the cliffs.

The named stops sit close together. Algar Seco is the collapsed cliff pocket just east of the village, reached by a stairway and a boardwalk from the end of the promenade. Praia do Carvoeiro is at the bottom of the main street. The trail east links Praia de Vale Centeanes and Praia da Marinha, and the Benagil sea cave opens only to the water.

November changes these places through the air more than the water. Between October and November the average high falls 6.6°F while the sea gives up only 2.0°F, so the gap narrows and a swim at Praia da Marinha stops being refreshing and starts being bracing. The boardwalks lose their queues at the same time. Inland, Ponta da Piedade and the wider Algarve coast follow the same curve, with the western end running cooler and windier than these Faro figures suggest.

Plenty here costs nothing in any month, and November is when it stops competing for space. The clifftop path, the Algar Seco stairway and boardwalk, the beach itself and the sunset from the viewpoint above the cove are all public and all free. Add the weekly rhythm of a village that has gone back to its own life, which is the part of the Algarve an August vacation never shows you.

Carvoeiro in November: a two-day itinerary

Day one runs on the clock, because the light does. Breakfast at eight, in the dark end of the morning, since the sun only clears the horizon at 7:09. On the trail east by nine thirty, when the air is climbing toward its 67.3°F peak, out to Praia de Vale Centeanes and back for a long lunch in the village around one. Afternoon at Algar Seco, viewpoint by five, dinner booked early because the village kitchen empties by nine.

Day two goes on the water if the sea allows it, a morning boat along the cliffs toward Benagil, then the afternoon in Lagos. If the forecast turns and the day lands among the month’s 6.6 wet ones, drive instead: the old town of Faro sits half an hour east, the market and the marina at Albufeira are closer still, and both work as indoor-outdoor days when the rain comes in bands.

Carvoeiro in November vs October and December

The air moves faster than the water across these three months. Highs drop 6.6°F from October to November, then another 4.5°F into December, while the sea gives up 2.0°F and then 1.9°F. Rain climbs steadily, 2.20 inches in October to 2.97 in November to 3.54 in December, on 6.0, 6.6 and 7.0 wet days respectively. One coincidence sits in the table: November’s average high of 67.3°F is exactly October’s sea temperature.

Shift back four weeks and you buy a warm beach day, a sea at 67.3°F and 0.77 inch less rain, at the price of more company on the trail. Shift forward four weeks and you get the emptiest cliffs of the year plus Christmas lights in the square, but lows of 49.5°F, an ocean at 63.4°F and more shuttered restaurants. Our October guide runs the same numbers for the earlier trip.

Is November a good time to visit Carvoeiro?

Yes, if your trip is built on walking, eating and looking. A 67.3°F afternoon on an unshaded limestone path is close to ideal, the village is calm, and a week here will cost less than the same week in August on every line except flights. No, if the point of flying to the Algarve is lying on sand: 10 hours of daylight, a 65.3°F sea and 6.6 rainy days do not add up to a beach vacation, whatever the photographs promised.

If that second description is yours, move the trip rather than lower your expectations. October keeps highs at 73.9°F and the sea at 67.3°F with only 2.20 inches of rain, and it is the last month that still delivers both. Later than that, the numbers all go the wrong way at once. Our month-by-month verdict for Portugal sets the whole year side by side if the dates are still open.

What no other month gives you is this exact pairing: water still in the mid-60s and cliff-top air that never asks for shade, on a coast path with nobody on it.

The last word

Book November for the mornings and stop negotiating with the afternoons. Hike before lunch, eat long, and accept that at 5:23 pm the day is over and the evening is something else. One number decides the packing more than any other: the average low falls 7.0°F between October and November, from 60.4°F to 53.4°F, the steepest drop of the whole three-month run. That is the month announcing itself after dark, not at noon, and a sweater settles it.

Sources & data for this guide

• November normals, high 67.3°F, low 53.4°F, 2.97 in · IPMA, climatological normals 1991-2020, station 554 Faro, altitude 5.0 m · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Rain days, 6.6 at 1 mm and 2.7 at 10 mm, IPMA thresholds, not the 0.10-inch US threshold · IPMA 1991-2020, station 554 Faro · checked Sep 23, 2026
• October and December normals used in the comparison · IPMA 1991-2020, station 554 Faro · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Sea surface 65.3°F in November, 67.3°F in October, 63.4°F in December, all as the mean of daily maxima · Open-Meteo Marine API, 2015-2024 average · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Daylight 10 h 14 min, sunrise 7:09 am and sunset 5:23 pm on Nov 15, local time · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Scope note carried from the source: the Faro thermometer sits east of Carvoeiro at 5 m, the western Algarve runs cooler and windier, and inland high ground is colder and much wetter.
• We could not verify a municipal lodging tax rate, any monthly occupancy or room-rate series, or November hours and fares for Carvoeiro boat operators. None of those figures appear above. Walking routes, opening patterns and itinerary timings are editorial · confirm hours and sailings with operators when you book.

To plan your stay

• Best Time to Visit Carvoeiro: Sea Temperatures, Rain Days and the Quiet Months
• Carvoeiro in October: Weather, Sea Temperature and How It Compares to September
• Carvoeiro in December: Weather, Sea Temperature, Crowds and Prices
• Carvoeiro in January: Weather, Sea Temperature, Rain Days and Crowds

Nearby places

• Albufeira, Portugal: The Three Zones, the Beaches and the Old Town Hill
• The Algarve: Beaches, Towns and the Two Coasts of Portugal's South
• Faro, Portugal: The Old Town, the Lagoon Boats and the Airport Night