PORTUGAL · DECEMBER · THE FESTIVE MONTH, REGION BY REGION
December hands Portugal over to its cities. Lisbon runs 58°F afternoons and about nine wet days, Porto collects 170 mm of Atlantic rain, and the Algarve sits at a mild 61°F with a 61°F sea that nobody swims in. Nationally the country is down to 36% of its August occupancy, which is the year’s floor, right up until the last ten days rearrange everything.
The December decision is not about beaches. It is about which city holds your evenings, whether you can take rain as scenery, and how early you commit to the 31st.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · PORTUGAL IN DECEMBER
December buys mild days, early dark and the emptiest hotels of the year, on the condition that you treat rain as part of the scenery and book the holiday week long before you arrive.
MIXED MONTH NATIONALLY · BEST IN: LISBON & THE ALGARVE · WETTEST: PORTO
Go for: lit-up city walks, museum afternoons, port lodges in Gaia, Algarve cliff paths in fleece weather, and the cheapest three weeks of the Portuguese year.
Think twice if: you want daylight after dinner or a swimmable ocean. The sun is gone by 5:30pm and the Atlantic is 61°F.
Rates and availability behave like two different months: quiet through about Dec 20, then the holiday week pushes urban prices back up (est.).
Climate: 1991–2020 normals per city (ERA5) · Crowds: Eurostat monthly nights · Sunset: NOAA calculation · full sources at the end
See the full 12-month verdict →
On this page
- Lights, markets and museum daysLisbon & the center
- The mildest corner: 61°F, 8 rain daysThe Algarve
- Port lodges and 170 mm of rainPorto & the north
- New Year’s Eve fireworks over the bayMadeira
Where to go in Portugal in December: Lisbon, the Algarve, Porto and Madeira
Lisbon & the center: 58°F days, 79 mm of rain, lights everywhere
The capital averages 58°F by day and 50°F at night, with 79 mm falling across roughly nine days. That leaves three weeks of usable walking weather and a handful of afternoons that belong indoors. The catch is light, not temperature: the sun is down at 5:16pm on December 1 and only claws back to 5:25pm by the 31st, so the miradouro hour is a late-lunch affair and the evening belongs to lit streets and the indoor bench.
Day trips still work if you dress for them. Sintra in December is mist, wet moss and a fraction of the summer queue, which suits Pena better than anyone expects. Base yourself centrally and the month pays you back in short walks home.
Verdict: Good · the festive base · Rain: 9 days · 79 mm · For: lights, museums, long lunches
The Algarve: 61°F days, 8 rain days, no swimming
The south is the country’s mildest room in December: 61°F afternoons, 53°F nights, 89 mm over eight days, which is a drier ration than Lisbon gets. What it is not is a beach holiday. The sea sits at 61°F, and the coastal towns run at low-season staffing, with a share of the resort restaurants shut until spring (est.).
What functions beautifully: the clifftop paths above Lagos and Carvoeiro in fleece weather, the Ria Formosa’s winter birds, golf at rates that would embarrass July, and empty sand for walking. Pick your side of the region with our Algarve guide.
Verdict: Good · mildest and driest · Sea: 61°F, wetsuits only · For: walkers, golfers, slow weeks
Porto & the north: 170 mm of rain, and the port lodges are indoors
Porto takes 170 mm across twelve wet days, more than double the Algarve’s total, and its nights drop to 46°F, the coldest of the three reference cities. That is genuine winter by Portuguese standards, and it comes with granite streets that shine after every shower.
Build the week around covered ground. Gaia’s port lodges, the Serralves galleries, the covered market halls and a long tasting room afternoon all read better in the rain than in August heat. The vineyards upriver are dormant now, so save the terraces for harvest season and read the two-city comparison before you split a short trip.
Verdict: Mixed · atmospheric, genuinely wet · Rain: 12 days · 170 mm · For: port drinkers, city walkers with a hood
Madeira: New Year’s Eve fireworks, booked months out
The Atlantic island is Portugal’s warmest December address and the country’s best-known New Year’s Eve show: fireworks fired across Funchal’s amphitheater of a bay, watched from hotel terraces, harbor walls and cruise decks. It is the one Portuguese date that behaves like a peak-season event in the middle of low season.
Treat it accordingly. Rooms with a bay view and the direct flights both tighten far in advance for the 31st, and holiday-week rates run well above the island’s usual winter level (est.). Away from the fireworks, December on Madeira is levada walking, laurel forest and a subtropical version of a rain jacket.
Verdict: Best for the 31st · Book: months ahead · For: New Year travelers, walkers
December weather in Portugal: the three cities, temperature and rain
| Region (city) | Days | Nights | Rain | The trade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lisbon | 58°F / 14°C | 50°F / 10°C | 9 days · 79 mm | Mild, festive, dark by 5:30pm |
| Algarve (Faro) | 61°F / 16°C | 53°F / 12°C | 8 days · 89 mm | Mildest and driest, half the coast shut |
| North (Porto) | 56°F / 14°C | 46°F / 8°C | 12 days · 170 mm | Coldest nights, most rain, best cellars |
30-year averages (1991–2020) per reference city. The Alentejo interior runs colder at night than Lisbon under clear skies, and the Serra da Estrela can hold snow: two reasons a country this small still needs three forecasts. National occupancy sits at 36% of the August peak (official lodging data), the lowest reading of the year.
December in Portugal: Christmas markets, the 5:16pm sunset and the holiday week
Lights and markets. The municipal illuminations go up around the start of the month in Lisbon, Porto and Funchal (est.), and the seasonal markets set up in the central squares for a few weeks (est. dates). Óbidos runs its Christmas village inside the walled town, a paid-entry affair aimed squarely at families, and it is the single best rain-proofed day trip north of Lisbon in this month.
The table. Christmas Eve, December 24, is the main event: salt cod with cabbage and potatoes, then a parade of fried dough and egg-yolk sweets. Bolo-rei, the candied-fruit crown loaf, appears in every pastelaria window from early December, and the chestnut braziers that showed up in November are still working the street corners.
The two Decembers, price-wise. Through about the 20th the country is at its 36% low and hotels behave like it. After that, urban rates climb through New Year’s Eve (est.), and intercity trains and buses fill around the 23rd and again on January 1 (est.), which is worth a look at how the transport network works before you book. Budget lines for both halves of the month sit in our cost breakdown, and nothing about entry paperwork changes for the holidays.
Portugal in November, January or May instead
Gain: São Martinho chestnut season, slightly longer afternoons, and pre-holiday rates with no 31st premium. See November.
Lose: the illuminations, the markets and the whole festive reason to be here.
Gain: the quiet resumes after New Year, with the winter’s lowest urban rates (est.). See January.
Lose: the lights come down, and northern rain keeps its December habits.
Gain: the opposite trade entirely: long evenings, dry ground, terraces that stay open past sunset. See May.
Lose: the year’s cheapest hotels and the emptiest museums.
The last word
December rewards travelers who stop pretending Portugal is a warm-weather country in winter. Take the 58°F afternoons for walking, hand the 5:16pm darkness over to lit squares and fado rooms, and accept that Porto’s twelve wet days are the price of its best month for port. The Algarve, at 61°F and eight rain days, is the mild fallback rather than a beach week.
One practical rule closes the month: decide about New Year’s Eve first. Funchal’s fireworks and the good Lisbon tables go long before December begins. Then pack for 46°F nights (the layer list), compare all twelve months in the full-year verdict, or start from the whole Portugal playbook.
Sources & data for this guide
- Climate: 1991–2020 normals computed from ERA5 daily data for the Lisbon, Faro and Porto grid cells · Open-Meteo (ECMWF ERA5) · checked Sep 3, 2026
- Crowds: December at 36% of the August peak, monthly nights spent in Portugal · Eurostat, tour_occ_nim · checked Sep 3, 2026
- Sunset times for Lisbon, Dec 1 and Dec 31 (local time) · NOAA solar calculation · checked Sep 3, 2026
- Sea temperature: 61°F December coastal average · Open-Meteo Marine API · checked Sep 3, 2026
- Christmas markets, illumination dates and the Óbidos Christmas village · Turismo de Portugal · checked Sep 3, 2026. Editorial note: municipal programs are published late each autumn, so every date on this page is marked (est.) until the councils confirm.
- Holiday-week pricing is marked (est.) throughout: we do not publish nightly rates we have not sampled ourselves.