Ericeira in February: 60°F Highs, 7.8 Rain Days and a Surf Coast at Local Size

ERICEIRA · PORTUGAL · FEBRUARY

February hands Ericeira back to the people who live in it. The campervans that line the clifftop road in August are gone, the surf schools run on demand, and the Atlantic keeps doing the thing that put this town on the map in the first place. What you trade for that quiet is warmth: afternoons average 60.3°F, dawns 47.1°F, and rain turns up on about eight days of the month.

So the question is not whether Ericeira deserves a trip. It is whether a February trip gives you the town you pictured, and whether four weeks in either direction would serve you better. Every figure here carries a named station and a reading date. For the town without the calendar, our Ericeira guide covers the whole year.

On this page

• Ericeira weather in FebruaryHighs of 60.3°F, lows of 47.1°F, 7.8 rain days
• How cold the nights getWhat 47.1°F at dawn puts in the suitcase
• Is February low season in Ericeira?Crowds, booking and the tourist tax we could not verify
• Things to do in Ericeira in FebruaryRibeira d’Ilhas, Foz do Lizandro and the Mafra rain plan
• A two-day Ericeira itineraryTwo days built around 10h 48m of daylight
• February or March in Ericeira?How January, February and March compare, degree by degree
• Is February a good time to visit?Who should come and who should wait

Ericeira sits on the exposed Atlantic coast north of Lisbon, and most American trips start with a flight into Lisbon airport (our flights guide has the routes). Two or three nights is the usual February stay. The rental car you collect at the terminal does far more work in this month than it would in August.

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

The numbers come from IPMA, Portugal’s national weather service, and specifically from its 1991-2020 normals at station 579, Lisboa Gago Coutinho: a real thermometer standing at 103.9 m, not a model grid cell. That station sits at Lisbon’s airport, inland, while Ericeira is an exposed surf coast. Read 60.3°F as the regional afternoon and expect the wind off the water to shave something off it. Anyone heading for high ground inland will find colder and far wetter weather than a coastal reading suggests.

Rain reaches the gauge on 7.8 days in an average February, roughly two days in seven. One caution on the counting: IPMA measures days at 1 mm or more, which is 0.04 inch, not the 0.10-inch line American tables use, so the two counts are not interchangeable. Translated into a week on the coast, February typically leaves you five dry days and two that want an indoor answer by mid-morning.

Portuguese winter is mild rather than dry, so the garment that earns its place in the bag is a windproof shell, not a heavy coat. An Atlantic breeze and drizzle make 60.3°F feel several degrees meaner than the same reading in still air. Pack the shell, a fleece, shoes you are willing to soak, and one warm layer for dinner. Our Portugal packing guide has the full list.

On February 15 the sun comes up at 7:26 and goes down at 6:14 in the evening, giving 10 hours 48 minutes of daylight, with Portugal on UTC+0 through the month. That is room for two sessions in the water and a walk between them, and it also means the coast road is dark by half past six. Restaurants in the old town open for dinner well after nightfall.

How warm is Ericeira in February, and does it freeze at night?

The month averages 60.3°F at its warmest hour and 47.1°F at its coldest, a spread of 13.2°F between the two. That is a narrow gap by continental standards, and it is an average of thirty Februaries, so individual days run warmer and colder than both ends of it.

Morning means a fleece under the shell. By two in the afternoon, on a dry day, a long sleeve in the sun is plenty and the wind settles the rest. Going in the water is a wetsuit question rather than a weather question, and here we have to stop: we could not verify a sea-surface series for Ericeira, so we give no water temperature. Any surf school in town will name its winter rental thickness when you book the lesson.

Freezing nights do not belong in this picture. The monthly average low of 47.1°F sits 15 degrees above the freezing mark, and we found no count of nights at or below 32°F for this station, so we give no frost figure. The real winter cost is wet wind and an unheated house: Portuguese buildings are made for July, so check the listing for heating before you book.

How busy is Ericeira in February? Crowds, booking and the tourist tax

February falls between the Christmas holidays and the spring break, the quietest stretch of the Portuguese coastal calendar. We found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for Ericeira, so we crown no month cheapest and put no percentage on the page. What the calendar does support is plain: the campervan season has not begun, the beach parking is not a competition, and the town runs at the size its residents built it for.

Since we cannot measure availability, we will not invent a lead time in weeks. The binding constraint in February is the weather rather than the bed, so the sensible move is a flexible rate and a late decision, picking your swell window instead of locking a Tuesday in November. Dinner is a walk-in proposition this month. The same trip in August is not.

We could not verify whether a municipal tourist tax applies to overnight stays in Ericeira, or at what rate, so we give no per-night figure. If your booking site adds a line at checkout, that is what it is. For the rest of the budget shape, from car to dinner, our Portugal trip cost guide does the arithmetic.

One upgrade genuinely changes February, and it is the car. With 10 hours 48 minutes of daylight and rain on 7.8 days, a rental converts a written-off morning into Mafra or Sintra and still gets you back for the evening light. Without one, a wet day is the same wet mile walked twice. Our car rental guide covers tolls and insurance.

Things to do in Ericeira in February: Ribeira d’Ilhas, Foz do Lizandro and the Mafra rain plan

Winter is when the North Atlantic sends its heaviest swell at this coast, and February is the month you can stand and watch it without hunting for a parking space first. Summer here sells beach days; February sells the ocean doing something. It also sells the only version of Ericeira where the harbor, the bakeries and the seafood counters are serving locals rather than a queue.

Named, running north to south: Praia do Norte and Ribeira d’Ilhas above town for the point, Praia dos Pescadores and Praia do Sul at the town’s feet, Foz do Lizandro where the river meets the sand and the beginner lessons happen, São Julião further down the coast. We could not verify winter opening hours or lesson prices for the surf schools and beach cafés, so we quote none. Call the school the day before, not the week before.

The rock and the sand are the same in February as in August. The air is not. You get 60.3°F afternoons instead of summer heat, a beach walk that calls for a jacket, an ocean nobody enters without rubber, and a coast road you can pull over on wherever the view deserves it. That gap between the constant coast and the changing air is the entire argument for a winter visit.

The free list is long this month because the paid one is short: the clifftop path, the fishermen’s beach, the tide pools when the water pulls back, the harbor at dusk, every pull-off on the coast road. Mafra’s palace and Sintra’s hilltop sites charge admission we could not verify for the winter season, so hold them as the rain plan and read the ticket page the night before you go.

Ericeira in February: a two-day itinerary

Day one runs on the light. Sunrise on the 15th is 7:26, so an eight o’clock session or an eight o’clock walk gives you the coast to yourself. Breakfast in the old town afterward, then north to Ribeira d’Ilhas while the morning is still dry, and the odds are with you: five days in seven record no rain at all. Take lunch late, keep two to four for the warmest stretch of the day, and be back before the 6:14 sunset.

Day two goes inland when the sky says so. Mafra is the standing wet-weather answer and Sintra the bigger one, both indoor hours within a short drive, and both better on a Tuesday in February than on any Saturday in July. If the second morning comes up clear instead, spend it at Foz do Lizandro, where the river mouth gives beginners a kinder wave, then follow the coast road south with the afternoon. A true washout is a minority of February days.

Ericeira in February vs January and March

February sits between its neighbors and leans toward January. Afternoons gain 2.4°F on January’s 57.9°F and give up 4.8°F to March’s 65.1°F, while nights climb from 46.0°F to 47.1°F to 50.5°F. Rain tells the cleaner story: 3.78 inches, then 2.80, then 2.63, with wet days falling from 9.9 to 7.8 to 7.2. On the water there is nothing to compare, since we trust no sea-surface series for any of the three months. Where you do find one, note that such tables average daily maxima, a touch warmer than a 24-hour mean.

Move four weeks later and you buy 4.8°F of afternoon, 3.4°F of night and 0.6 of a rain day, with a coast that starts filling as spring approaches. Move four weeks earlier and January costs you 2.4°F of afternoon and hands back nearly an extra inch of rain across two more wet days, for the same empty lineup. Our Ericeira in January page runs the same series, and the year-round verdict for Portugal puts this coast against the rest of the country.

Is February a good time to visit Ericeira?

Yes for surfers, for walkers, and for anyone who wants a coastal town at local size with a restaurant table available at eight. No for a beach vacation in the American sense: 60.3°F afternoons and 47.1°F dawns are walking weather, and nobody goes in the water here without a winter suit.

If that lands as a no, the honest alternative is late spring, and the nearest month we can put real figures on is March at 65.1°F with 7.2 wet days, which is warmer but not yet warm. Families who want swimming should aim at the summer end of the calendar and accept the crowds that come with it. The best-time guide makes that case month by month.

What February owns outright is the combination: heavy Atlantic swell on a coast built around it, 10 hours 48 minutes of usable daylight, and a town where the only line you stand in is at the bakery.

The last word

Decide on the wetsuit before you decide on the weather. If you are coming to surf or to walk, February is a clear yes, and the number worth planning around is smaller than most people fear: 2.4 days in an average February reach 0.39 inch of rain or more, about one day in twelve, and those are the days Mafra exists for. Book the flexible rate, keep the car, leave the beach towel at home.

Sources & data for this guide

• February air normals: high 60.3°F, low 47.1°F, 2.80 in, 7.8 days at 0.04 in or more, 2.4 days at 0.39 in or more · IPMA 1991-2020, station 579 Lisboa Gago Coutinho, altitude 103.9 m · checked Sep 23, 2026
• January and March normals used in the comparison · same IPMA 1991-2020 series, station 579 · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Sunrise 07:26, sunset 18:14 and 10h 48m of daylight on February 15 · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Station scope: the thermometer stands at Lisbon’s airport, inland at 103.9 m, not on the Ericeira shoreline, and inland high ground is colder and much wetter than these readings
• Sea temperature: we found no series we could verify for Ericeira, so we give no water figure
• Municipal tourist tax: we could not verify whether one applies to Ericeira stays, or at what rate
• Beach names, surf-school practice and restaurant hours are editorial. Winter hours change, so call before you go

To plan your stay

• Best Time to Visit Ericeira: Month-by-Month Weather, Rain Days and the Quiet Season
• Ericeira in January: Weather, Rain Days, Daylight and How It Compares to December and February
• Ericeira in March: Weather, Rain Days, Daylight and How It Compares to April
• Ericeira in April: Weather, Rain Days, Crowds and a Two-Day Plan

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