Lisbon in December: Weather, Rain Days, Sea Temperature and Prices

LISBON · DECEMBER · 38.72° N

December in Lisbon runs at 58.8°F by day and 47.7°F at night, with the sun up for nine and a half hours. That is a city you walk in a jacket, eat lunch outdoors on the good days, and photograph at half past five, when the light drops behind the river and the whole month tips into evening.

What the month takes away is the water. The sea off the city averages 60.7°F, which is a wetsuit number rather than a swimming one. What it hands back is a rain risk that lands on roughly one day in three, indoor tickets at their flat annual price, and a monument that still warns you to buy online because its slots sell out.

On this page

• Lisbon weather in December58.8°F highs, 3.94 inches, 9.7 rain days
• Sea temperature in December60.7°F, and what that means in a swimsuit
• Crowds, prices and the tourist taxFlat fares, one sell-out monument, one figure we refuse to invent
• What to do on a rainy December dayJerónimos at EUR 18, the Oceanário, the Gulbenkian
• A two-day plan for short December daysHour by hour, from the 7:46 a.m. sunrise
• December vs November and JanuaryThe three-month table, five rows
• Is December a good time to visit Lisbon?Who should come, who should shift the dates
• The best month in Portugal overallThe 12-month verdict for the country

By the station’s own numbers, December is colder than November and milder than January, and it is the darkest of the three. Everything else about Lisbon keeps its usual answers: where to sleep sits in the where-to-stay guide, the trains and trams in getting around, and the budget in what a week costs.

Lisbon weather in December: average highs near 59°F and 9.7 rain days

Every figure here comes from a thermometer rather than a model. IPMA, the Portuguese national weather service, publishes 1991-2020 normals for station 579, Lisboa Gago Coutinho, at 103.9 m of altitude: December averages a high of 58.8°F, a low of 47.7°F and 3.94 inches of precipitation. An official station record and a reanalysis grid cell are different products, and you have a right to know which one you are reading.

Rain arrives on 9.7 days of an average December, counting any day that records at least 1 mm, which is 0.04 inch. That threshold belongs to IPMA and not to the 0.10-inch line most US tables use, so the two counts do not swap. The number that shapes a day is the heavier one: 3.5 days reach 10 mm or more, and those are the afternoons that end a walking plan. The other six wet days sit under that line, which is how a December week logs rain three times and still dries out between showers.

Eleven degrees separate the average high from the average low, and that is not a wardrobe change. It is one layer added at breakfast and removed at two in the afternoon, twice a day, for a week. Pack a shell for the heavy days, shoes with grip for wet cobbles on a slope, and nothing anyone would call a parka. The full list is in what to pack for Portugal.

On December 15 the sun rises at 7:46 a.m. and sets at 5:17 p.m., nine hours and thirty-one minutes apart. Lisbon keeps UTC through the winter, so those clock times are the local ones. Plan the outdoor half of the day before four. Anything that closes at 5:30 p.m. is a daylight activity in this month, and anything booked after 5:17 is already a night out.

Can you swim in Lisbon in December? Sea temperature at 60.7°F

The sea surface off Lisbon averages 60.7°F in December, taken from the Open-Meteo Marine API across 2015 to 2024. Read the fine print, because it matters: that average is built from daily maxima, the warmest point of each day, so a true 24-hour mean sits a shade below it. The honest version of the number is about 60°F, at its best hour.

Sixty degrees is wetsuit water. Surfers keep working the coast at Cascais and up at Ericeira all winter in full suits, and a few Atlantic-hardened locals swim without one. For an unsuited visitor, a December entry is measured in minutes and paid for with a long shiver afterward. Nobody’s December trip should have a beach day on the itinerary as a load-bearing plan.

Our sources carry no December wind or wave normals for Lisbon, so no figure is served for either. One consequence is documented, though. Belém Tower, standing out in the river with weather on three sides, states that it can close whenever visitor safety is compromised. In December that is the ticket to keep flexible in the day’s order.

How busy is Lisbon in December? Crowds, prices and what the tourist tax adds

December falls outside Portugal’s summer pricing, and the costs a visitor actually pays did not move for it. A Carris/Metro ticket loaded on a navegante occasional card is EUR 1.90 all year, the card itself EUR 0.50. Admissions are flat too: EUR 18 for the Jerónimos cloister, EUR 15 for Belém Tower. The one price that swings is the hour rather than the month, at the Oceanário, where an adult slot costs EUR 29 from 10:00 to 11:30 and EUR 25 from 16:00 to 18:30.

No occupancy or nightly-rate figure for December appears here, because we could not read one from a primary source. Booking pressure at one monument is documented, and it is the one that matters: Jerónimos states that tickets should be bought online, because they frequently sell out and then cannot be bought on the day of the visit. Buy that slot before you fly. Then check two calendars, since the cloister closes Mondays and on December 25, and the Gulbenkian closes Tuesdays plus December 24 and 25.

Lisbon charges a municipal tourist tax per night on top of the room rate, and no amount is invented here. The city’s own information portal returned a 403 error to our reader and the Diário da República would not load without JavaScript, so the figure stays unserved. Ask the property to state the per-night amount when you book, and budget it as a line outside the quoted rate.

The upgrade that changes this month is the walk home. With sunset at 5:17 p.m., a central bed converts the dark hours into ten minutes on foot instead of a transfer at the end of dinner. After that, transport is where to stop overpaying: a 24-hour Carris/Metro ticket costs EUR 7.25, or EUR 11.40 with the CP suburban trains to Sintra and Cascais, against EUR 3.30 handed to a tram 28 driver and EUR 4.30 for a funicular paid on board.

Things to do in Lisbon in December: Jerónimos, the Oceanário and the Gulbenkian

December is the month when an indoor afternoon costs nothing in daylight. The Oceanário’s cheapest adult slot, EUR 25 from 16:00, runs past sunset whatever the weather does, and the Jerónimos cloister’s last entry at 17:00 falls within a quarter hour of the sun going down. In June, choosing a roof over the light is a real sacrifice. In December the only question is which roof you want when the 10 mm arrives.

Jerónimos cloister: EUR 18, Tuesday to Sunday 09:30 to 17:30, last entry 17:00, closed Mondays and on December 25. Children up to 12 go free, ages 13 to 24 and over-65s pay half, and no audio guides are provided, so read ahead. Belém Tower: EUR 15, the same half-price bands, liable to shut in rough weather. Gulbenkian: EUR 16 for the museum plus the CAM, EUR 18 all inclusive, Wednesday to Monday 10:00 to 18:00. Oceanário: 10:00 to 20:00, last entry 19:00, two hours at most inside.

Free is thinner than the internet claims. Several guides promise free entry at Jerónimos and Belém Tower on Sunday mornings until 14:00, but the Acesso 52 scheme they are describing covers Portuguese nationals and residents in Portugal, on any day of the year, and an American visitor pays the full EUR 18 whatever the date. The Gulbenkian’s free windows are narrow too: Sundays from 14:00 for under-18s and specific card holders, Saturdays 18:00 to 21:00 for under-30s who join the free Cartão Gulbenkian. Genuinely free at 5:17 p.m.: the miradouro circuit and the riverfront.

Lisbon in December: a two-day itinerary for 9 hours 31 minutes of daylight

Day one, Belém. Sunrise at 7:46 removes any dawn advantage, so eat first and be at the Jerónimos cloister for the 09:30 opening with the EUR 18 ticket already on your phone. The church runs 10:30 to 17:00 Tuesday to Saturday and takes twenty minutes. Reach Belém Tower around 11:30, EUR 15, weather permitting. Lunch, then back into the center by three, which leaves the last two hours of light for Chiado on foot and the 5:17 sunset from a viewpoint. Dinner at eight is a local habit rather than a concession.

Day two, and the wet variant. Start at the Gulbenkian’s 10:00 opening, EUR 16 for the museum and the CAM, unless it is a Tuesday, when the doors stay shut. Afternoon: the Oceanário’s 16:00 slot at EUR 25, ninety minutes to two hours, out by 18:30 into a dark that started an hour earlier. If the forecast shows one of the 3.5 heavy rain days, move the cloister here and keep the whole day under a roof. A metro ride costs EUR 1.72 from a zapping balance, against EUR 1.92 tapped from a bank card.

Lisbon in December vs November and January: highs, rain days and sea temperature

The three months sit within six degrees of one another by day. November is the warm one, 63.7°F highs with the water at the same 63.7°F, and also the wettest at 4.51 inches. December drops 4.9 degrees off that daytime figure and 3.0 degrees off the sea. January takes only another 0.9 degrees off the day, yet it records rain on 9.9 days, the highest count of the three, out of the smallest total, 3.78 inches. Four of the five rows come from the same IPMA station and period. The sea row is the Open-Meteo 2015-2024 average of daily maxima.

Move four weeks earlier and you buy back nearly five degrees of daytime warmth and three of water, paying 0.57 inch more rain and losing nothing to holiday closures, as the November page lays out. Move four weeks later and January gives the driest total of the three plus the coldest nights at 46.0°F, along with a January 1 that shuts both Jerónimos and the Gulbenkian, which the January page covers. Neither shift produces swimming water.

Is December a good time to visit Lisbon?

Yes, if your Lisbon is walking, eating and museums. Days at 58.8°F are one-layer weather for the hills, rain falls on 9.7 days out of 31 and only 3.5 of those turn heavy, and every ticketed interior in this file is open except on Mondays, Tuesdays and the 24th and 25th. No, if the trip was sold on a beach or a rooftop dinner. Water at 60.7°F and a 5:17 p.m. sunset take both off the table.

When the answer is no, November is the closer fix than January: 63.7°F by day and the same figure in the sea, bought with 4.51 inches of rain. For a trip built around swimming, no winter month in Lisbon works, and that decision belongs to the country’s month-by-month verdict rather than to a single city page.

What December alone offers is a full sightseeing day that finishes before six. The Jerónimos cloister’s last entry at 17:00 lands in the same quarter hour as sunset, so you can close a monument and watch the light go without giving up either one.

The last word

Book the Jerónimos slot before you fly, keep Belém Tower loose in case the river wind wins, and put your bed inside walking distance of dinner, because the dark starts at 5:17 p.m. and it does that every single day of the month. Then spend EUR 0.50 on a navegante card at the airport and load zapping in one of its fixed amounts, EUR 3, 5, 10, 15 or 20, for metro rides at EUR 1.72, keeping a EUR 1.90 Carris/Metro ticket for the trams and funiculars a driver would otherwise sell you at EUR 3.30 and EUR 4.30.

Sources & data for this guide

• December normals: high 58.8°F, low 47.7°F, 3.94 in, 9.7 days at 1 mm or more, 3.5 days at 10 mm or more · IPMA, 1991-2020 normals, station 579 Lisboa Gago Coutinho (103.9 m) · checked Sep 10, 2026
• November and January normals, same station and same 1991-2020 period · IPMA · checked Sep 10, 2026
• Sea surface 60.7°F in December (60.7 / 63.7 / 59.4°F for Dec / Nov / Jan), mean of daily maxima 2015-2024 · Open-Meteo Marine API · checked Sep 10, 2026
• Daylight 9h 31m, sunrise 07:46 and sunset 17:17 on December 15, Lisbon on UTC in winter · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 10, 2026
• Fares: EUR 1.90 Carris/Metro ticket, EUR 0.50 card, EUR 1.72 zapping and EUR 1.92 contactless on the metro, EUR 7.25 / 10.35 / 11.40 for 24 hours · Metropolitano de Lisboa, Tarifas 2026 (PDF) · checked Sep 10, 2026
• On-board fares: EUR 2.30 bus, EUR 3.30 tram including 28, EUR 4.30 funicular, EUR 6.20 Santa Justa lift · Carris, Novo Tarifário 2026 · checked Sep 10, 2026
• Jerónimos: EUR 18, hours, Monday and December 25 closures, sell-out warning, no audio guides · official site · checked Sep 10, 2026
• Belém Tower: EUR 15 and closure when weather compromises safety · official site · checked Sep 10, 2026
• Oceanário: slot prices EUR 29 / 27 / 25 for adults, 10:00 to 20:00 with last entry 19:00 · official ticket page · checked Sep 10, 2026
• Gulbenkian: EUR 18 / 16 / 12 / 8, Wednesday to Monday 10:00 to 18:00, closed Tuesdays and December 24 and 25, free windows for under-18s, card holders and under-30s · official site · checked Sep 10, 2026
• Acesso 52 free admission applies to Portuguese nationals and residents in Portugal, not to visitors · Jerónimos official site, Gratuitidade list · checked Sep 10, 2026. Multiple online guides wrongly advertise a free Sunday morning until 14:00 for everyone.
• Municipal tourist tax: amount not served. The Câmara Municipal de Lisboa information portal returned 403 and diariodarepublica.pt requires JavaScript · attempted Sep 8, 2026
• No verified December occupancy or hotel-rate index was available to us. The booking advice here rests on the monuments’ own published warnings, not on a demand figure.