Funchal in December: Weather, Sea Temperature and the Cruise-Ship Season

FUNCHAL · DECEMBER · MADEIRA

Funchal spends December in the high 60s. The 1991 to 2020 normals from IPMA, the Portuguese sea and atmosphere institute, measured at the city’s own station 522 at 58 meters (190 feet), give an average high of 69.8°F, an average low of 59.9°F and 3.73 inches of rain across 8.6 days. The sea off the city averages 70.3°F. A mild town with water warmer than its own nights: that is the deal December offers, and it comes with the shortest days of the year.

On December 15 the sun rises at 8:01 a.m. and sets at 6:04 p.m., ten hours and four minutes apart, with Madeira on UTC through the winter. One date closes more than the weather ever does: the cable car to Monte runs every day of the year except Christmas Day, and the Monte Palace Tropical Garden shuts on the 25th as well.

On this page

• Funchal weather in December69.8°F days and 8.6 rain days
• Swimming in Funchal in DecemberA 70.3°F sea, measured as daily maxima
• How crowded Funchal gets in DecemberThe winter cruise season, in passenger counts
• Things to do in Funchal in DecemberMonte, Blandy’s and the Lavradores market
• A two-day Funchal itineraryHour by hour, around 10h 04m of light
• Funchal in December vs November and JanuaryHow the three months compare
• Is December a good time for Funchal?Our verdict, and the month to swap to

Madeira beyond the city, the levada walks and the drive over to the north coast, belongs to our Madeira guide, and the country-wide calendar sits in when to visit Portugal. Every figure here describes the coastal city. The high ground behind Funchal is colder and far wetter, and the other end of the island keeps its own weather, so nobody should pack for a mountain trail on a seafront reading.

Funchal weather in December: average highs, lows and rain days

The normals here come from IPMA and from its own station 522 inside Funchal, 58 meters (190 feet) above the sea. That distinction is worth a sentence: this is a real thermometer on the coast, not a model grid cell averaged over an island with mountains in the middle of it. Over 1991 to 2020 it records 69.8°F by day, 59.9°F at night and 3.73 inches of rain in an average December. Read those figures as the city’s, and nothing else’s.

Rain reaches the gauge on 8.6 days, a little more than two days in seven. On 3.5 of them it passes 0.39 inch, which reads as a soaking rather than a shower. One caution before comparing with an American almanac: IPMA counts a wet day from 0.04 inch, while US tables usually start at 0.10 inch, so the two counts are not interchangeable. And 8.6 wet days still leave more than twenty days in the month with no measurable rain at all.

Day and night sit about 10°F apart, 69.8 against 59.9. One layer covers the daylight hours and a light rain shell covers most of the month. Sea-level Funchal in December rarely asks for a winter coat, though a terrace dinner after 6 p.m. does ask for a sweater. Grip matters more than warmth underfoot: the old town’s cobbles turn slick fast. Our Portugal packing guide handles the rest of the bag.

December 15 runs ten hours and four minutes of daylight, sunrise at 8:01 a.m. and sunset at 6:04 p.m. local time, Madeira keeping UTC through the winter. The consequence lands at Monte: the cable car stops at 5:45 p.m., so a garden visit that begins after lunch is already chasing the light. Take the hill in the morning and save the flat waterfront for the hour when the city switches its lights on.

Can you swim in Funchal in December? Sea temperature and what it feels like

Sea surface off Funchal averages 70.3°F in December. That number is the mean of daily maxima over 2015 to 2024 in the Open-Meteo marine series, so it runs a shade warmer than a 24-hour mean, and warmer still than the water anyone meets at 8 a.m. It also comes from a different instrument than the air normals, a marine model rather than the IPMA thermometer, and the two should never be quoted as one source.

At 70.3°F the sea is warmer than Funchal’s average December night on land, 59.9°F, and cool enough that you will notice the first thirty seconds. For adults used to ocean swimming at home it makes a genuine swim; for everyone else it makes a short one, and children last the least. Anyone planning an hour in the water wants a wetsuit top. The same marine series brackets the month at 73.0°F in November and 68.6°F in January.

We could not verify a December wind or wave series for Funchal: our marine source carried temperature only, so we publish no figures for swell or gusts. What is documented is how operators treat the weather. The Monte sledges cancel every three-person run in rain or on wet ground, and their office can close early when conditions turn, which is the clearest signal available that December weather moves plans on the day.

How busy is Funchal in December? Crowds and hotel prices

Funchal’s demand peak is winter, and the port authority is blunt about the scale. APRAM logged 113,210 cruise passengers in January, 113,839 in February, 108,699 in March and 88,918 in April, against 19,434 in May, 10,816 in June and 4,071 in July. Ship calls follow: 41 in January, 44 in each of February, March and April, three in July, three in August. Those published counts stop at August, so we have no December figure to give. The month sits at the front door of the winter ramp, not on top of it.

We found no monthly hotel-rate or occupancy series for Funchal, so we crown no month cheap and none expensive, and we name no booking lead time in weeks. What can be locked, we can name. The cable car sells an e-ticket valid for 60 days after purchase, so it travels in your phone from home. Blandy’s asks visitors to book its tours ahead and cancels free up to 24 hours before. The Monte sledges take no reservation at all: same-day tickets, on site, cash desk shut when the queue is long.

On top of the room rate, the city charges a Taxa Municipal Turistica of EUR 2 per person per night, capped at seven consecutive nights, so EUR 14 per guest at most. It applies to every paid overnight stay in the municipality whatever the booking channel, and the counter restarts after an interrupted stay: four nights in town, two on the north coast, then three back in Funchal gets charged twice. Children of 12 and under go free on production of an ID, as do guests with a disability of 60 percent or more and residents of Madeira with proof of tax address.

The upgrade that changes a December day is the indoor one. Blandy’s Premium Tour on Avenida Arriaga costs EUR 23, lasts 45 minutes and finishes on a tasting of three Madeira wines, and it runs whatever falls outside. Set against 8.6 wet days, EUR 23 buys a rescued afternoon more reliably than EUR 60 buys the three-person sledge ride that rain cancels outright.

Things to do in Funchal in December: Monte, Blandy’s and the markets

At 69.8°F by day, December is comfortable climbing weather in a city built on a slope, and the Monte gardens are the obvious use for it. December also brings its own shutdown: the cable car operates every day of the year except Christmas Day, Monte Palace closes on 25 December, and the Mercado dos Lavradores closes on public holidays. Anyone in town over Christmas week should route around the 25th rather than discover it at the lower station.

The cable car from the seafront to Monte costs EUR 22 return and EUR 16 one way, free for children up to 6 and half price from 7 to 14, running 08:45 to 17:45. At the top station, the Monte Palace Tropical Garden on Caminho das Babosas spreads 70,000 square meters (about 17 acres) of exotic planting, tile panels and a sculpture museum, at EUR 18 for adults and free for children up to 14 with an adult. Lower down at Bom Sucesso, the Botanical Garden Eng. Rui Vieira on Caminho do Meio holds more than 2,000 exotic species.

Winter moves the clock at Monte Palace. From October to March the garden closes at 18:00 rather than 19:00, and the museum inside stops at 17:00 with last entry at that same hour, roughly an hour before the 6:04 p.m. sunset. The sledges keep their Monday to Saturday, 09:00 to 18:00 window all year, but wet ground is what cancels them: EUR 30 for one rider, EUR 40 for two, EUR 60 for three, and no three-person run in rain. Blandy’s English departures at 10:30, 14:00, 15:00 and 16:00 are the dry substitute.

Free, and open: the Mercado dos Lavradores costs nothing to walk, 07:00 to 19:00 Monday to Friday and 07:00 to 14:00 on Saturday, when the morning is the busiest and best hour of its week and the afternoon is a locked door. It closes Sundays and public holidays. Children up to 6 ride the cable car free, and under-14s enter Monte Palace free with an adult, so two parents and two children pay EUR 36 at the garden gate instead of EUR 72.

Funchal in December: a two-day itinerary

Day one takes the hill while the light is fresh: sunrise at 8:01, first cabin at 08:45, Monte Palace opening at 09:00. Give the garden two hours and reach the museum well before its 17:00 cutoff. Ride a sledge down at EUR 30 for one or EUR 40 for two, tickets bought on the spot, Monday to Saturday only. Lunch in the old town, then Blandy’s 15:00 English tour on Avenida Arriaga, 45 minutes and EUR 23, ending at 15:45 with a good two hours of daylight left.

Day two stays flat and starts early: the Mercado dos Lavradores from 07:00, then Caminho do Meio and the 2,000 species of the Botanical Garden, with the seafront for the last of the light at 18:04. If rain arrives, and 8.6 days a month say it may, trade the garden for the market halls and a second wine lodge tour, since the sledges are likely off anyway. If day two falls on a Sunday, Lavradores is shut and the Mercado da Penteada answers instead, 07:00 to 13:00.

Funchal in December vs November and January

On air temperature the three months barely argue: 73.0°F by day in November, 69.8 in December, 68.0 in January, with lows of 62.6, 59.9 and 57.7. Rain does the separating. December takes 3.73 inches over 8.6 wet days, November 3.16 over 7.3, January 2.64 over 6.2, which makes December the wettest of the three on both counts. The sea slides one direction only, 73.0°F to 70.3 to 68.6, all three from the marine series rather than the IPMA station.

Shift four weeks earlier and you gain 3.2°F of daytime air, 2.7°F of water and 1.3 fewer wet days, with nothing measurable lost in our figures. Shift four weeks later and January hands you the driest month of the three, 2.64 inches over 6.2 days, for 1.8°F off the day, 1.7°F off the sea and a port that logged 113,210 cruise passengers across 41 calls that month. Both are laid out in our Funchal in November and Funchal in January guides.

Is December a good time to visit Funchal?

Yes, if your Funchal is gardens, markets, wine lodges and the climb to Monte: 69.8°F is close to ideal walking air, and the indoor options stay open and cheap. No, if the trip is built around beach afternoons and long swims. A 70.3°F sea measured as daily maxima, plus 8.6 wet days, makes a thin base for a sun holiday, and the wicker sledges can stay parked for a run of days when the paving refuses to dry.

If that reads like a no, move the dates rather than drop Madeira. January is the driest of the three months, 2.64 inches over 6.2 days, and costs only 1.8°F on the day and 1.7°F in the water. If warm water is the point, November holds 73.0°F in the sea and 73.0°F in the air, with 7.3 wet days instead of 8.6.

What December alone does here: it puts one date, the 25th, across both the cable car and the Monte Palace garden, and it delivers a 70.3°F sea in a month whose air stays just under 70, ahead of the 113,210 cruise passengers January brings ashore.

The last word

Work the hill in the morning, keep the flat city for the rain, and December in Funchal behaves: mild, green and thoroughly walkable, with wet mornings folded in. The plan that survives the month is the one carrying an indoor slot every day. One more door for a wet evening: the Mercado da Penteada trades until 20:00 Monday to Thursday and 21:00 on Friday, long after the Lavradores has locked up at 19:00.

Sources & data for this guide

• December normals: high 69.8°F, low 59.9°F, 3.73 in, 8.6 days at 0.04 in, 3.5 days at 0.39 in · IPMA, climatological normals 1991-2020, station 522 Funchal, altitude 58.0 m · checked Sep 23, 2026
• November and January normals (73.0/62.6/3.16 in/7.3 days and 68.0/57.7/2.64 in/6.2 days) · same IPMA station and period · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Sea surface 70.3°F in December, 73.0°F in November, 68.6°F in January · Open-Meteo Marine API, mean of daily maxima 2015-2024, a different source from the air normals · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Daylight 10h 04m, sunrise 08:01 and sunset 18:04 on December 15, Madeira on UTC · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Cable car fares EUR 22 return / EUR 16 one way, child rules, 60-day e-ticket, hours 08:45-17:45 daily except Christmas Day · Teleferico do Funchal official site · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Monte sledge prices EUR 30/40/60, Monday to Saturday 09:00-18:00, no booking and no three-person run in rain or on wet ground · Carreiros do Monte official site · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Monte Palace Tropical Garden, 70,000 square meters, EUR 18 adults, under-14s free with an adult, October to March 09:00-18:00, museum to 17:00, closed 25 December · official site · checked Sep 23, 2026. Several aggregators list EUR 12.50; the garden’s own page says EUR 18
• Blandy’s Wine Lodge Premium Tour, EUR 23, 45 minutes, three wines, English departures Monday to Friday 10:30, 14:00, 15:00 and 16:00, free cancellation to 24 hours · official site · checked Sep 23, 2026. Aggregators quoting EUR 18 disagree with the lodge
• Botanical Garden Eng. Rui Vieira, Caminho do Meio at Bom Sucesso, more than 2,000 exotic species · Teleferico do Funchal official points-of-interest map · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Taxa Municipal Turistica, EUR 2 per person per night, seven-night cap, exemptions and restart rule · Camara Municipal do Funchal official FAQ · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Cruise passengers and ship calls, January to August · APRAM, Porto do Funchal monthly movement charts · checked Sep 23, 2026. The two PDFs plot 2025 and 2026 side by side; we read the higher, more recent series, and no December figure is published there
• Market hours, Mercado dos Lavradores and Mercado da Penteada · Camara Municipal do Funchal, Divisao de Mercados · checked Sep 23, 2026
• We found no verified December event dates for Funchal, so we name none. Fares, hours and closures change: check operators when you book

To plan your stay

• Best Time to Visit Funchal: Month-by-Month Weather, Sea Temperature and the Quiet Season
• Funchal in January: Weather Normals, Sea Temperature and the Cruise-Ship Peak
• Funchal in November: Weather, Sea Temperature, Crowds and Prices
• Funchal in February: Weather, Sea Temperature and the Cruise-Ship Peak

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• Sagres, Portugal: Wind, the Beaches on Both Sides and Cabo de São Vicente