NAZARÉ · DECEMBER · THE ATLANTIC COAST
Nazaré spends the summer as a beach town and December as a sea town. The umbrellas are off Praia da Vila, the fish racks stay out on the sand, and the cliff at Sítio hands you the Atlantic doing its winter work at Praia do Norte. Afternoons average 59.5°F, jacket weather rather than coat weather, and the rain comes in bursts rather than in weeks.
What the month takes is light. On December 15 the sun comes up at 7:49 a.m. and is gone at 5:16 p.m. That leaves 9 hours 28 minutes to work with, and a swimming holiday is off the table with the sea at 61.3°F. What the month gives back is a town at its own pace and the driest of the three midwinter months at 2.70 inches of rain.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · NAZARÉ IN DECEMBER
December gives Nazaré its winter swell and its quietest beach, at 59.5°F afternoons, 9.4 wet days and 9 hours 28 minutes of light on the 15th.
IPMA NORMALS 1991–2020 · CABO CARVOEIRO STATION · SEA FROM A MARINE MODEL, 2015–2024
Go for: winter swell at Praia do Norte, the Sítio clifftop without a summer queue, the fish racks of the lower town, and the driest rain total of the three winter months at 2.70 inches.
Think twice before: booking a beach week. The sea averages 61.3°F, measured as a mean of daily maxima, and the light is gone at 5:16 p.m.
Climate: IPMA station 531, Cabo Carvoeiro · Sea: Open-Meteo Marine API · Sun times: sunrise-sunset.org · full sources at the end
On this page
- Average highs, lows and rain daysNazaré weather in December
- Sea temperature in December61.3°F, and what that means in the water
- Crowds, booking and the tourist taxHow busy Nazaré is in December
- Things to do in Nazaré in DecemberPraia do Norte, Sítio and the funicular
- A two-day plan around 9 hours of lightThe December itinerary, hour by hour
- November or January instead?How the three months compare
- Is December a good time to visit Nazaré?Our verdict, for and against
One thing to settle before you pack. Every figure here comes from IPMA, the Portuguese weather service, and specifically from its 1991 to 2020 normals at station 531, Cabo Carvoeiro, a thermometer 105 feet (32 m) above the sea at Peniche on the same exposed stretch of coast. That is an instrument record, not a model grid cell. It also does not describe the hills inland, which run colder and a good deal wetter than the shoreline.
Nazaré weather in December: average highs, lows and rain days
| December in Nazaré | Normal |
|---|---|
| Average high | 59.5°F |
| Average low | 51.4°F |
| Precipitation | 2.70 in |
| Days with 0.04 in (1 mm) or more | 9.4 |
| Days with 0.39 in (10 mm) or more | 2.2 |
| Sea surface (mean of daily maxima) | 61.3°F |
| Daylight, December 15 | 9 h 28 min (7:49 a.m. to 5:16 p.m.) |
IPMA puts a December day at this coast between 51.4°F before dawn and 59.5°F in the middle of the afternoon, with 2.70 inches of rain spread across the month. Those are 1991 to 2020 averages from the Cabo Carvoeiro instrument, so they describe an exposed Atlantic shoreline and nothing more ambitious than that. A single December can sit well off them in either direction. Thirty-year normals set the floor of a packing decision, not the forecast for your week.
Rain shows up on 9.4 days in an average December, counting every day that records 0.04 inch (1 mm) or more. That is roughly one day in three, and most of them pass rather than settle in. American tables usually count from 0.10 inch, so a day count you read elsewhere for this coast is a different measurement and the two should not be stacked side by side. Plan the outdoors for the morning, keep one indoor option in reserve for the afternoon.
Only 8.1°F separates the average low from the average high, the signature of a town sitting on open ocean. Nothing in that calls for a parka. A packable rain shell, a fleece, a warm layer for the clifftop wind and shoes that tolerate wet cobbles cover the entire month, and the same kit works after dark, because 51.4°F at night is the cool end rather than a shock. Our Portugal packing guide has the full list.
Daylight is the real constraint. On December 15 sunrise is at 7:49 a.m. and sunset at 5:16 p.m., Portuguese clocks running on UTC through the winter, for 9 hours 28 minutes of usable light. The practical effect is that the good light on the headland arrives in the middle of the afternoon and is finished before dinner, and any drive you had pencilled in for the end of the day happens in the dark.
Can you swim in Nazaré in December? Sea temperature and what it feels like
The water offshore averages 61.3°F in December. That number comes from the Open-Meteo marine model over 2015 to 2024, and it is an average of daily maximum readings, so it sits a shade above what a full 24-hour mean would give. It is also a different source and a different period from the air normals, so the two are not one dataset and should not be quoted as though they were measured by the same instrument.
Sixty-one degrees is swimmable for about as long as it takes to regret it. Surfers handle December here in rubber, head to toe, and the arithmetic is worth noticing the other way around: the sea at 61.3°F is warmer than the sand at 51.4°F before dawn. A sensible December dip is short, taken at the sheltered Praia da Vila end rather than the north beach, and followed by something hot. Families booking pool days should look at the summer months instead.
Wave height is what people arrive for and the one thing we cannot put a number on. We found no verified December wave or wind series for Nazaré, so we give no figure. The mechanism itself is not in dispute: a submarine canyon reaches in toward Praia do Norte and focuses Atlantic swell onto one stretch of sand, and winter is when the North Atlantic supplies it.
How busy is Nazaré in December? Crowds, prices and the demand peak
December sits outside the Portuguese beach season by any calendar measure, and Nazaré is a beach town for most of the year. What we will not do is rank the months by price: we found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for this town, so we crown no month cheapest and none busiest. The calendar does separate the month into two halves, with the Christmas and New Year week behaving nothing like the first three weeks.
Booking follows from that. With no rate data in hand we will not hand you a number of weeks, and anyone who does is guessing. Treat the holiday week the way you would any European holiday week and book those nights early. For the rest of December, a refundable rate is worth more than a discount, because it lets you shift your dates when a swell forecast or a clear window appears three days out. Most US trips fly into Lisbon and drive north.
On the municipal tourist tax, we could not verify whether Nazaré levies one, in which months, or at what rate, so no percentage and no per-night figure appears. Ask the property directly when you reserve, and read the confirmation line by line before you assume the total is the total.
If one budget line deserves the upgrade in December, it is the car. With 9 hours 28 minutes of light and rain on roughly one day in three, mobility is what turns a gray morning into an inland afternoon, and a bus timetable does not bend to a forecast. Our rental guide covers tolls and the insurance trap. Our getting-around guide has the train and bus picture if you would rather not drive.
Things to do in Nazaré in December
December is the month Nazaré is famous for, and the only stretch of the year when the famous version is the likely one. Winter low-pressure systems feed the North Atlantic, the canyon concentrates what arrives, and the cliff at Sítio puts you above the result with nothing to buy. In July the same cliff gives you a calm blue bay and a very good ice cream. That is a pleasant holiday, and it is not this one.
The stops sit close together. Praia da Vila is the town beach below the promenade, with the drying racks along the sand. The Ascensor da Nazaré, the old funicular, climbs from the lower town to Sítio on the clifftop, where the Sanctuary of Nossa Senhora da Nazaré faces the square and the Suberco viewpoint drops away behind it. Out on the headland stands the Forte de São Miguel Arcanjo, the red lighthouse fort above Praia do Norte.
December changes all four. The air tops out at 59.5°F while the sea holds 61.3°F, so the water is the warm surface out there and the wind on the headland is the cold one. Up at the fort that gap is the whole experience: spray carried inland, a horizon of moving water, and a viewing terrace exposed on every side. Down in the lower town, the same wind is a nuisance rather than an event.
The free list is long this month. The Sítio clifftop and the Suberco viewpoint cost nothing, the promenade above Praia da Vila costs nothing, and standing on the headland to watch a big day at Praia do Norte is free. Bring a windproof layer and a lens hood and you have an afternoon.
Nazaré in December: a two-day itinerary
Day one runs on the light. Coffee in the lower town before 9 a.m., since sunrise at 7:49 makes the first hour gray rather than golden. Walk Praia da Vila and the racks mid-morning, take the funicular up to Sítio around 11, and give the middle of the day to the Suberco viewpoint and the walk out to the fort above Praia do Norte, when the swell reads clearest. Lunch late and indoors. Be back on the promenade by 4:30 p.m., because the sun is gone at 5:16.
Day two starts at the north beach if the forecast is clean: headland first, then the long stretch of sand, then lunch in town. If the rain sets in, and it does on 9.4 days in an average December, drive inland instead. The walled town of Óbidos is the obvious swap, with sheltered streets and a cherry liqueur that exists for exactly this weather. Keep the second afternoon loose either way, and check the forecast at breakfast.
Nazaré in December vs November and January
| Measure | November | December | January |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 62.6°F | 59.5°F | 58.1°F |
| Average low | 55.0°F | 51.4°F | 49.8°F |
| Precipitation | 3.86 in | 2.70 in | 2.98 in |
| Days with 0.04 in (1 mm) or more | 10.5 | 9.4 | 10.4 |
| Sea surface | 63.7°F | 61.3°F | 60.1°F |
Across the three months the ranking barely moves. November is the warmest by day at 62.6°F and the wettest by a distance at 3.86 inches. December drops to 59.5°F and 2.70 inches, the driest of the three. January is the coldest at 58.1°F, with 2.98 inches and 10.4 wet days against December’s 9.4. The sea slides one way only, from 63.7°F to 61.3°F to 60.1°F, all three read from the marine model rather than the station.
Move four weeks earlier and November buys 3.1°F of daytime warmth and 2.4°F of sea, paid for with 1.16 inches more rain and one extra wet day. Move four weeks later and January holds a similar rain total, 2.98 inches against 2.70, adds a wet day, and takes another 1.4°F off the afternoon and 1.2°F off the water. Neither swap is dramatic on a coast with this narrow a winter. Our November and January pages carry each month in full.
Is December a good time to visit Nazaré?
Yes for anyone who came for the Atlantic, no for anyone who came for a beach. At 59.5°F by day, with the sea at 61.3°F and the light gone at 5:16 p.m., December serves the photographer on the headland, the surfer in a wetsuit, and the couple after a seafood dinner and a wind-scoured walk. It does not serve pool days, and it will not serve a trip built around long evenings outdoors.
If that reads like a no, the fix is not January: it is colder in every column above. Late spring or September is the move, when the air catches up with the water and the day stretches out. Our Portugal timing guide lays out the twelve-month case. Within winter itself, November is the warmer compromise, at the cost of 3.86 inches of rain.
What December offers and no summer month can is the canyon at work off Praia do Norte, watched from a public cliff that charges nothing to stand on.
The last word
Book the room for the view, book the car for the weather, and let the forecast decide the order of your days. The number worth carrying is 2.2: that is how many days in an average December drop 0.39 inch (10 mm) or more, the kind of rain that ends an afternoon rather than interrupting it. The rest of the month is negotiable, and a 59.5°F afternoon on the Sítio cliff asks for nothing beyond a windproof jacket and a little patience with the wind.
Sources & data for this guide
- December air normals, precipitation and wet-day counts · IPMA, climatological normals 1991 to 2020, station 531 Cabo Carvoeiro, altitude 32.0 m · checked Sep 24, 2026
- November and January normals, same station and same period · IPMA · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Sea surface temperature, mean of daily maxima 2015 to 2024 · Open-Meteo Marine API · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Sunrise 7:49 a.m., sunset 5:16 p.m. and 9 hours 28 minutes of daylight on December 15 · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Editorial reserve: the nearest long-record station is at Peniche rather than in Nazaré, and its readings describe the exposed shoreline only. We could not verify December wave or wind statistics, any December event date, admission for the funicular or the fort, or a municipal tourist tax rate. No figure appears for any of them.