Tavira in December: Weather, Rain Days, Sea Temperature and Crowds

TAVIRA · DECEMBER · EASTERN ALGARVE

You have already chosen Tavira. What is left is the date, and December answers with figures that are easy to plan against: an average high of 62.8°F, an average low of 49.5°F, and 3.54 inches of rain falling across seven wet days. On December 15 the town gets 9 hours 41 minutes of daylight, with the sun down at 5:17 p.m.

What the month hands you is a working Portuguese town with room in it, barrier-island sand you can walk end to end, and a sea still at 63.4°F. What it takes away is the reliable beach day. Shift four weeks back and November runs 4.5°F warmer by day. Shift four weeks forward and January is 1.60 inches drier.

On this page

• December weather in Tavira62.8°F highs, 3.54 inches, 7 wet days
• Can you swim in December?A 63.4°F sea, and what that means in the water
• Crowds and hotel prices in DecemberLow season, winter closures, and what we could not price
• Things to do in Tavira in DecemberIlha de Tavira, Barril, Santa Luzia, Cacela Velha
• A two-day plan for short daylightHour by hour, finished before 5:17 p.m.
• December or November or January?How the three months compare on air, rain and sea
• Is December a good time to go?Who should come, and who should move the dates

Tavira’s year-round basics, the old town, the lagoon boats and the day trips inland, sit in our Algarve guide and the twelve-month verdict for Portugal. The December case starts at the thermometer.

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

Every figure here comes from IPMA, the Portuguese institute for the sea and the atmosphere, whose 1991-2020 normals for station 554 give December an average high of 62.8°F, an average low of 49.5°F and 3.54 inches of precipitation. That station is a real thermometer at 5.0 meters above sea level, not a model grid cell, and it stands at Faro, just west of Tavira on the same sheltered eastern coast. Higher ground inland runs colder and far wetter than these readings, so nobody should pack for a hill walk on a coastal number.

Seven days in an average December record at least 0.04 inch of rain, and 3.2 of them bring 0.39 inch or more. Call that rain roughly one day in four, with about three of those heavy enough to cancel a boat. Two dozen days of the month record no measurable rain at all. One caution before you compare tables: IPMA counts from 1 mm, while American monthly tables usually count from 0.10 inch, so the two sets of wet-day counts are not interchangeable.

There are 13.3°F between the average high and the average low, and you feel the whole gap after dark, because the sun is gone by a quarter past five. A fleece, a rain shell and one warmer layer for evenings outdoors cover the month. Bring swimwear anyway for the island, and a second pair of shoes, since 3.54 inches over thirty-one days leaves standing water on the salt-pan tracks. Our Portugal packing guide has the full winter list.

On December 15 the sun rises at 7:36 a.m. and sets at 5:17 p.m. local time, Portugal staying on UTC through the winter, for 9 hours 41 minutes of daylight. Plan the drive, the boat and the beach walk to finish by four. The compensation for a low sun at this latitude is that good light runs across the whole afternoon instead of arriving in one narrow hour before sunset.

Can you swim in Tavira in December? Sea temperature at 63.4°F

The sea surface off Tavira averages 63.4°F in December in the Open-Meteo Marine record for 2015-2024. Read the number with its definition attached: it is the mean of daily maxima, so a shade warmer than a 24-hour average would be, and warmer than the water you meet at eight in the morning. It also comes from a marine model, not from the IPMA station, so it belongs to a different source and a different period than the air figures above.

That 63.4°F sits 0.6°F above the month’s average air high of 62.8°F, which is the quiet reason people still swim here in December. In American terms this is cold-water swimming. Regular cold swimmers and surfers in 4/3 wetsuits stay in as long as they like. Most visitors get three or four minutes, come out fast, and want a towel and a spot out of the wind waiting on the sand.

We could not verify December wind or wave figures for this stretch of coast, so we give no numbers for either. Geography still gives you a choice on any given day. The lagoon side of the barrier islands is sheltered water and the ocean side takes the Atlantic straight, so when the forecast turns onshore, the Ria Formosa side of Ilha de Tavira stays usable when the ocean beach does not.

How busy is Tavira in December? Crowds and hotel prices

December falls outside the Algarve’s summer season, and Tavira in winter is a working town with a visitor trade attached rather than a resort at capacity. We found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for Tavira, so we crown no month the cheapest and quote no discount percentage. What is a fact of the calendar is that the summer peak is months away in both directions.

Availability is rarely the December problem. Winter closures are. Some restaurants and small guesthouses in the eastern Algarve take their annual break between the autumn and the spring, and the Christmas and New Year fortnight pushes the other way, when Portuguese families come down to the coast. We could not confirm which businesses close this December, so lock the room early for those two weeks and call the restaurant the same week for the rest of the month.

We could not verify a municipal tourist tax for Tavira, so we quote no nightly amount. Ask the property when you book, and ask for it inside the written quote rather than as a line to be settled at the desk.

One upgrade changes December more than any other, and it is heating. Lows average 49.5°F, Algarve buildings are built against August rather than for January, and a room with proper heat is worth the tier above. A rental car is the second, because a wet afternoon is better spent driving to Cacela Velha than standing at a stop. Our car guide covers the tolls and the insurance trap before you book one.

Things to do in Tavira in December: Ilha de Tavira, Barril, Santa Luzia and Cacela Velha

An afternoon at 62.8°F is walking weather, and that is what December buys here: a full day on foot through the old town and out along the salt pans without looking for shade, plus barrier-island sand where you can walk for an hour and count the people you pass. The lagoon birds are on the flats through the winter, and the light stays low and useful from lunch until the sun drops.

The names worth your two days: Ilha de Tavira, reached by boat from the town or the Quatro Águas quay, Praia do Barril with its anchor cemetery in the dunes behind, reached from Pedras d’el Rei, Santa Luzia on the lagoon for octopus, Cacela Velha on its clifftop above the eastern end of the Ria Formosa, and in town the castle garden, Santa Maria do Castelo and the bridge over the Gilão. We could not confirm December boat timetables, the Barril train’s winter hours or current fares, so treat all three as call-ahead.

What the month changes at those places is the air, not the water. Sea temperature moves slowly across a season, while the December average high sits 4.5°F below November’s and the night falls to 49.5°F. The sand, the anchors and the lagoon channels are exactly as they are in June. The difference is that you walk Barril in a fleece, swim for four minutes, and are back across the water before dark.

Free this month, and weather-dependent rather than ticket-dependent: the riverside and the bridge in town, the salt-pan tracks east toward Santa Luzia, the clifftop and the lagoon view at Cacela Velha, the fishing quay at Santa Luzia. We could not verify December admission or opening hours for the castle, the churches or the island train, so check them at the door rather than online.

Tavira in December: a two-day itinerary

Start late on day one, because sunrise at 7:36 a.m. leaves the old town half dark at eight. Breakfast until nine, then climb to the castle garden and Santa Maria do Castelo while the air is still in the fifties. Market and the Gilão bridge at eleven, lunch in Santa Luzia at one. Cross to Ilha de Tavira or drive to Barril at half past two, walk the sand, test the 63.4°F water if you brought the swimsuit, and be back on the mainland by five.

Day two goes east: Cacela Velha in the morning for the clifftop and the lagoon, lunch there or back in town, then the salt-pan tracks in the flat afternoon light. If the forecast turns, swap it. With 3.2 days a month bringing 0.39 inch or more, the wet-day version is the covered market, the church interiors and the drive to Faro for an indoor afternoon, with the island pushed to the next dry day. Two dozen days in the month record no rain at all, so the swap usually works.

Tavira in December vs November and January

November runs 4.5°F warmer by day than December and 3.9°F warmer at night. January is 1.5°F cooler by day and 2.6°F cooler at night than December, and it is the driest of the three at 1.94 inches against December’s 3.54. The sea follows the air with a lag: 65.3°F in November, 63.4°F in December, 62.0°F in January, all three from the marine model on daily maxima rather than from the IPMA station.

Move back four weeks and you buy warmth and water, with wet days barely changing (6.6 against 7.0). Read the case in our November guide. Move forward four weeks and you buy dry weather, 1.60 inches less rain, at a cost of 1.5°F off the afternoon and 1.4°F off the sea, which is set out in the January guide. Neither shift buys daylight worth mentioning.

Is December a good time to visit Tavira?

Yes, for the traveler who came for the town, the lagoon and long walks: 62.8°F afternoons, restaurants with tables free, and beaches where a mile of sand holds a dozen people. No, for anyone whose trip depends on swimming, on children in the water, or on a guaranteed dry week. Seven wet days and 3.54 inches make a poor bet for a five-night beach holiday.

If the answer for you is no, November is the nearest fix rather than January. It gives back 4.5°F on the afternoon and 1.9°F on the sea for almost the same number of wet days, and it still sits outside the summer season. January only really helps if your objection is rain, since it cuts the monthly total to 1.94 inches while taking the afternoon down to 61.3°F.

Of the three, December is the one that pairs the year’s shortest days with a sea still above 63°F, so the light is low and useful from noon onward while the water has not yet bottomed out.

The last word

Book December for the town and treat every swim as a bonus, and the month holds up. One thing the totals hide: November and December record almost the same number of wet days, 6.6 against 7.0, but December drops 3.54 inches to November’s 2.97, about 0.51 inch per wet day against 0.45. December’s rain arrives in heavier loads. Pack a real rain shell instead of a folding umbrella, and keep the island day loose until the forecast settles two days out.

Sources & data for this guide

• December air normals (62.8°F high, 49.5°F low, 3.54 in, 7.0 days at 0.04 in or more, 3.2 days at 0.39 in or more) · IPMA, Normais Climatológicas 1991-2020, station 554 Faro, altitude 5.0 m · checked Sep 23, 2026
• November and January air normals · same IPMA station, same 1991-2020 period · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Sea surface 63.4°F in December, 65.3°F in November, 62.0°F in January, each the mean of daily maxima · Open-Meteo Marine API, 2015-2024 average · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Daylight of 9h 41m, sunrise 7:36 and sunset 5:17 local on December 15 · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Editorial caveat: station 554 stands at Faro, west of Tavira on the same sheltered eastern coast. Inland and on high ground the weather runs colder and wetter than these normals.
• We found no occupancy or room-rate series for Tavira and could not confirm a municipal tourist-tax rate, so we name no cheapest month and quote no nightly tax.
• Boat timetables, the Barril train’s winter hours, monument admission and December closures could not be confirmed · check locally before you commit a day to them.

To plan your stay

• Best Time to Visit Tavira: Weather, Sea Temperature and the Quiet Months
• Tavira in January: Weather, Sea Temperature, Crowds and Daylight Hours
• Tavira in November: Weather, Sea Temperature and a Two-Day Plan
• Tavira in February: Weather, Sea Temperature, Crowds and Prices

Nearby places

• Albufeira, Portugal: The Three Zones, the Beaches and the Old Town Hill
• The Algarve: Beaches, Towns and the Two Coasts of Portugal's South
• Carvoeiro, Portugal: the Cove, Algar Seco and the Seven Hanging Valleys Trailhead