Most guides to this will tell you spring and autumn. They're right, and they're also not very useful — because the difference between April and June here is enormous, and because "avoid August" doesn't help if August is when you have the time off.
We work outdoors in Andalucía 12 months a year, which mostly means watching the sky for a living. Here's what each month is actually like.
The short answers
- Best overall: late April to early June, and late September to early November.
- Best value: November and January.
- Most underrated: March. Warm, green, long days, low prices.
- Hardest: late July and August inland — Seville and Córdoba regularly pass 40 °C.
- Check first: Semana Santa (Easter) and the Feria de Abril move every year and fill everything.
The two mistakes visitors make
The first: assuming Andalucía has one climate. It doesn't. The coast is mild all year; Ronda at 750 m freezes in winter; Seville and Córdoba are furnaces in summer; the Sierra Nevada has a ski season until April. On the same March day you can ski in the morning and sit on a beach in the afternoon, and people do.
The second: booking August because that's when school holidays are, and then spending it indoors. August is doable — you just have to invert the day: out early, inside from 2pm to 6pm, out again in the evening. That's what everyone who lives here does.
Month by month
| Month | Coast | What it's like |
|---|---|---|
| January | 17–18 °C | The quietest and cheapest month. Bright, cool, often blue. Mountains cold, occasional snow in Ronda and Grazalema. Excellent for cities, museums and long lunches. |
| February | 18 °C | Almond blossom inland — pink hillsides through the Serranía. Cádiz carnival is one of Spain's great parties. Still cheap. |
| March | 20 °C | The sleeper pick. Countryside green, wildflowers, long light, low prices, everything open. Sea still cold. |
| April | 21–22 °C | Beautiful and busy. Semana Santa transforms every Andalusian town and fills every hotel; the Feria de Abril in Seville follows. Book far ahead or avoid those weeks. |
| May | 24 °C | Arguably the best month of the year. Warm, not hot; green, not yet burnt; sea warming; Córdoba's patios in bloom. |
| June | 27 °C | Summer without the crush. Longest days of the year. Inland cities already very hot by mid-month. |
| July | 30 °C | Peak heat and peak crowds. Coast is bearable thanks to sea breeze; Seville and Córdoba are not. Early starts essential. |
| August | 31 °C | The busiest and most expensive month, and the one where Spain itself goes on holiday. Warmest sea of the year. Plan around the heat, not through it. |
| September | 28 °C | Our favourite month. Sea at its warmest, crowds gone after the first week, prices falling, light turning golden. |
| October | 24 °C | Still swimmable, still warm, genuinely quiet. First rains possible late in the month. Excellent for walking and flying. |
| November | 20 °C | The real off-season begins. Rain more likely, but plenty of 20 °C days. Golf high season. Very good value. |
| December | 18 °C | Málaga's Christmas lights are a genuine attraction. Mild days, cold nights, busy over the holidays themselves. |
Coast figures are typical daytime highs. Inland in summer, add 6–10 °C; inland in winter, subtract 3–5 °C.
When to come for a specific thing
- Beaches and swimming: June to early October. The sea is warmest in August and September, coldest in February.
- Cities (Seville, Granada, Córdoba): March to May, October to November. Avoid July and August unless you enjoy suffering.
- Hiking: October to May. Summer is genuinely dangerous inland.
- Golf: September to November and February to May — the courses' own high seasons.
- Skiing (Sierra Nevada): December to April, about 2h30 from the Costa del Sol.
- Flying: see below.
The best months to fly
People assume this is a summer activity. Our own ranking, after years of it:
- September–November. Stable air, clear skies, comfortable temperatures, fewer people. The best flying of the year.
- March–June. Very close second. Green landscape, good thermals, long days.
- December–February. The dark horse. Fewer flyable days because Atlantic fronts come through, but when it's clear, visibility is extraordinary — the Sierra Nevada's snow to the east, the Moroccan Rif to the south. And flights go at midday rather than dawn.
- July–August. Flyable, but early. Thermals get strong by late morning, so summer flights leave at first light. Hazy air cuts the view.
Balloons are the exception: they fly at sunrise all year, and the cooler months give longer, calmer windows.
Whenever you come, there's a flight for it
Tandem paragliding from €100, paramotor over Ronda from €100, sunrise balloon from €200. We fly all year.
Book my flight →Licensed pilots · Registered adventure tourism company AT/MA/00330 · Insurance included · Free rescheduling if the weather is not rightDates to check before you book anything
- Semana Santa (Holy Week) — moves between late March and late April. Extraordinary to witness, and every hotel in Andalucía is full and expensive. Decide deliberately, don't stumble into it.
- Feria de Abril, Seville — usually two weeks after Easter. The city is unrecognisable and unaffordable.
- Feria de Málaga — mid-August, eight days, very loud.
- Carnival, Cádiz — February. Worth planning a trip around.
- Local ferias — every town has one, usually in summer. They're excellent and they close everything else.
If we had to choose one week
The third week of May, or the last week of September. Warm enough for the beach, cool enough to walk around Seville, clear enough to see fifty kilometres from a paraglider, and cheap enough to notice. If those don't fit, March and November are the underrated alternatives — and if August is your only option, come anyway, but get up early.