Madrid guide
Madrid's seasons, month by month, and how to choose yours.
By Ramin Jafari · Facts checked
The best time to visit Madrid is spring, from March to May, and autumn, from September to November, when the days are mild enough for lunch on a terrace and long walks between the museums. Spring brings Holy Week and San Isidro; July and August average 31–32°C (88–90°F) and belong to the mornings and late evenings; winter is cold, bright and quieter. Here is the year month by month, with Holy Week’s dates for 2027.
The year
Spring and autumn bring the mildest weather; summer brings real heat, and winter cold, bright days and frosty nights.
Mild days and cool nights: highs rise from about 16°C (61°F) in March to 22°C (72°F) in May, with rain on four to seven days a month.
EventsSemana Santa, 21 to 28 March in 2027; San Isidro, the city's own fiesta, on and around 15 May; the Book Fair in the Retiro from late May.
Hot and dry, with rain on two or three days a month and the year's longest evenings: the sun sets after 9 pm from late April to late August.
Heat: in July and August the average high is 31–32°C (88–90°F). Walk in the morning and the evening, and keep the museums for the afternoon.
Highs ease from about 26°C (79°F) in September to 14°C (57°F) in November, and October and November are the wettest months of the year.
EventsThe Fiesta de la Trashumancia, when flocks of sheep are walked through the centre each October.
Cold and often bright: highs of about 10–12°C (50–54°F), nights near freezing with frost on a few, and rain on five to seven days a month.
EventsThe Christmas market in the Plaza Mayor from late November to 31 December, the lights until 6 January, and the Three Kings Parade on the 5th.
Month by month in Madrid’s Retiro park: AEMET’s averages for 1981–2010.
| Month | High °C (°F) | Low °C (°F) | Rain days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 10 (50) | 3 (37) | 6 |
| February | 12 (54) | 4 (39) | 5 |
| March | 16 (61) | 6 (43) | 4 |
| April | 18 (64) | 8 (46) | 7 |
| May | 22 (72) | 11 (52) | 7 |
| June | 28 (82) | 16 (61) | 3 |
| July | 32 (90) | 19 (66) | 2 |
| August | 31 (88) | 19 (66) | 2 |
| September | 26 (79) | 15 (59) | 3 |
| October | 19 (66) | 11 (52) | 7 |
| November | 14 (57) | 6 (43) | 7 |
| December | 10 (50) | 4 (39) | 7 |
Spring
Spring brings Holy Week’s processions and, in May, San Isidro, the city’s own fiesta.
March is fresh, with highs around 16°C (61°F), and in 2027 the month of Holy Week. April is a little warmer. May is the warmest month of the three, about 22°C (72°F), and the month of San Isidro.
Across the city
Madrid’s processions are centuries old, and they wind through the city’s streets through the week. It ends on Easter Sunday with the tamborrada, a hundred drums in the Plaza Mayor.
The Plaza Mayor, Las Vistillas and the Pradera
A week of fiesta for the city’s patron saint. Madrileños dress as chulapos and chulapas and dance the chotis in the streets, there are concerts in the Plaza Mayor and the gardens of Las Vistillas, and families picnic in the Pradera de San Isidro. Tradition has the saint’s ring-shaped pastries eaten on the 15th itself.
At the end of May the Book Fair fills the paseos of the Retiro into June. It is the season for lunch outdoors, too: our Madrid food and cuisine guide has the tables, from the oldest restaurant in the world to the city’s newest stars. At the Mandarin Oriental Ritz, the Deluxe Garden View rooms look over the hotel’s garden to the Paseo del Prado. And with a few days more, the wineries of La Rioja are at their greenest.
Summer
June is warm. In July and August the average high is 31–32°C (88–90°F), and the day changes shape to fit.
From late April to late August the sun sets after 9 pm, so a summer day in Madrid runs late: the Royal Palace or a walk through old Madrid first thing, the museums through the heat of the afternoon, and dinner outdoors after dark. August is also, with January, the month of the year when the city’s hotels are least full.
Summer keeps its own calendar. Veranos de la Villa, the city’s summer festival, fills July and August with flamenco, zarzuela and symphonic music, dance and cinema under the stars, in some seventy shows across the city’s districts.
We reserve the museums ahead: the Prado, the Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Reina Sofía, and, for a group, the Prado’s own private visits before it opens or after it closes. On a summer evening we can arrange a walk through old Madrid with a guide as the light goes, and tapas after it, on request.
Two of our Madrid hotels suit the hottest weeks. The Mandarin Oriental Ritz has a garden for eating outdoors, open all year, and a heated indoor pool in its spa; Palacio de los Duques has a pool on its roof, looking across the old city to the Almudena, whose season we confirm for your dates. All our Madrid hotels are compared in where to stay in Madrid.
Los Jerónimos
A five-star Belle Époque palace between the Prado and the Retiro, with afternoon tea in the Palm Court and a garden open all year, weather permitting.
Palacio
A five-star 19th-century palace between the Plaza de Oriente and the Gran Vía, with a historic garden and a pool on the roof.
Autumn brings back the mild weather, and the visitors with it. Winter is cold and bright, and festive from late November.
September starts as summer and cools as it goes. October is mild, and the busiest month of the year in Madrid’s hotels: in 2025 they were fuller than in any spring month, so an autumn trip wants planning as early as one in May. November is cooler, and with October the wettest month. On a Sunday in late October, in the Fiesta de la Trashumancia, shepherds walk their flocks of sheep from the Casa de Campo through the Puerta del Sol to Cibeles, as they have every year since 1994.
The mild days suit walking: an architectural walk from Habsburg Madrid to the Gran Vía with a guide, or an afternoon in the Salamanca district’s Golden Mile of fashion, with a personal stylist on request. More in things to do in Madrid.
December is the festive month: the Christmas market fills the Plaza Mayor with more than a hundred stalls from late November, the lights stay up across the centre until 6 January, and on the evening of the 5th the Three Kings Parade comes through the city. January is the coldest month, with frost on a few nights, and, with August, the least busy in the hotels. February is a little milder.
Winter suits the indoors: flamenco in a tablao, with dinner before the show, and the spas — Urso’s water area has a hammam, and Rosewood Villa Magna’s spa a hammam ritual of its own. A driver can take you round the lights and the market in the evening, on request. In winter Madrid also pairs well with the south, with Seville or Granada.
By trip
The months that suit five kinds of trip best.
Architecture and design: spring or autumn. Mild days for long walks, from the Habsburg streets around the Plaza Mayor to the Gran Vía and the Royal Palace, with a private guide. See our private architecture and cultural tours.
Food and wine: autumn, or spring. Autumn for long lunches and a tasting of Spanish wines with a sommelier; spring for eating outdoors and a tasting menu at one of the city’s starred restaurants.
A romantic trip: summer evenings. The sun sets after 9 pm until late August, the afternoon heat is for a pool on a hotel roof, and dinner is outdoors after dark, in the month when the hotels are least full.
Art and culture: winter, or autumn. Cold, bright days made for the Prado, the Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Reina Sofía with a private guide, and flamenco in a tablao by night; January is one of the two quietest months in the hotels.
A first visit: spring. Mild weather and long days for the museums, the Royal Palace and the Retiro. May is among the busiest months of the year, so we plan it early.
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