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Barcelona and Madrid in January 2025

Posted by (Chicago, IL, USA) on

Hello fellow Rikniks.

My wife (47) and I (51) are in the early stages of planning a trip to Barcelona and Madrid (and assorted day trips), covering maybe 10-14 days in January of next year. It’s a down season for her work, and it’s a good time to use, rather than lose my vacation time.

We do art, scenery, food, cathedrals, history, and a slower pace than Rick. We are kind of crowd adverse, when possible.

When we were last in Italy, we managed to swing a tour that I called San Marco After Darko, where a guide got a small group of us in to the basilica in the early evening. Our group of 6-8 had the whole place to ourselves, and it was magical.

Is there anything similar for the Sagrada Familia, or any other major site.

Is there anything else we need to know about going in January. We’re in Chicago, so looking at the temps for January looks like shorts weather ;-)

Posted by
4155 posts

What days are you going in January? You may not know that in Spain our holiday season extends into January, so you'll still find Christmas markets up early January. Actually January 6th is our main Christmas holiday called Three Kings Day. The evening of January 5th all major cities in Spain have a giant Three Kings Parade down the main boulevards of the city.

Also January is the primetime for calçots season in Barcelona and the surrounding Catalan region. If you want a truly unique culinary experience in Catalonia during the winter months, than I would recommend going to a Calçotada. A calçotada is a traditional Catalan winter barbecue where calçots (long green onions) are packed tight on a grill, charred and then dipped in that rich and nutty romesco sauce, one usually drinks red wine with all of this. But that is just the first course! Then follows a course of roasted lamb and local Catalan sausages (Butifarras) with white beans. For dessert, oranges and white Cava are served.

It is quite the social (and messy) event with many people gathering together to celebrate in the countryside. There is also a large annual calçotada in the town of Valls, celebrating the harvest of Calçots. I am not sure how a non-local would be able to get in to one of these calçotadas, but I would assume there are organized trips for visitors who want to get "in on the action" :)

Posted by
488 posts

I was thinking of arriving around the 6th but could move that a week back. My reading suggests that January is a good shopping month, and wow are Barcelona hotel prices soft.

A Calçotada sounds amazing.

Posted by
4155 posts

Just looking online there appear to be a handful of tours for foreigners to experience an authentic Calçotada, here's one for example, not sure if there are good or not -
https://www.barcelonainsideandout.com/tours/calcots-and-calcotadas/

One can also go to a specialty "Catalan barbecue" restaurant called a "Brasería" that will typically serve Calçots when in season. You might need to look outside the main tourist area of Barcelona to find them as they are not often frequented by foreigners, but quite popular with us locals.

Posted by
488 posts

Thank you, Carlos. That’s the jam.

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