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Barcelona in December

Posted by (College Station, TX, United States) on

Hi guys! So I have a few questions.

1- We are looking at going to Barcelona in mid December of this year. Has anyone been there during that time? Are most of the sights still open? We've read mixed reviews about the hours of places during off season. It would be such a let down to fly all the way there and have every restaurant and sight closed for the holidays!

2- We have about 7-10 days. What sights near Barcelona are possible to do on that time frame? It looks like Seville is about 5 hours away by train, would you recommend going that way or should we save that for a different trip? We are both very active and don't mind moving every 2 days or so.

3- Our other option is flying into Lisbon, staying for a few days, then going to Seville and Grenada. Is this doable? I haven't seen much info on this route, but they look fairly close together on the map.

Thank you guys so much! You are all the best!

Posted by
28083 posts

Links between Portugal and Spain are surprisingly poor. It usually doesn't work very well to combine those two countries on a short trip.

You can go to the websites of the major attractions you're interested in and see what they say about holiday closings. There is some risk that you'll find places closed for more than just Christmas Day, but the only places that matter are the ones that you want to see.

In December the weather will probably be noticeably warmer in Andalucia than in Barcelona, which would be a plus for me. But if I had only 7 days (and one of them probably jetlagged), I'm not sure I'd want to take the time to go to a second city. There is tons to do in Barcelona (assuming holiday closings aren't too big a deal).

Posted by
31 posts

Okay, that rules out Portugal! Thank you!!

As for the closures, I think we are most concerned about the smaller sights. We can certainly look into the big stuff like museums, but will a lot of the restaurants, cafes, smaller cultural areas be shut down?

Thank you!

Posted by
266 posts

I've been to Spain twice now (two times in Barcelona). Barcelona and Seville are by far, my favorite cities. If it were me, I would fly into Barcelona, fly to Seville and fly home from Seville. Or reverse the route.

Posted by
7175 posts

"will a lot of the restaurants, cafes, smaller cultural areas be shut down?"

That would be like shutting down life ... so no, that's not going to happen.

Posted by
7175 posts

For me the answer really is time dependent, 7 days or 10 days.

With 7 days...
Either all in Barcelona, or split between Sevilla and Granada.

With 10 days...
Split between Barcelona and Sevilla.

Posted by
15788 posts

My 3 visits have been in February and March. Everything was open though some sights have somewhat shorter hours. Some guided tours were less frequent. Last year, I was in Andalusia from Palm Sunday thru Easter Sunday, the biggest holiday of the year, and even on Easter Sunday, sights were open. I was worried that restaurants might be closed, but was told "are you kidding? it's one of their busiest days of the year!" For top sights you should get tickets in advance. For the Alhambra in Granada, you need to book weeks, maybe months, in advance, for Gaudi in Barcelona, maybe only a couple weeks ahead.

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