Is Spain worth visiting in the winter?

Madrid being inland and at elevation is cold in the winter. Granada is an hour inland from the Med and also at elevation - you can go skiing from there and it gets cold at night -1 nighttime is average for January.

If you want warmer weather, stay nearer to the Med.

There are direct trains between Madrid and Granada taking around 3.5 hours, so around 5 hours door to door.

Daily Covid infection rates are beginning to tick up slightly,but are much lower than the U.K.. Mask wearing indoors and on public transport is required and unlike in the U.K., in my experience everybody complies with this, even children. Things may change of course before your trip.

You don’t say exactly when you are travelling, but Three Kings - 6 January is a public holiday, so expect closures and restrictions.

Suggest staying in Andalusia, visit Seville, the gem of Spain. Granada, Cordoba and Rhonda are worth a visit.

Spain has passed the 90% mark of double vaccinated population and is currently in the "mild" area, around 88 incidence rate, compared to an overwhelming 750 in the UK or 450 in Germany, for example. Everybody wears masks indoors and many outdoors. No restrictions yet, except obligatory mask indoors. Public transportation is excellent all over the country and weather in Madrid may be kind of cold (40s-50s) and in Granada nights will be chilly.

Spain is open to fully vaccinated tourists. No test is required prior to going over or when you get there. You do need to fill out the Spain Travel Health form either via the app you download to your phone, or via the website. As Jennifer mentioned, numbers have been trending upwards the past few weeks. The good news is deaths and hospitalizations have remained fairly constant.

My kids skied in Granada in March one year so be prepared for cold temperatures.

When I have weather concerns I like to look at the actual, day-by-day, historical weather data data available on the website timeanddate.com. You can check out the last few years and see the range of conditions you might run into. If you just want to compare various potential destinations in Spain, you might be satisfied with the monthly averages shown in the climate-summary charts in each city's Wikipedia entry. I don't like averages much since they hide extremes, and the Wikipedia averages are often based on data ranges that end in 2010 (occasionally even in 2000). But averages will give you an idea of which places are likely to be significantly colder or wetter.

From warmest to chilliest:

Malaga
Seville
Cordoba
Granada
Madrid

I glanced at Barcelona's Wikipedia entry as well. It usually isn't as warm in the daytime as Malaga or Seville, but it also doesn't cool off as much at night.

I was in Barcelona during that exact timeframe, and it was lovely. 55-60 degrees and sunny.

I also was in Andalusia in November and it was perfect for us. Granada because it is at higher altitude did require a couple layers at night. I think Andalusia is as perfect as you can get for winter travel. We flew in and out of Madrid which also required a couple layers in the evening. If it were me, I'd concentrate on Sevilla and Granada which are amazing. For me, Madrid was lovely, but not nearly as interesting (or warm) as Andalusia.

The COVID status in Spain is quite good right now. Spain and Portugal have very high vaccination rates. There are several forum posts about Spain's situation. You should search for. The OP is Carlos.

My last trip to Spain was Dec 2019-Jan 2020 right before Covid. I spend a week in Valencia and Sevilla. I would recommend staying as close to the coast, or as south as possible, as it still does get quite cold in the mornings. The highs each day reached about 60, but the days are short and it gets dark by 5PM and the temps drop quickly. It was sunny every day, but sometimes not until late afternoon. It was nice to be there with fewer tourists and housing was cheaper than during high season. Be aware of course of all the closings around Christmas, New Year's and Epiphany. Most places starting shutting down by around noon of the day before, so that limits your sight-seeing. Dining can also get really tight the day before each holiday. Book in advance.

Thanks, everybody!

I've opted for Madrid. Yes, it's cold ... but I think my Canadian sensibilities won't be too offended :)

I'm thinking about squeezing in a trip to Toledo while I'm over there and spending the night there, but Madrid looks like it has more than enough to fill in just a week, so I'm not completely sure. Anybody think that might be too much?

Toledo is an easy 30-minute AVE train from Madrid Puerta de Atocha station, so it is a popular day trip (and therefore the early and late trains can sell out if not booked in advance, but this might be less of a risk in low season).

If you want to stay overnight, consider going to Toledo directly on arrival in Madrid. I just returned from 2 weeks in Spain and enjoyed staying at La Posada de Manolo in Toledo for a few nights. It’s a hostale (= family-run small hotel, not hostel) centrally located just behind the cathedral. About 50 meters down the street is a wonderful vegetarian restaurant, Madre Tierra. See Rick’s guidebook for more info on both.

A week isn’t that long especially if two of those days are travel days. You should find plenty to do for a week. In addition to Toledo, you could take days trips to Salamanca, Segovia, Cuenca, or Alcalá de Henares if you run out of things to do in Madrid.

Setting aside the art museums, I like Toledo a lot more than Madrid. In Toledo you'll find a medieval city center and some structures with mudejar (Moorish) interiors. I think heading to Toledo for two nights on the day you arrive is a brilliant idea. You don't have to worry about trying to buy the train ticket early because the fares do not escalate as the travel day approaches. Just go to the train station at the airport and buy your ticket to Madrid and on to Toledo. The staffed ticket windows at Atocha Station in downtown Madrid are to be avoided at all cost; in my experience the lines can be hours long (three hours for me in 2017). The vending machines should be fine for any short trips you want to take; in the past there were occasional reports of problems with some US credit cards, but it has been a while since I saw such a post here. There are sometimes uniformed Renfe employees floating around to assist tourists.

There are, as already pointed out, lots of great day-trips from Madrid. One caution about Cuenca: It is a viable day-trip only if you take the super-fast AVE train, and that is likely to be very expensive if you don't buy the ticket well in advance. I like Cuenca a lot, but for reasons of cost it's not great to count on a spur-of-the-moment trip there. At the moment most of the AVEs for the next 24 hours cost about 39 euros each way. I found tickets for less than 11 euros available on a random date in January, to give you an idea.

In late November we spent 4 nights in Madrid and we’re very happy there! It is very festive during the holidays so hopefully you’ll get to see the city decked out in holiday lights! Even though it was late November, we were able to find places to have meals on outdoor patios - we ate our main meals midday.

Masks were worn indoors everywhere and many wore masks outside too. We felt safe visiting The Prado and Thyssen-Bornemisza Museums - we went later in the afternoons when they were less busy.

If you like Egyptian antiquities, there is an Egyptian temple (Temple of Debod) that is interesting and unique in Europe.

For a relaxed trip, I think you could easily spend the entire time in Madrid with a day trip to either Toledo or Segovia.

Further south (for possibly warmer weather) Seville and Cadiz are nice. We were cold for our few days in Granada.

We had a great time in Spain! Enjoy it all!

I was in Spain from December 26, 2019 until January 4, 2020, my last pre COVID trip, and I enjoyed it very much. We stayed at the Hotel Liabeny which was very close to the Puerta del Sol. We were able to comfortably walk just about anywhere we wanted to go. The weather was very pleasant during our time there too. It was a little chilly early and late but during the mid day hours it was very nice. We spent all but two of our days in Madrid visiting art galleries, the royal palace, flamenco shows and just strolling. We took a short train to Toledo one day (which I recommend) and another day we took a fast train to Barcelona. I would definitely return to Madrid during this time of year in the future although I doubt we will ever get to experience 20,000 people jammed into the Puerta del Sol to ring in the New Year ever again. I have yet to make the trip overseas during COVID but we are planning for early summer of 2022. Like you, I am eager to hear from travelers about how to best navigate this new world of ours. I wish you well on your trip, I know you will love Spain very much.