Spain Honeymoon Easter 22

It is still not clear how Semana Santa (Holy Week) will be conducted this year, it was practically canceled for the last two years.

Typically prices skyrocket in this time and it becomes quite difficult to find hotels. Especially in Andalucía, the main cities are packed with local tourists, you will be caught up in the festivities that run late into the night, whether you like it or not. Might not be too relaxing honestly.

The one exceptions in relation to Holy Week is Barcelona, it's more business as usual. We just do not have the same intensity of Holy Week traditions as one would find in other parts of Spain. However, April 18th (Easter Monday) is a national holiday in Spain so the majority of shops and restaurants will be closed on that day across the country.

I was in Andalucia during Holy Week 2019. All my other trips to Spain have been later in the year, between May and August. I was able to see nearly all of the sights on my long target list, but a bit less efficiently than would normally have been the case, because there were some cut-backs in the opening days/hours of individual sights and in some cases (mainly in Seville) it took a lot longer than usual to get from place to place because of crowds around processions. If you keep your expectations in check, I think you'll be fine. In my experience, entire cities didn't feel overrun; there were just a lot of people along the routes followed by the processions. At most of the sights (not including the Alcazar and the Cathedral in Seville, the Mezquita in Cordoba and the Alhambra in Granada) there were few other tourists present.

European museums and historical sights, in general, are good about listing their holiday closures on their websites. I suggest checking all those on your target list to see what you find. The information is usually on the same web page as the hours of operation. You may be pleasantly surprised. The only limitation I see on the website of the Alcazar in Seville is that there are no nighttime visits on Good Friday. At this point there's no indication of holiday closures for daytime visits, though that could change between now and Easter. The major impact of the processions (whose schedules may change from year to year, for all I know) perhaps makes it more likely that sightseeing hours for Holy Week might not be finalized until well into 2022. But I think it's encouraging that the Alcazar website doesn't list any full-day closures.

Although there are Holy Week activities in many places in Andalucia, some cities are more active than others. Seville is certainly one of the most affected cities. I paid what seemed to be about double the typical hotel rate in Seville, and by the time I booked my room (late December or early January) my only affordable, convenient option was a place with a 2-week cancellation policy. Obviously, COVID makes that sort of policy a bit more problematic than it was in 2019.