Spain in March - Worthwhile or Weather Concerns?

The second two points won't be an issue—transportation and sites will all be open.

The weather is both subjective and variable. It would depend on your idea of "cold" as well as where in Spain you'd be. Rain could also be expected in much of the country in March. Historical average temps, sun, and rainfall can be googled for any chosen city.

5-7 days isn't a whole lot time—did you have an idea of where you'd go?

Scudder - Thanks for the info!

Not sure where we will go yet. As I have been researching and reading up on itineraries, I have begun to realize that 5-7 days is short, but unfortunately that is all the time we have. With that in mind, maybe 2-3 cities is realistic for us...? Barcelona seems far away from maybe clusters like (Sevilla, Granada, Cadiz, Marbella, and Gibraltar) or (Madrid and Toledo). All these cities sound amazing in their own ways, so hopefully this is just our first trip to Spain together!

Eric, my husband and I first sojourned to Spain in early March, 2017. We landed in Madrid where it was cloudy, rainy and in the 40s so, raw feeling. It felt like where we live, New Jersey. One day, it was spitting snow. We were in museums most of the two full days there and it did not concern us. As a matter of fact, the day we landed, we rode on the top of a bus that was open and let the rain pelt us! We can be oppositional-defiant! At least we could see since the bottom windows were totally fogged.
From Madrid we went to Barcelona where, again, it was chilly. We did have a nice day trip to Montserrat, however. There was no rain and it might have been in the low 50s.
In 2019, we visited Seville, Cordoba and Granada. Again, lots of rain in early April--same as NJ. I think the temperatures were in the 40s, again. It was pouring rain for our night visit to the Alhambra but beautiful the next day. While we wished the weather had been better, we loved our visits. We are returning in late December and early January--who know what the weather will bring.
Every tourist sight that we had wanted to see was open. I would still get advance tickets online for some of the sights such as the Alhambra, major museums, etc.. They might have closed earlier in the winter than the rest of the year, but we made it work. We had no trouble finding restaurants and took the recommendations of the flat owners we had rented from. We had no transportation problems either.
Our experiences with the weather might have been a one-off. You just never know about the weather: one year for Christmas, we spent the week in Paris where it was sunny everyday and in the mid-to-high 50s!

What does “cold“ mean? My definition of cold is below 32°F. When I was in Barcelona and Ibiza in the month of February back in 2000, the temperatures were in the 50s-60s in the day and maybe got down into the 40s a few nights so these temps were absolutely the best without the hordes of tourists too!! I would never want to be in the Mediterranean when it is hot and for me, hot is 80°. Public transport in Barcelona was extensive meaning I never had to wait for more than 10 minutes.

I did a Spring Break trip in 2019 to Spain. The Weather was perfect for sightseeing, although not warm enough to swim. We flew into Malaga and spent 2 nights in Granada for the Alhambra, 1 night in Cordoba for the Mezquita-Catedral, and 3 nights in Sevilla. We used buses from Malaga to Granada, and Granada to Cordoba, (ALSA buses) and then took the train between Cordoba and Sevilla. We actually connected through Dublin as we had cheap tickets, but I would suggest you go directly through Madrid and make your connections to save time. We only had a week also and it was so worth it, especially as Covid shut down travel in 2020. I will never again say, it's too short a time to travel to Europe! just go and enjoy!

Margaret

In general it will be warmer in southern Spain, but you could expect cold and/or snow in any mountainous part of the country. As an example, back in 2017 it was 32 degrees and rainy in Alto de Cebreiro in late May, at mid-day. Way back in March 1979, we passed through Ávila and there was snow on the ground. It really depends on where you want to go and what you want to see. With only 5-7 days it might be better to pick one large town and take a couple days trips. Which town is up to you, but any of the popular ones would work.

With one week at your disposal, all you can visit is probably a couple of cities.
Everything will be open. Just choose to visit cities, so that you'll have plenty of indoor places to see (museums, palaces, churches, castles) in case of rain.
With only one week at my disposal I'd limit my visit to only one of the following:
1. Madrid+Toledo
2. Barcelona+Madrid
3. Madrid+Cordoba
4. Madrid+Sevilla

In other words I'd do only 2 cities, no more.

Barcelona is kind of out of the way and is big like Madrid, but Madrid and Barcelona are well connected by AVE train and if you could devote at least 3 or 4 nights to each they'd be doable. If you only have 5 days, then it's not enough for both.

I concur with Roberto's take. I'd actually go even further and suggest you consider either Madrid or Barcelona. Exploring either of those cities at a relaxed pace, while adding a day trip or two, could make for a very nice week.

And I just saw you're in Mass. I'm basically across the street from the Berkshires. Anywhere in Spain is a welcome break from March up here.

How many nights can you spend in Spain? I'm not clear on whether your 5-7 days includes your travel days.

Southern Spain (Seville/Cordoba/Granada--though the latter is at altitude and a bit chillier) is likely to have significantly nicer weather than the area around Madrid. Barcelona tends to be in the middle. The Wikipedia entries for each city have climate-summary charts so you can compare average temperatures, rainfall, etc. Keep in mind that the averages do not reflect how chilly (or how warm) it is likely to be over the course of your trip. I do use them for an estimate of how much colder City A might be than City B.

As a hater of cold weather, I'd have a strong preference for Seville/Cordoba for a trip in March. (I went to that area myself in early April 2019.) I suspect you don't really have enough time to include Granada. However, when you look at flights--which I'd recommend doing immediately, so you don't fall in love with an impractical itinerary--you may well find that it's much easier and/or cheaper to fly into Madrid or Barcelona than one of the southern cities (you can check Seville, Malaga and Granada). In that case, I'd recommend caving in to what's practical if you're not in a position to postpone your trip (which is what I'd do, in all honesty). You can certainly have an enjoyable time in Barcelona or Madrid in March even if you're unlucky with the weather. They both have good indoor sights, lots of restaurants and tapas bars to explore.

Barcelona has some nice side-trips. Madrid (which I don't like as much as a city) has many really magnificent side-trips. Malaga and Cadiz are both pleasant, but they rank well behind Seville, Cordoba and Granada. On such a short trip, I wouldn't plan to include them unless I was flying into Malaga, in which case a day in that city would be worthwhile.

I have never been interested enough in Gibraltar or Marbella to see either one. I believe everyone will tell you they trail far, far behind Seville, Cordoba and Granada in terms of tourist interest. I'm also wondering whether Marbella might be rather dead in March. Travel time to get there from anywhere except Malaga would be significant; I have a hard time imagining it would be worth it on such a short trip even if you could count on beach weather (which of course you will not have).

Answering your questions, copy and paste, from a local Spaniard:

• Temperature: Will it be very cold in any particular region or all regions? Do we avoid certain places due to very cold temps?
  March marks the beginning of spring and it depends, if it´s the end of March it´s normally nicer. Spain is a very heterogeneous country and very different from north to south, from west to east. Many different climates, four official languages and quite a few dialects, different foods, different landscapes...The north is usually rainy and the south is usually dry, but anything can happen anywhere (this year the north is extremely dry). The south will offer mild temperatures, as well as most of the Mediterranean coast. The Atlantic and Cantabrian coasts will be cooler, with a higher risk of rain, but rarely snow at that time of the year.

• Transportation: Is some transport reduced, and if so, by how much (i.e., trains and buses)?

Not sure if I understand this question, I wonder why transport should be reduced in March? Mass transport is outstanding in Spain and it´s widely used by locals.

• Attractions/Operating Hours: Are any attractions closed until April? How are restaurants and hotels operating in smaller tourist towns vs bigger tourist cities?

Attractions are open all year round except on indicated dates (locals travel, too...), but March it´s business as usual. Restaurants are open all year round (except for their annual vacation periods) and most hotels (the vast majority) should be open.

Hi Eric
I don't understand your questions. Why would anything be closed in April or any other month for that matter? or why would transportation be reduced?... As per your first question, there's no single answer as your question is too vague, Spain is a large country and has a number of different climates, from Atlantic to Mediterranean and a bunch in between so it'll depend on where you intend to visit.

Click on the city you are interested in for complete weather info.
https://weatherspark.com/map?id=36848&pageType=2&monthNumber=3

Easter is in early April in 2023. Some places may be closed and/or more crowded the first two weeks due to school breaks as well.

Holy Week or Easter in Spain is not celebrated identically all over Spain. In some regions ("autonomies or autonomous communities") it´s a day off on Th 6, Fri 7, Sun 9 and Monday 10, where banks and most shops will be closed, and it´s a public holiday (Baleares, La Rioja, Basque Country and Navarre). Thursday 6 is not a public holiday everywhere, and Mon 10 is also not a holiday in 13 regions. Spain is a complicated country, as every region has its own festivities apart from the national ones. All bars, restaurants and attractions will be, of course, open, as it´s a major holiday and many Spaniards travel those days. In some regions, there are two weeks of school vacation, in others it´s just one week and a half...it depends.

We did Madrid and Barcelona in April and it was cool but not too bad. I can't imagine March being so much worse.
I like the suggestion of doing two cities, Madrid and Sevilla. It's very easy to connect the two and you'll have just enough time to see them both without rushing. Or you could even focus on Seville, say 5 nights including a day trip to Cordoba. Then just 2 on the back end in Madrid, which will definitely be cooler.

I spent the month of April in Spain. We started in Barcelona, had one nice day (60's sunny) the rest slightly rainy and chilly (below 55). We traveled in a backward figure 8, first west trough Rioja, down through Castillo Leon/La Mancha. That was all coat and sweater weather, mostly sunny but a chilly breeze (never much above 50, felt colder). There was fresh snow on the mountain behind the Alhambra in my photos. By the time we reached Tarifa, the weather warmed a bit and was comfortable through Sevilla and Cordoba (low 60's, sunny) but was still cold when we got back to Madrid for the end of our trip. We never experienced beach weather, by a long shot, but that April was considered unseasonably cold.

I'm still glad I went in April. Easter week and April Fair were worth it (but I made the mistake of spending half Easter week in Barcelona, which has very little going on).

In March, the Fire Festival is held in Valencia. That would be worth looking into.