When’s the Best Time to Visit Andalucia?

Let’s get one thing clear from the start: it’s never exactly a bad time to visit southern Spain, as on any given day of any given week all year round, there’s something going on. However from full-on fiestas to solemn religious ceremonies, via annual harvests and music festivals, we’ve picked out a few of the very best times to visit.

Planning a Visit around the Weather

Weather-wise, when’s the best time of year to visit Andalucia? It’s a question that gets put to us a lot here at the Luxury Villa Collection. And the answer we always have to give is… it very much depends.

Andalucia’s a big region – four times as large as that default indicator of size, Wales – plus, it’s also an area of huge geographical diversity. So while you may have lovely winter sunshine and 20 degrees down on the coast, the snow might well be falling on the mountains inland.

That diversity allows for micro-climates and after all the Costa del Sol isn’t called the sun coast for nothing. Let’s focus on the average temperatures in Malaga, Granada and Cadiz provinces.

Traditional & Religious Events

Los Reyes Magos – Various towns and Cities; 5th January 2023: The epiphany on 6th January, is celebrated in Spain with a national holiday and gifts are said to be left by The Three Kings for children. The night before, The Three Kings visit most towns and cities in the form of a parade, festivities usually begin around 17.00hrs. Children collect sweets that are thrown by the kings and their helpers.

Carnival – Cadiz; 16th February – 26th February 2023: The weekend before Lent is a massive party weekend in southern Spain and nowhere does it bigger than the city of Cadiz. It’s a noisy, messy affair where everyone takes to the streets in fancy dress and parties until sunrise.

Semana Santa – Seville; 2nd April – 9th April 2023: With the sound of brass and the scent of incense on the night air, every Easter the streets of Seville are filled with the processions of Semana Santa (or Holy Week). While Seville undoubtedly puts on the biggest and grandest display of devotion, other places of note include all the big cities – Granada, Malaga and Cordoba especially – while the small town of Velez-Malaga in the Axarquia is a spectacular and lesser-known alternative.

Las Cruces de Mayo in Granada; 3rd May 2023: Another city, another full-scale party dressed up as a religious occasion. While the crosses which are displayed in squares throughout the city are undoubtedly lovely, Granada’s Las Cruces is, in reality, just a great excuse for a party. And why not?

Patios de Cordoba; 2nd – 14th May 2023: North, south, east or west, spring is one of the best times to visit Spain, wherever in the country you might be thinking of heading. Nowhere is that more the case than in Cordoba. In May, some of the oldest and most beautiful patios of the town’s historic centre are decked out in their full floral finery and opened up to the public. Unmissable.

El Rocio Pilgrimage – Huelva; Pentecost/depending on Easter: One of the region’s most impressive devotional displays, up to a million people have been known to make the journey to this remote church to see the Virgin make her spectacular appearance in the early hours of Pentecost Monday. With El Rocio sitting right in the heart of the Doñana National Park, it makes for a great excuse to explore one of Spain’s great natural wildernesses, too.

Music & Nightlife Events 

Beach club opening parties, Marbella and Puerto Banus; mid-late April: Something of a curtain-raiser for summer on the Costa, the beach clubs throw everything they’ve got into their annual opening parties. Nikki Beach, perhaps the best of the bunch, gets their 20th season underway in 2023 around the 15th April (exact date TBC) with most of the others falling either side of it.

Granada international festival of music and dance; 13 June to 10 July 2022 (2023 dates TBC): While the flamenco on display during Granada’s annual festival is fantastic (headliners include Maria Terremoto), it’s undoubtedly the setting that steals the show. Sitting under the stars in the gardens of the Generalife accompanied by some top-class dance and exquisite views of historic Granada is an unforgettable experience.

Starlite Marbella; from 23rd June – 2nd September 2023: Marbella‘s music festival is now a firm fixture on the Andalucia events calendar. 2023’s big international names include:

23/6, 7/7, 13/7, 19/7, 26/7, 2/8, 9/8, 16/8, 24/8, 2/9 Juan Magàn
24/6 India Martinez
6/7 Lionel Richie
8/7 Gypsy Kings
12/7 Anastacia
18/7 Ludovico Einaudi
27/7 Norah Jones
29/7 Andres Calamaro
31/7 Carlos Rivera
4/8 Farruquito, Israel Fernandez & Diego del Morao
7/8 Zaz
9/8 Sara Baras
15/8 Taburete
17/8 Anotnio Jose
19/8 Vicente Amigo

More information: Starlitemarbella.com

Festival de 3 Culturas in Frigiliana; 24th – 27th August 2023. A all day street party with dance, live music, crafts, workshops and stalls all capped off with a huge fireworks display.

Flamenco festivals; June-September: while Andalucia’s greatest art form is very definitely a year-round affair (check out our guide to Flamenco), it really heats up every year along with the summer temperatures. Malaga’s summer alone is studded with superb flamenco events from Alhaurin de la Torre (June) and Alora (July) to Antequera and Ronda (both August) and finally, the main event of the Malaga Bienal Festival takes place in September 2023.

Guitar Festival of Cordoba; 1st – 9th July 2022 (2023 TBC)
Flamenco Festival of Sotogrande/Festival Tio Pepe; 15th July – 27th August various events expect huge names like José Mercé, Tomatito, Mayte Martín y El Pele. (2023 TBC)

If a music festival is on your agenda check out our guide on the best festivals in Spain.

Ferias

Spain as a whole celebrates more local virgins’ and saints’ day than you can shake a stick at. But if there’s a capital of the religious holiday, it has to be Andalucia. Aside from the religious elements, they mean one thing: letting your hair down and partying in a colourful blur of flamenco dresses, fairgrounds, dancing and drinking under the stars.

Ferias are held from April until September and are one of Andalucia’s greatest spectacles. In terms of city ferias, a few of the main ones of note are:

• Seville’s Feria de Abril: 23rd – 29th April 2023
• Feria de Caballo in Jerez de la Frontera; 13th – 19th May 2023
• Feria de Nuestra Señora de la Salud, Cordoba; 20th – 27th May 2023
• Feria de San Bernabé, Marbella; 4th to 11th June 2023
• Feria de Malaga; 12th – 19th August 2023
• Feria de San Pedro Alcantara; 16th – 22 October 2023
• Festival in honor of Virgen del Carmen; 16th July 2023. Virgen del Carmen is the patron saint of fishermen. This annual event is celebrated in coastal towns all over Andalucia. A statue of the Virgen is taken from the church and carried through the streets accompanied by bands and crowds of followers. In most places, she is put on a boat for a trip around the bay this time accompanied by a flotilla of small boats all dressed with flags and packed with revellers. Contact our concierge to organise your place on an accompanying boat. Fun fact in Malaga city in 1981 the diving club placed an image of their patron on the seafloor and now members descend every year to pay homage.

Gastronomy, Food & Wine Events

Down in Andalucia, the seasons – and the harvesting of the fruit of land and sea – still have a huge impact on people’s everyday lives. Spring sees olives, oranges, avocados, asparagus and the Almadraba fishing of bluefin tuna in Cadiz. By the late summer the region is exploding into wine harvests, while come the autumn the almonds and figs are bursting.

There are simply too many food and wine festivals in the region to name them all, but here are a couple that come with the LVC seal of approval:

Las Fiestas de la Vendimia y Otoño, Jerez de la Frontera; 1st – 18th September 2022 (2023 TBC): One of the oldest ferias in Spain, Jerez’s annual Sherry shindig is a blur of wine crushing, bodega visits and tastings, flamenco, horses and general festivities.

The Fiesta de la Vendimia Manilva; 2nd – 3rd September 2023: Celebrates the gathering of the grape harvest. The grape treading is a typical event and the first grape juice of the year is extracted and offered to friends and visitors. The Wine Harvest in Manilva is unique on the Costa del Sol and takes place at the end of the grape harvest. The festivities begin on Friday with cultural and folk events.

Axarquia food festivals; August to September: this mountainous region to the east of Malaga has been getting something of a name for itself in recent years for its cluster of food-related festivals – and all the singing, dancing and general celebrations that comes with them.

• Dia de Morcilla (blood sausage), Canillas de Aceituno; 22nd April 2023
• Dia de la Cereza (cherry), Alfarnate; 24th June 2023
• Fiesta del Gazpacho; Alfarnatejo; 5th August 2023
• Noche del Vino (sweet wine), Competa; 14th August 2023 (TBC)
• Fiesta del Ajoblanco (cold almond soup), Almachar; 2nd September 2023 (TBC)

Sporting Events 

Moto Grand Prix – Jerez Motor Racing Circuit – 28th & 29th Abr 2023: one of the biggest events on the Spanish motorsports calendar roars into Jerez every year. The second race of the Moto GP season is a big deal in Spain, and the atmosphere track-side over the course of a long weekend in April is one of the liveliest around. For tickets see here.

Golf on the Costa del Sol: while the region’s +300 days of sunshine mean that golf is very much a year-round sport in Andalucia, the best times of year to book a golf holiday are probably spring and autumn, when you get the sunshine without the searing summer temperatures. (Have a look at our pick of the best golf courses on the Costa del Sol.) The big event during the summer of 2023 is the Aramco Team Series in Sotogrande. Held from 18th – 20th August at La Reserva Golf. The format to the tournament is three professionals and an amateur play in teams. More information Aramcoteamseries.com.There’s also the 2023 Solheim Cup at Finca Cortesín, Andalucía, Spain, 18 – 24th September the best ladies golfers will be there.

International Polo Tournament – Sotogrande; (dates TBC around 26th Jul to 28th Aug): Sotogrande’s Santa Maria Polo Club hosts one of the highlights of the polo calendar every summer. One of the most prestigious events in Andalucia, it’s an occasion in which to see and be seen – obligatory glass of bubbly in hand – as much as it is to watch what’s going on out on the field. Have a look at our guide for more details.

Sanlucar Horse Racing, Sanlucar de Barrameda; Friday to Sunday on the second and fourth weeks of August (depending upon tides): This hell-for-leather horseback sprint along the Sanlucar sands goes all the way back to 1845. The setting’s superb and the atmosphere’s lively (with more than a drop or two of Manzanilla being supped). Best of all, though, you get right up close to the action and feel the thundering of hooves underfoot.

Ski season in the Sierra Nevada: Europe’s most southerly ski resort opens for business every year with the first snows in December, before closing up again in late April. Which means that you can literally spend a morning on the slopes before dropping down to the coast and hitting the beach in the afternoon.

Nature & the Great Outdoors

Flamingo migration at Fuente de Piedra; late February: For many of us bird-watching is not exactly the stuff of riveting holidays. However, seeing the flamingos at Fuente de Piedra is a little different. To catch a glimpse of them, as a vivid flash of pink against the blue sky, before they descend on the salt lakes of is one of the most beautiful natural spectacles in Europe.

Arrival of the cherry blossom, Axarquia; March (depending on the weather): Andalucia’s cherry blossom season may not be quite as well-known as Japan’s, but it’s still pretty spectacular. Alfarnate’s Ruta de las Pilas, a 12km round trip through the orchard-lined countryside, is one of the very best ways to experience it.

Beach weather; May onwards: While you can obviously stretch out on the sand at any time when the sun’s shining in southern Spain, locals tend not to venture onto them until summer has really kicked in. May and October can regularly touch on 30 degrees Celsius – more than warm enough for most of us to get the beach bag out, in other words.

Cork oak harvest – Los Alcornocales Natural Park; June-August: The serious business of the cork harvest is still carried out by hand and mule every summer in the cork forests of Los Alcornocales. A morning winding your way through the sun-dappled trees, stopping off to watch the trees being painstakingly stripped of their bark along the way, can be neatly finished up with a long, leisurely lunch in a stunning mountain town like Gaucin, Jimena de la Frontera, Ubrique or Zahara de la Sierra.

Our guide to when to visit Andalucia is far from definitive, if you’ve booked with us our Guest Experience team can recommend things to do in and around your holiday villa. There’s simply SO much more to see and do in this fabulous region of Spain – to the extent, in fact, that we’ve missed out, not just one but two, entire provinces in Almeria and Jaen.

So what’s stopping you? See the best of southern Spain from one of our luxury villas.

Lindsay Gregory

Lindsay is the Founder and Curator of The Luxury Villa Collection. With over 22 years experience living and working in Spain, she's constantly in search of the most authentic and original travel experiences, coupled with the best villas, to help you enjoy Spain in style.

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