Planning December trip - Advice needed
 

Hello everyone,

DH and I are planning a 2 week trip to Spain with kids (8 & 5) during winter break - Dec.16th-Dec.31st. We have both been to Barcelona and Madrid and Toledo and Segovia but it will be the kids 1st time. My son is a big soccer fan and has chosen this trip as his birthday present.

I loved Spain the last time we were there(in July 2008) but have major concerns about travelling there in December. Whats the weather like, will there be a lot of rain..? We are planning on spending a couple of days in Barcelona and another couple in Madrid and spending the majority of our time in the Sevilla/Granada area as we missed that part last time.

Will the weather be okay? Our travel style is pretty casual. We dont have to visit every museum and monument but would love to spend a lot of time eating and strolling and taking in basic everyday stuff. Will all this work in Dec..?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

I have been in Spain during at least 5 Decembers and the weather has been different in all of them. The last time I was there was in 2008, and actually after a lot of advice from people here, decided that the thing to do was to "embrace the cold" so to speak. So we rented a 16th century stone house in Navalonguilla (a small town somewhere between Avila and Salamanca) and had great winter weather -- hiking, visiting lots of towns in the area, sitting in front of the fire, etc. I would do that again in a heartbeat, the Gredos mountain range is a wonderful destination.

I have also rented a house in a small town called Priego de Cordoba in Andalucia (this was in the late 90s) and it rained almost every day of our two week stay. Other Decembers have been somewhere in between.

I'd say all bets are off with the weather, but the more likely is that there will be some rain/snow.

But then again friends were in Catalunya in early January this year and had great weather.

So, it's a roll of the dice I guess.

Thanks Ireynold1!!!!

Some rain is likely but snow isn;t - unless you head into the mountains (they have ski resorts). In the south the highs may be around 60 - so good weather for touring and for kids to run around.

Madrid has a real winter and you may even see snow, Barcelona is a little more moderate since it's near the cost.

BUT, predicting weather more than about 5 days in advance is a crapshoot.

I was in Madrid the week before Christmas 2009 and we had very light snow, some drizzle and cold weather as you'd expect. We managed to be in Portugal, Andalucia and London for the worst winter in 30 years and experienced the first snowfalls in Cordoba in 50 years!

As nytraveler says it's hard to predict - friends were in similar areas December 2008 and they had glorious weather.

Even though the weather wasn't ideal we had a fantastic time and walked most places. Seville was wonderful and the day we visited the Alhambra was one of the few we had sunshine - magical.

Have you looked to see if there's a soccer match on while you're in Spain? I don't think the draw comes out until later in the year. I come from a family of soccer tragics (players and referees) and we were able to get tickets for a Real Madrid match. Bought through their website and not too expensive because they were playing Zaragoza. A highlight for all of us.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I am going to do something very unusual for me and wait till atleast October to buy my tickets from San Francisco as fares right now are almost $900! Hope my gamble pays off...

four_maccas, thanks a million for the soccer suggestion, it would be a highlight for my son if we can take him to a soccer match while we are there. I'm personally not very interested in visiting Madrid again but he insists on going there to be in his favourite teams city - thinks he can even see Ronaldo walking around!!!!!