We're starting to plan our trip to Spain. We can go in either Sept or Oct. We want to travel when kids are back in school. Any suggestions or ideas about either month? What would the weather be like? We plan on being in Madrid, and Southern Spain..and possibly Lisbon.

October will be cooler in the south..it can be VERY hot in September..take a look at:

http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/w...380&refer=

I have traveled in early Sept in the south & Madrid. It was still very warm. Some people like that. I prefer cooler weather for travel.

What is you tolerence for heat & how accostomed to it are you where you live?

Scrunchy is right Oct is cooler.

I'd recommend September for the south. Much better weather.

I might just check the key museums' webs sites to see if any close/short time etc in either period.

Not sure I would agree about it being very hot in September but depends on what you mean by hot I guess.

I would always try to be in Europe while the clocks are on summer time, to give me more daylight. Summer time ends towards the end of October but precise dates are available.

For me either would be fine but for more guaranteed warmth I guess I would choose September.

Your potential destinations are not exactly in the same climate zone.
Madrid and Lisbon will differ quite substantially (the latter usually cooler and getting sea breeze), and even in Southern Spain you may encounter differences between places in higher elevations like Granada or Grazalema and coastal Malaga or Sevilla.

While late October may already have an unpleasant day or two in Lisbon, and early September can still be very hot in Madrid or Sevilla, I would go from late September to early October.

Disclaimer: No one will be able to give you a guarantee for either hot or cool weather.

Have stayed Sevilla Malaga mid-Oct, hot in sushine in day-time, arrival day with heavy rain showers, quite OK at night.

Oct will still be quite warm - Sept can be hellishly hot. So- it depends on how much you like - or dislike - hot weather.

Madrid was really wonderful
in mid Oct ( the colours in Retiro park, blue sky every day , warm enough to sit outside but never hot...) Granada was also fine. I imagine Seville would be even warmer.

Plan for a trip within the date range Sept 20-Oct 20.

WellKleroux you can see by the variety of replies that "warm" & "hot" are different to different people.

To Cowboy's point, we were in Spain in May of 07. Madrid was in the high 80s 90's for a few days & I was told it was "July weather". I was not prepared for that. It only lasted a few days.Later on that wesk it cooled off and rained. More like 70s...

Thank you all for your help. I like the idea of mid Sept to mid Oct..