The Costa Blanca in November: weather, sea and what is open

November is the month nobody books. The summer visitors have gone, the Christmas ones are not here yet, and most guidebooks skip it. Yet it is the month when the sea is still warmer than the night air, when you can have a beach to yourself on a weekday, and when there is exactly one big celebration. Below are the figures, the public holidays that do not exist this year, and what that means in practice.

The weather in numbers, not in feelings

These are the climate normals from AEMET, the Spanish meteorological agency, for the Alicante-Elche airport station over the period 1981 to 2010. No travel-brochure language, just the series:

Mean temperature: 15.4 degrees.
Mean daily maximum: 20.3 degrees.
Mean daily minimum: 10.6 degrees.
Rainfall: 34 millimetres for the whole month.
Days with more than 1 millimetre of rain: 3.8.
Cloudless days: 5.5.
Hours of sunshine: 174, which is nearly six a day.

What sits inside that and what you cannot read off it: November is not cold, but the gap between day and night has opened up. Twenty degrees in the sun during the day, ten in the same night. That is the point at which a Spanish house without proper insulation turns unpleasant, and you notice it indoors long before you notice it outside.

Note the number of rain days too. Four. Not fourteen. The 34 millimetres that fall here usually arrive in a couple of heavy bursts rather than as northern drizzle. October is wetter (46 millimetres) and December drier (22).

The sea is warmer than the night air

This is the figure that surprises people most.

The sea off this coast averaged 18.5 degrees in November 2024 and 20.3 degrees in November 2025. Those are measured monthly averages from satellite data, not a thirty-year normal, so treat them as two recent years rather than a promise.

Set that against the average night temperature of 10.6 degrees and you see what happens: at night the sea is twice as warm as the air. The water runs months behind the season, because the Mediterranean is slow. It warms slowly and it cools just as slowly.

In practice: you can swim. Not for long, not everybody, but you can. Nineteen degrees is colder than a heated pool and warmer than the North Sea in August. If you do go in, do it around midday when the air is at its warmest, because getting out is the cold part.

A warning unrelated to temperature: autumn storms generate currents. Stay away from river mouths and groynes, and take the flag seriously even when the sun is out.

November 2026 has no public holidays at all

This is the fact the article turns on, and almost nobody knows it.

The official working calendar of the Comunitat Valenciana for 2026 lists twelve public holidays: 1 and 6 January, 19 March, 3 and 6 April, 1 May, 24 June, 15 August, 9 and 12 October, and 8 and 25 December. There is nothing in November.

That is because 1 November, All Saints, falls on a Sunday in 2026 and has not been moved to the Monday. The day that normally creates the long weekend at the start of November disappears into the weekend instead.

What that means if you come: no domestic Spanish tourist wave, no full restaurants on a weekday evening, no queue on the coast road. From the start of November until 8 December there are five and a half weeks without a single day off. That is the longest unbroken working stretch of the Spanish year, and you feel it in how empty everything is.

One caveat: every municipality adds two local holidays of its own on top of those twelve. Those can fall in November, and then one village is shut while the next one along is working normally. Check the website of the ayuntamiento where you are staying.

As for 1 November itself: here it is not Halloween but Tots Sants, a day for the cemetery and for family. How that works and what gets eaten is in our piece on Halloween on the Costa Blanca.

The big celebration of the month is in Benidorm

There is precisely one event of any size in November, and it is worth it.

Benidorm holds its Festes Majors Patronals in honour of the Virgen del Sufragio, in the second weekend of November. It runs for five to six days.

The centrepiece is the escenificació del hallazgo, the re-enactment of the finding: on Saturday from 17:00 on Playa de Ponent, the washing ashore of the image of the Virgen is acted out. The story goes back to a ship driven onto this coast in a storm in March 1740. Since 2015 the re-enactment has been recognised as a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Autonómico. The flower offering to the patroness follows.

Around it: despertàs early in the morning, mascletàs and cordàs. That is fireworks built on sound rather than colour, and it is louder than you expect. The penýes, the festival clubs, organise most of it and generally let visitors in.

Sources disagree on the exact 2026 dates. One gives 6 to 11 November, another 7 to 12. The difference is probably because 7 November is the first Saturday of the month. We are not inventing a date: check the Benidorm town hall website before you travel.

The image above, by the way, is that same Playa de Ponent in August. It is the exact opposite of what you find in November, which is why it is here.

What is open and what shuts

This is where the real difference from summer sits, and it varies a lot by place.

The bigger towns carry on. Alicante, Benidorm, Torrevieja and Dénia are working towns with residents. Shops, markets, museums and restaurants run as usual.

The beach bars close. The chiringuitos and seasonal bars on the outlying beaches shut after October and reappear around Easter. Do not assume you will find a drink at a remote cove.

The small coastal towns go quiet. In Moraira, Altea and the urbanisations around them, part of the hospitality trade closes for weeks or months. Phoning before you drive is not excessive caution in November, it is simply sensible.

The interior barely changes. Villages like Guadalest and the wine valley live on weekend visitors all year; November is actually pleasant there because the coaches have gone.

The water parks are closed. Terra Mítica, Aqualandia and the rest run on the summer season. Terra Natura and the animal parks usually stay open, but check.

What November allows that August does not

This is why some people choose precisely this month.

Walking. In July and August, walking the Montgó or the Serra Gelada is frankly unwise. In November it is ideal: twenty degrees, no heat, clear air. This is the season when the serious walkers are here.

Seeing the cities. Alicante, Elche and Cartagena without a queue and without the heat are different cities from the August versions.

Parking. In places where August means half an hour of circling, November gives you an empty street.

Eating without booking. With the caveat from the previous section: what is open is quiet.

Cycling. It is no accident that professional teams are on the back roads in these months. Mild temperatures and dry tarmac together are rare in Europe.

And something northerners do not expect: things are in flower. The growing season here is the cool months, not the scorched summer. The image above is from February, but the principle starts in November.

What to bring, and what your house needs

Short and practical.

Layers. With twenty degrees by day and ten at night you can need a t-shirt and a coat on the same day. Bring both.

A rain jacket, not an umbrella. Four rain days, but when it falls it falls hard and often with wind.

Swimming things. Seriously. See the sea temperature above.

Something for indoors. This is the part residents underestimate. A Spanish house is built against heat, not against cold: stone floors, single glazing, no central heating. From November the inside is often colder than the outside in the sun.

If you own a house here: this is the month to put the air conditioner into heating mode rather than dragging out the electric heaters. It saves real money, and exactly why is in our guide to cutting your electricity bill.

Who comes in November

The crowd changes, and that sets the mood.

Winterers. From October and November, Dutch, Belgian, British, German and Scandinavian visitors arrive who stay until March or April. Many of the bridge clubs, walking groups and choirs on this coast start their season now.

Walkers and cyclists. See above.

People coming to look at a house. November and February are the months when estate agents are busy with viewings, precisely because you then see a place as it is for most of the year rather than as it looks for two weeks in August.

That last point is the most honest advice in this whole piece: anyone considering living here should come and look in November, not in July.

What the following month looks like, with the holidays that do exist and the turrón, is in the Costa Blanca in December. And for anyone coming in the late-October school holiday there is the autumn half term guide.

Frequently asked questions

How warm is the Costa Blanca in November? An average of 20.3 degrees by day and 10.6 at night, with a monthly mean of 15.4 (AEMET, Alicante-Elche, 1981-2010).

Does it rain much? No. An average of 34 millimetres spread over about four days with more than a millimetre.

How much sun is there? About 174 hours over the month, nearly six a day.

Can you swim in November? Yes, if you can handle nineteen degree water. The sea averaged 18.5 degrees in November 2024 and 20.3 in 2025.

Is the sea warmer than the air? At night, comfortably: around 19 degrees of water against 10.6 of air.

Are there public holidays in November 2026? In the Comunitat Valenciana, none. 1 November falls on a Sunday and has not been moved. Only local municipal holidays can land in this month.

What is on? Benidorm’s Festes Majors Patronals in the second weekend of November, with the re-enactment on Saturday at 17:00 on Playa de Ponent.

When exactly are those fiestas in 2026? Sources give 6 to 11 or 7 to 12 November. Check with Benidorm town hall.

Is everything open? The towns are, the beach bars are not. In small coastal places part of the hospitality trade closes; phone before you drive.

Is November a good month to come and look at moving here? For looking it is the best month, precisely because you see the place as it is eleven months of the year.

About the authorMilo Schuijt

Milo Schuijt is an entrepreneur and DJ on the Costa Blanca. He writes about the places where he lives, works and plays: from beach bars to the housing market.