Best time to visit Mallorca: weather, sea, the price of a hotel night and how much of the island is open, month by month

In January 2026 Mallorca's open hotels had 20,022 beds between them. In September 2025 they had 280,155. The weather between those months changes, but not by a multiple. The island does: in winter only a small part of its hotels work, and nearly all of that part is in Palma and neighbouring Calvià. So «when to go to Mallorca» is first a question of what is open that month.

Short answers

• Hotels are almost fully open from May to October, and almost fully shut from November to February.
• The sea off Palma is at 20 °C or warmer from June to November. It peaks in August at 27.1 °C and bottoms out in February at 14.7 °C.
• The cheapest hotel night falls in January, €93; the dearest in August, €212.
• The wettest month is October: 69 mm at Palma port.
• The sunniest is July: 346 hours.

Mallorca month by month: weather, sea, hotels

Weather is the AEMETAEMETSpain's state meteorological agency. It runs the weather stations and publishes the climate norms.Why it matters. Our sunshine hours and winter temperatures come from observations, not from resort marketing. The gap between the two can be several degrees. normal for 1981–2010 at Palma's two stations, the port and the airport. The sea is the 2015–2024 satellite average off Palma. Hotel figures cover the whole island, September 2025 to August 2026.

How much of the island is open

Start with the beds in open hotels, which INE estimates every month for every tourist zone. From May to October, Mallorca runs at no less than 90% of its best month. Then comes the cliff. Between October and November 89% of beds close, and from November to February less than a seventh is open. This is not one odd year: twelve months earlier the drop came in the same months and went just as deep.

October is the last month of the open island. It has 254,240 hotel beds, 91% of the best month, a sea of 23.3 °C and a night at €117, 45% less than in August. Hotels are 69% full. It is also the wettest month of the year at the port; more on that below, next to April.

In winter, hotel Mallorca is little more than Palma and Calvià. In January that zone held 88% of the island's open beds. The rest of the island had 2,484 beds open, against 171,090 in September: 1.5%. Hotel staff follow the beds, 4,151 people in January and 59,481 in August.

Not every island works like this. On Tenerife the emptiest month still has 94% of the beds of the fullest; the numbers are in the best time to visit Tenerife.

Summer belongs to visitors from abroad: in August, people who live outside Spain took 94% of hotel nights. August had 36 times as many hotel nights as January. Residents of Spain take their largest share in January, 26%: the few hotels open in winter lean far more on Spanish guests.

Why December costs more than November

Over September 2025 to August 2026 a hotel night ranged from €93 in January to €212 in August, 128% more. In between sits an oddity. December (€135) cost more than November (€111) and October (€117), long after the season ended.

The answer lies in whose price it is. The average counts only hotels that are open. In December 85% of the island's open beds were in the Palma–Calvià zone, where a night averaged €145 against €135 for the island. The winter average mostly describes the capital's hotels; the summer one describes the whole island, resorts included. Comparing them directly is like comparing prices in two different towns.

Prices also rose over the year. The twelve-month average is up 5.9% on the twelve months before, and August went from €190 to €212.

Three pairs of months

When picking dates, people usually compare neighbouring months. It is more useful to compare months that look alike on a calendar and part ways in the numbers.

June and September. Almost as much is open in both: 274,532 and 280,155 hotel beds. Yet the sea in September is 3 °C warmer, 25.9 °C against 22.9 °C, and a hotel night is 8.7% cheaper: €151 against €165. June wins on sun and dry days, 315 hours of sunshine and 1.7 days with rain against 226 hours and 4.7 days, and on light: 14 h 57 min on 15 June, 12 h 23 min on 15 September.

April and October. A night costs about the same, €113 and €117. October brings a sea of 23.3 °C, above the swimming line, against 16.3 °C in April, 23.7 °C by day against 19.2 °C, and 254,240 open hotel beds against 167,156. It pays in rain: 6.7 days with rain and 69 mm at the port, against 5.1 days and 39 mm.

March and November. In November the sea is still 20 °C; in March it is 14.9 °C. But March has 88,998 hotel beds open, 3 times November's 26,867, and the night is cheaper: €93 against €111. November has the warm water, but hardly any choice of where to stay.

Occupancy shows the other side. August fills 92% of beds, January 38%: in winter there are few hotels, and even those are only about a third full.

Weather: the port and the airport

By day Palma's two stations barely differ: 15.4 °C at the port and 15.2 °C at the airport in January. At night the airport is colder in every month, most of all in January: 3.8 °C against 8.3 °C. In summer it is the hotter of the two by day, 31.3 °C in August against 29.8 °C by the water.

Mallorca's rain falls in autumn. September, October and November bring 40% of the port's 449 mm a year; the three summer months bring 8.7%. July averages 0.7 days with rain.

Sunshine peaks in July at 346 hours and bottoms out in December at 151. On 15 December Palma has 9 h 23 min of daylight; London has 7 h 51 min.

The sea

The sea lags the air. The coldest air at the port comes in January, the coldest sea in February, at 14.7 °C. The warmest is August, at 27.1 °C. The water off Palma stays at 20 °C or above from June to November, and the last of those months already falls on a shut island.

The satellite grid is about 25 km across and does not see a single bay. Water at the beaches themselves, sampled since 1990, is in the Mallorca beach guide, and how many months the swimming season lasts on the whole coast in the swimming season guide.

Mallorca in winter

Winter, from December to February, is mild by day and damp. The port sees 15.4–16.5 °C by day and 8.3–9.7 °C at night; the airport drops to 3.8–5.4 °C at night. Relative humidity runs at 72–74% at the port and 77–79% at the airport. There are 3.4–4.1 clear days a month, against 16.2 in July.

The sea in these months is 14.7–17.2 °C. That is warmer than the port's 24-hour air average (11.9–13.1 °C), but cold for swimming: at least 2.8 °C short of the 20 °C line. The year's cheapest night, €93 in January, falls in exactly these months, on an island where one hotel bed in 14 is open.

Three towns in winter

Hotels describe visitors. What the town itself does in winter shows in another series: Social Security counts the employers in cafés, hotels and shops every month. The table sets January 2025 against the busiest month, next to the sea. These series are read in detail in Mallorca or Majorca. Social Security series.

Further

How Mallorca compares with Menorca on winter, rent and hospitals is in Mallorca or Menorca. What living there, rather than a holiday, costs is in the cost of living in the Balearics. Where on the coast cafés and shops stay open in winter is in the winter liveability ranking. All our places on the island are on the Mallorca page.

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