Good time to go there. Everything is open because Marbella is a year round resort and has a permanent population of 300,000.

The temperature range will be 9 to 18C. May be some showers, but not many. Marbella has Europe's best weather during winter.

Hi,

Benny's right.Although we have had it in the low 20's quite often, I have found that about 1:4 xmas's are poor weather wise but generally between 11am and 3pm if its a clear day with no wind you can literally have lunch on the beach and in 2-3hrs be on the ski slopes in Granada.

All amenities are open except their christmas eve (La Noche Buena) you will find almost everything closed fromn midday.

They have some amazing religious processions in the evening too.

Bring warm evening wear as once it gets past 4pm it gets chilly.

The townhall do a great job of illuminations and the public gardens are full of pointsetias as the bright red color represents the blood of christ.

All the week there are limited banking hours too, but plenty of ATMs,

Brad

Many restaurants are open Xmas Eve and Xmas Day

My experience of this area at Christmas was no where near as positive as the other replies. I found it extremely quiet and empty. It felt very pointless and aimless and we couldn't wait to come home. The Old Town was completely shut and it just felt very weird. Puerto Banus was like a ghost town. And when away from home in a deserted place it felt very unsettling.

Everywhere we went they had the Spanish song Felice Navidad sung by choirs and children playing out of loud speakers in the trees or from buildings, over and over again. Given the streets were virtually deserted it was very eerie. Marbella and Puerto Banus without people is not what it's meant to be and you can feel it!

The weather was VERY mixed. No day hit 20 degrees - I would say more like 5 was the tops. And when it rained it came down in gallons and was very very gray. And cold. So be careful - people try and class the area as a winter holiday area but it definitely isn't. You can't swim in the sea and the beaches are deserted. I have kept a look at weather sites and London has had better winter weather than Spain!

I love the area but not at Christmas or New Year and do not recommend it for anyone who would like to have some life around them. We found it extremely depressing and couldn't believe we had given up being at home to go to somewhere so deserted!

Well it does seem that you were unlucky on that particular christmas visit, I think saying 5º tops is a tad pessimistic when the official figures for Nov/Dec are 14º AVERAGE,Yes it can get down to 5º C AT NIGHT!, but we've definitely have had low 20ºs C in the middle of the day, but my experience is 2o yrs of living here not just an unlucky break. And yes when it does rain we can have a river running down main street 3 inches deep, but then lovely sunshine can dry it up within hours plus it never gets down to even a frost here.

with 325 sunny days a year we are desperate for the rains.

Marbella will never give you "winter resort" weather like somewhere on the equator, but on balance you are more likely than not to have at least half the days when you'll get a nice tan out of it.

The sound of the girls singing over the speakers is just one more lovely feature of Spanish life hardly "eerie".

There is still party time in Puerto Banus but it ends earlier around 3am.

The only place warmer in London might be sat by an air conditioning unit, best check out true europe temperatures at:-

www.metoffice.gov.uk/satpics/latest_IR.html

I agree that the sea is far too cold as is the rest of europe.

Better luck next time,

Brad

Oh dear, there was me sitting outside having lunch in Carihuela last Christmas day, having spent a couple of hours on the beach, and then off for some shopping in a rather crowded Marbella Old Town on Boxing Day!

Maybe this year I should stay in London, where it's dark at Christmas by 3:30; where we haven't seen the sun since July....

I don't think so!

Nice one Guiri!

Yo soy Guiri pero me encanta España.

Marbella is what you make out of it in the christams weeks if you think its empty and boring you'll be bored too, its all a matter of attitude.

We find (weatherwise) that the week up to xmas and a beyond is usually better than the New years eve week running into Jan.

We were watching "good morning" last week and the presenter was trying to do an outside broadcast in London and said she was actually shivering thru it.

We were shivering too, so we turned the Air-conditioning down a bit! LOL :-)

"Warmer in london" Yeah right!

Please come and visit this year and if you take in the atmosphere you'll love it and maybe get some sun on your bones too.

It's not like Uk, but then it shouldn't be.

Saludos,

Brad

Hi, We go to Marbella as often as we possible can and we love it. Last Chritmas we arrived in Marbella on Boxing Day and stayed until New Year, the weather was good, quite warm and sunny during the day, positively hot at times(although a jacket is needed in the evenings)we even came back with something of a tan, of course the weather cannot be guaranteed but it would never be that cold. We found some of the bars and restaurants closed for their Christmas holidays but there were tons still open, you will have plenty of choice, there were loads of people around and I certainly cant agree with a previous post complaining of the cold and isolation, (we had trouble finding a parking spot) We are returning again this December (27th) for a week and looking forward to it already.

I go to Marbella every Xmas for 2 weeks. The weather is udually very nice - you might have the odd overcast day but generally its T'shirt' weather. cold at night though - take a pullover. All the restaurants are open so no problems there. The spanish celebrate 'Three Kings' on January 6th as opposed to the traditional Xmas day - they do tend to close for the day though. you will throughly enjoy xmas in Marbella - have a ball!

London warm at Xmas, how ridiculous....London´s not even warm in the Summer! We went swimming in the sea last Xmas day, water was´nt very warm but still better than cold wet England. We were sunbathing for a few hours too.