Lisbon in January: weather, Dia de Reis, the winter sales and what to pack

January is Lisbon's coolest month and part of the low season. Once the New Year week is over, the city is calm, the winter sales are on, and the Christmas season ends with the Dia de Reis on 6 January. Days are short, and about a third of them bring some rain.

Weather

• Temperature: an average high of 14.4 °C and an average low of 7.8 °C, the lowest of the year (IPMA climate normals, 1991–2020). Frost is very rare in the city.
• Rain: 95.9 mm on average, over about 10 days with at least 1 mm, so about two days in three stay dry.
• Daylight: the sun rises at about 07:55 for most of the month and about 07:45 by the end. It sets at about 17:25 on 1 January and about 17:55 by 31 January, so the days grow by about 40 minutes over the month.

What to pack

• A warm layer and a waterproof jacket.
• Shoes with good grip. Lisbon's polished stone pavements (calçada) and steep streets get slippery in the rain.

Holidays and traditions

• Friday 1 January 2027, New Year's Day, is the only public holiday in January. National museums and monuments run by Museus e Monumentos de Portugal, such as the Ajuda National Palace, are normally closed on 1 January. Museums run by the city or by private foundations set their own hours, so check before you go.
• 6 January, Dia de Reis (Epiphany), is not a public holiday, but it closes the Christmas and New Year season. It is the day for the bolo-rei, a ring-shaped cake with dried and candied fruit. Cakes once hid a dried bean (fava) and a small metal trinket; that custom has ended. The Janeiras, traditional songs once sung door to door for a reward of food or money, also end on this day.

Coming for New Year's Eve? See Lisbon in December for the party at Praça do Comércio.

Events

• Winter sales (saldos). Winter sales usually start just after Christmas, around 26–28 December, and run until mid or late February. The law does not fix the dates: a shop may run sales at any time of year, for up to 124 days in total, and must tell ASAE, the consumer watchdog, five working days before. A sale price must be shown next to the lowest price the shop charged in the 30 days before the reduction. Faulty goods sold at a discount must be labelled with the fault and displayed apart.
• Wonderland Lisboa, the Christmas fair in Parque Eduardo VII, runs into the first days of January. The 2025 edition closed on 4 January; the dates for the 2026 edition are still to be confirmed.

Getting around

Public transport runs on 1 January, but some early services start later than usual: on 1 January 2025 many Carris Metropolitana buses in the suburbs did not start until 07:00–07:30. No transport strikes have been announced for January 2027 so far; check our strike list before your trip, and see what still runs during a strike. Flying in from outside the EU? Read about passport control and the EES at Lisbon Airport.