Algarve in late March/early April

[halfdrunkcoffee]

We are thinking of going to the Algarve in late March or early April next year. If anyone has been at this time of year, would you be able to tell me what kind of weather you had? Was there much rain? Online it says the averages are around 15-16C. We have two young DCs so they would probably like to go to the beach some of the time, as well as maybe doing some short walks or visiting other attractions/towns.

Cold when we went in Easter 2012, I said never again at that time of year. I think this year was warm. In other words, it's a gamble. If you can, would strongly recommend waiting until end May/June.

We've been over Easter a couple of times and it was mixed both times, but we had great holidays. We had a bit of light rain, some beautiful sunny days and a couple of overcast days which brightened up. It's certainly not swimming pool/swimming in the sea weather, but we were out and about every day, including lovely beach walks and sight seeing.

Remember they give out shade temperatures for the forecasts, so 15-16C in the shade, feels much warmer when the sun's out.

Would there be much open at that time of year?

It depends where you go. We went to Albufeira and Alvor and most restaurants, bars and shops were open.

We went in the Easter holidays last year and it was lovely. Sunny every day, with temperatures between 17 and 24. We were about a mile from Albufeira and everything was open.

Thanks all, we are thinking now we might go the beginning of May as it may be a bit warmer then but not too hot, and it's the last year we can go in term-time.

We had a timeshare on the algarve at Easter growing up. The weather was really mixed, sometimes warm other times jeans weather. Days are short though, cool by 4pm
Everything open though.