Spanish sun - October or February half-term?

[Poisoningpigeons]

We are completely inexperienced with short-haul package holidays so I decided to throw ourselves on the mercy of the MN hive mind!

Thinking of a bit of autumn/winter sun and are specifically looking for somewhere Spanish-speaking. Initially we were discussing something for October half-term, but when DH started looking at holidays yesterday, he said everything was much cheaper in February ... my immediate thought was that it's cheaper in Feb because of some combination of the weather being much worse and everything being closed! Am I right in aiming for October or is DH a canny bargain-finder?

It's for 2 adults and 2 teens, would like beach and pool, but of equal importance nice local town/village with Spanish restaurants and shops. (100% do not want AI.)

malaga in feb was nice and some days we didnt hear any english spoken in the area we were staying. However, pool went untouched the whole time as it was too cold (though shorts weather during the day).

If you want beach/pool then you are going to have to go to canaries where you will find english widely spoken along with german. and you need a heated pool.

Yes, you’re right that October is better. It’s both warmer and there’s less chance of rain. The water in the pools and the sea is warmer too. We were in Malaga last October and it was toasty - about 25 degrees and wall to wall sunshine. We were at the beach 2 of the 4 days and locals advised us that was very typical weather for October. Fuengirola and Estepona are lovely towns just along the coast from Malaga.

October will be better, both weather wise and if you are in a tourist resort then more is likely to be open

For both if you want to spend any time in pools etc., they will likely need to be heated - definitely in February. The sea might just still be warm enough in October but not in February.

If you go for a non-tourist resort but rather a working town, there will be restaurants etc. open throughout the year.

Thanks for the replies! So it looks like we would have to choose between better weather vs cheaper 🤔 I quite like the idea of the Canaries as they'll be warmer. Will tell DH tonight!

If you’re thinking about Canaries - look at Puerto de Mogan in Gran Canaria, I think it would fit a lot of what you want. Cordial Mogan Playa and Radisson Blu have heated pools if you wanted a hotel.

But yes, The Canaries will have a lot of non-Spanish tourists

Thanks @cherryassam! Will look at those places, they sound good.

We're not trying to avoid non-Spanish tourists as such Just want to ensure plenty of Spanish culture and food, and Spanish-speaking opportunities (DDs have been learning Spanish for 5/6+ years, will be doing it for GCSE, really enjoy the language and yet we've never taken them to Spain!).

You could also look at the North coast of Tenerife, although the weather is a bit less guaranteed than the south coast - Puerto de La Cruz or even Santa Cruz if you want more of a city break

October is better on mainland Spain, but I'd opt for Gran Canaria- around Puerto Rico/ Puerto de Mogan as they're the most southern resorts and weather is lovely all year round.

Don't go to Puerto Del Carmen in Lanzarote if you're looking for Spanish speaking opportunities! We didn't hear a single person speak Spanish for the 1st 4 days of our holiday until we hired bikes and cycled to Arrecife and found a bar in a back street!

Mainland Spain most likely will be cool in February, not cold but a light jacket is needed and certainly not the weather for swimming outside unless heated or you are very hardy. Resorts will be mostly catering to an older clientele escaping the Northern European winter. But they can get pretty cool even snow occasionally, weather is unpredictable!

Canaries however is a good option year round

Mainland Spain is cheaper than the canaries in winter - especially February!

I've done both - mainland Spanish coast, usually one of the costas, and canary island, in both February and October half terms.

Spain - much warmer and nicer in October than February in my opinion, in February so much is closed and the days are short. October is end of season, things are winding down, but still lots to do and see, whereas touristy areas in February are very quiet. Cities like Barcelona for example are busy all year around, but you'll get better accommodation bargains in more touristy places where they'll be looking to fill their rooms before they close for the winter. Weather is generally temperate, sometimes it rains. Generally we've had beautiful sunny weather. You'll get better deals on flights where you have lots of air traffic, eg, Alicante, Malaga etc, as there's more competition. You don't have to venture far from even the very British dominated areas (such as Benidorm) for lots of Spanish speaking restaurants, shops etc

Canaries - doesn't vary as much, you can get sone very windy days in February but it's usually nice and sunny most days. Spanish speaking - talk in Spanish and sadly they will likely answer in English! This has been my experience anyway, but to be fair we've mainly gone to tourist hotspots

We're in southern Spain in October almost every year and lived there for a decade. The weather will almost definitely be better than Feb but as half term is usually the last week in October it can be a bit hit and miss. One of the reasons it can be expensive is if your half term dates means you're still there on or around 31 Oct/1 Nov you'll hit the big Spanish Bank Holiday of All Saints, when most places are very busy.
You won't have much luck using very basic Spanish in most of the popular holiday resorts without getting a reply in English unless you venture inland although ordering drinks and buying food is always a great starting point. It will be an ideal opportunity to build vocabulary though.

Canaries tend to be v expensive in Oct and Feb half terms. I'd go to mainland Spain

I wouldn't go in February if you want beach and pool as weather will be colder and loads of things will be shut unless you go to Canaries.

If you're looking for Spanish culture I'd much rather go for mainland Spain.
Go somewhere where you can visit one of the big cities like Palma, Valencia, Granada. Barcelona is fabulous for teens as there's so much to see. There's plenty of beach resorts and port Aventura theme park about an hour away.
It can be rainy late October though, it's not like summer where you have guaranteed sunshine. We've been to southern Spain in October and had 3 days of Mediterranean thunderstorms so wet we couldn't leave the hotel! Very thankful we weren't just there for one week!

We normally go to the costa del Sol in Feb half term, it’s warmer than the UK and sunnier and we choose somewhere with an indoor pool. It’s the perfect temp to go sightseeing- easy to get the train to Malaga etc. Estepona is far more Spanish than Torremolinos/Fuengirola/Benalmadena.

We went to the Canaries and practiced Spanish all week. But we hired a car and stayed in central Tenerife.
There weren't any other Brits around just a few Germans.
We went in January and had lovely weather.
It was much nicer and much less Brits abroad than I thought it might be.