Sunset and sunrise times on Spain's beaches today

Why Spanish sunsets are so late

Mainland Spain runs on Central European Time although most of it lies as far west as Britain. The clock is set roughly an hour ahead of the sun, so everything happens late: in June, the sun sets after 9.30 pm in Málaga and around 9.30 pm in Barcelona, and dinner at ten makes more sense. In December the same beaches see sunset between about 5.30 and 6 pm, an hour and a half or more later on the clock than in London.

East and west, north and south

Within the mainland, the further west a resort is, the later its sunrise and sunset: the sun sets about half an hour later on the Costa de la Luz than on the Costa Brava. North and south matter more in summer and winter: northern Spain has longer summer evenings, the south longer winter afternoons.

The Canary Islands

The Canaries are much further south and west, and keep UK time. Their days change less through the year than anywhere on the mainland: sunset in Tenerife moves between roughly 6 pm in winter and 9 pm in summer, and there is daylight at a reasonable hour for the beach in every month.

Where to watch the sun go down over the sea

On a coast that faces east, such as most of the Costa Blanca and the Costa Brava, the sun sets behind the land and you see it rise from the sea. For a sunset over the water, look at west-facing beaches: Los Gigantes and Puerto de la Cruz in Tenerife, San Antonio in Ibiza, Puerto Rico and Mogán in Gran Canaria, or the Atlantic coast of Cádiz.