In 2025, France's busiest month was August (19.3% of its tourist nights) and Spain's was August (14.6%). The quietest were November (3.9%) and January (4.5%). France's two busiest months carried 36.0% of its year, against 27.6% for Spain, so France's year was more concentrated.
France and Spain, month by month
Each chart shows what share of the place's 2025 tourist nights fell in each month, on the same scale; the two busiest months are highlighted.1
Share of the year, every month
France had the smaller share of its own year in ten months (January, February, March, April, May, June, September, October, November and December), and Spain in two. A smaller share means a quieter month for that country, not fewer visitors than the other.1
| Month | France | Spain |
|---|---|---|
| January | 4.3% | 4.5% |
| February | 4.7% | 4.9% |
| March | 5.0% | 5.9% |
| April | 7.6% | 7.7% |
| May | 8.6% | 9.2% |
| June | 10.1% | 10.6% |
| July | 16.6% | 13.1% |
| August | 19.3% | 14.6% |
| September | 8.7% | 10.5% |
| October | 6.2% | 8.7% |
| November | 3.9% | 5.3% |
| December | 4.8% | 5.0% |
The key facts side by side
| France | Spain | |
|---|---|---|
| Busiest month | August, 19.3% | August, 14.6% |
| Quietest month | November, 3.9% | January, 4.5% |
| Two busiest months | 36.0% of the year | 27.6% of the year |
| Busiest vs quietest | 4.9 times as busy | 3.2 times as busy |
| From abroad | In 2025, guests living abroad spent 32.0% of France's tourist nights. Source page | In 2025, guests living abroad spent 64.1% of Spain's tourist nights. Source page |
| Length of stay | Guests stayed an average of 2.5 nights each time they checked in at tourist accommodation in France in 2025. Source page | Guests stayed an average of 3.4 nights each time they checked in at tourist accommodation in Spain in 2025. Source page |
| How seasonal | July and August together carried 36.0% of the year, making France the sixth most seasonal of 35 European countries we measured. Source page | July and August together carried 27.6% of the year, making Spain the twentieth most seasonal of 35 European countries we measured. Source page |
| Public holidays | In France, public holidays fall on 11 days in both 2026 and 2027. Source page | 8 days were holidays in every region of Spain in 2026; each region adds its own. Source page |
Each sentence is copied from the page it links to, where its source is cited.
Weather: Paris and Madrid
Averages for 1991–2020 at the weather station each page uses: PARIS MONTSOURIS for Paris and MADRIDRETIRO for Madrid.2
| Month | High, Paris | High, Madrid | Rain, Paris | Rain, Madrid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7.6 °C | 10.2 °C | 48 mm | 32 mm |
| February | 8.8 °C | 12.3 °C | 42 mm | 34 mm |
| March | 12.8 °C | 16.4 °C | 45 mm | 35 mm |
| April | 16.6 °C | 19.1 °C | 46 mm | 46 mm |
| May | 20.2 °C | 23.5 °C | 69 mm | 48 mm |
| June | 23.4 °C | 29.4 °C | 51 mm | 20 mm |
| July | 25.7 °C | 33.3 °C | 59 mm | 9 mm |
| August | 25.6 °C | 32.6 °C | 58 mm | 10 mm |
| September | 21.5 °C | 26.9 °C | 45 mm | 24 mm |
| October | 16.5 °C | 20.0 °C | 55 mm | 64 mm |
| November | 11.1 °C | 13.7 °C | 54 mm | 52 mm |
| December | 8.0 °C | 10.4 °C | 62 mm | 42 mm |
One station per place; weather varies within every country. Not a forecast.
What this comparison cannot tell you
- A share of each place's own year, not a crowd count. A low share means that month was quiet for that place. It does not mean the place had fewer visitors than somewhere else, and a small country's busy month can still be far quieter than a big country's quiet one.
- Nights, not queues. A national or prefecture total cannot show crowding at one sight, beach or old town. Day trips do not count at all, because nobody stays the night.
- One year. These are 2025 figures. Another year can differ, for example when Easter moves between March and April.
- We have not been to these places and make no judgement about which is better to visit.
Want a different pair? Open these two in Compare and add or swap places.
Key takeaways
- Busiest in 2025: France in August, Spain in August.
- Quietest: France in November, Spain in January.
- Two busiest months: 36.0% of France's year, 27.6% of Spain's.
- What we would skip: picking one over the other on these figures alone. They show when each is busy, not which you would enjoy more.
Sources
The tourism figures come from Eurostat and the weather from the World Meteorological Organization's 1991–2020 normals, published by NOAA. We copied every figure from the two places' own pages, where each source is cited in full. See how we research.
- Source: Eurostat, Nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments – monthly data, doi:10.2908/TOUR_OCC_NIM, accessed 25 September 2026. Dataset last updated by Eurostat on 22 September 2026. Extract: number of nights, NACE codes I55.1–I55.3, all guests and split by guests resident in the country and abroad, January–December 2025.
- Weather: WMO Member Nations (2023). WMO Climatological Standard Normals for 1991-2020 (NCEI Accession 0253808), the station named for each country in the table (the same station its country page uses), mean daily maximum and minimum temperature, precipitation and number of days with at least 1 mm of precipitation, normals computed from at least 24 years. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset. doi:10.25921/800j-vn07. Accessed 22 September 2026. Released by NOAA under CC0.
Modified data. The monthly shares, orderings and comparisons are our own calculations from Eurostat's counts and the Japan Tourism Agency's figures (「宿泊旅行統計調査」（観光庁）を加工して作成). Percentages are rounded to one decimal place. Neither body is responsible for these calculations or for how the figures are presented here.