Opening Hours in Spain

Spain has no single set of opening hours. Regional governments set shop rules, restaurants follow a meal schedule that is customary rather than legally required, state museums often stay open continuously but close on Mondays, and most banks open on weekday mornings and close on weekends. Plan around a long midday break, when restaurant kitchens and many shops close, and late evenings, when service picks up again.

Most hours below are typical patterns, not guarantees. Hours vary by season, region, and business, so check each place before you go, especially for Sundays, holidays, and museums.

Shop Hours and Regional Sunday Rules

Spanish law does not fix a daily schedule for shops. The national framework, set out in the Ley 1/2004 on commercial hours, lets each business decide its opening and closing times. The rules that do apply are about weekly hours and Sunday and holiday openings, and regional governments set those.

A weekly reference of 90 hours on working days applies, and regions cannot reduce it below that. Sunday and holiday openings are set at 16 a year, and regions may adapt the count but not go below 10. The 2004 text set 72 weekly hours and 12 Sunday or holiday openings, so do not use those older figures. Check the figures against the consolidated text of Ley 1/2004 in the Spanish official gazette before you rely on them for a legal question.

The regional calendars give the day-to-day answer for 2026:

The regional list is the number that matters for your trip. A shop that opens on a Sunday in Andalusia may stay closed on the same date in Aragon. For Catalonia’s 2026 calendar, check the Catalan official bulletin before you plan a Sunday there. In the Valencian Community, the regional page says hours on permitted Sundays and holidays do not count toward the weekly limit, and shops must post their opening days and hours.

Daily shop hours follow no national rule, and no single schedule covers all of Spain. A tourism page for Andalusia lists shops open roughly 10:00 to 14:00 and 17:00 to 20:00 or 21:00. That pattern shows the classic split day with a long afternoon break, but it is a tourism guide, not a legal norm. Expect many independent shops in Andalusia and elsewhere to close for the afternoon and reopen in the evening, and check the posted hours on the door.

Restaurant Meal Times and the Afternoon Gap

Restaurant service in Spain runs late, and the midday gap is the feature that surprises most visitors. Lunch usually runs from about 13:30 or 14:00 until 15:30 or 16:00. Many kitchens then stop serving until dinner, which starts around 20:00 to 21:00. A regional tourism site for Andalusia gives lunch as 13:00 to 15:30 and dinner as 20:30 to 23:00. Restaurant pages describe the same pattern, with kitchens reopening at about 20:00 or 20:30.

The afternoon gap has a clear practical effect. Between about 16:00 and 20:00, a restaurant kitchen is usually closed, but bars, cafés, and some fast-food outlets keep serving. Cafés and bars often serve tapas and sandwiches at any hour. If you want a late-afternoon snack, the Spanish merienda, plan on a café or bar rather than a sit-down restaurant.

Meal times follow custom rather than law, and no rule fixes when restaurants serve. Dinner in summer, on weekends, and in tourist areas runs later. Some kitchens serve past 23:00 in summer and at weekends. Confirm a weekend dinner with the restaurant before you plan around it.

Regional habits vary within the same pattern. Local meal times in Valencia run later than in the rest of Europe, and most restaurants in the city do not open before 13:30. In one comparison, kitchens in Bilbao close at 22:00 and kitchens in Seville at 23:30.

Museum Hours, Free Entry and Closing Days

Four Madrid state museums publish their hours on Ministry of Culture pages. The National Museum of Anthropology’s hours and prices page shows Tuesday to Saturday from 9:30 to 20:00, Sunday and holidays from 10:00 to 15:00, and closed on Mondays. Its ticket office closes 15 minutes before the museum does. The page also lists closed days in addition to Mondays. Those are 1 and 6 January, 1 May, and 24, 25, and 31 December, plus one local holiday. The Museo del Greco, Museo del Romanticismo, and Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas pages also show Sunday and holiday hours of 10:00 to 15:00. The official pages show continuous hours with no midday closure. These pages are undated, so confirm the current hours before you go.

Free entry follows a pattern across the state museums. The Ministry’s ticketing page lists free entry on Saturday afternoons and Sundays, with conditions to check. The Greco and Antropología offer free Saturday entry from 14:00, and Artes Decorativas offers free Thursday evening entry from 17:00 to 20:00 and free Saturday entry from 14:00 to 15:00. When the ticket is not free, the Ministry’s page gives general admission at 3 € and reduced admission at 1.50 €. An annual State Museums card costs 36.06 €, and it covers all state museums plus the Prado and Reina Sofía. A card for one museum costs 25 €.

Before you plan a visit to a major Madrid museum, check its official website. Listings give the Reina Sofía as open Monday, Wednesday through Saturday, and holidays from 10:00 to 21:00, Sunday from 10:00 to 14:30, and closed on Tuesdays. Free windows at the Prado and the Thyssen-Bornemisza change, so check each museum’s website before you plan a free visit. Check the Museo Sorolla’s website for temporary closures before you go.

Monday is the most common closing day among the museums with official pages, and that is the day to avoid when you plan a city itinerary. Build your museum days around Tuesday to Saturday or Sunday morning.

Bank Hours and Saturday Closures

Banks in Spain open on weekday mornings. The common window across branches is roughly 8:15 to 14:30, Monday through Friday. Individual banks vary by a quarter hour at either end of that range. Many branches close entirely on Saturdays and Sundays, and Spain’s banks observe the 1 May holiday.

Afternoon service exists, but mostly in specific formats. Santander’s "Smart" offices stay open until 18:30 Monday through Thursday, by appointment. CaixaBank’s store and all-in-one offices also stay open until 18:30 Monday through Thursday, although summer can cut those afternoon hours. Bankinter’s afternoon service runs Monday through Thursday until 16:30, without an appointment. Abanca’s quick offices open again from 16:30 to 18:15 on Monday through Thursday. These hours are dated 2026, so confirm them on each bank’s website before you visit a particular branch.

The cash counter, called the caja in Spanish, often closes earlier than the branch does. Santander’s counter for customers runs from 8:30 to 14:00, and Abanca’s customer counter closes at 11:00. Plan cash services for 9:00 to 12:00. Travelers who need to exchange money or handle cash should plan for the morning.

Saturday hours are the main exception to the weekday pattern. Most traditional branches are closed on Saturdays. Santander runs shopping-centre offices and Work Café spaces with hours from 10:00 to 14:00, and some ING branches open from 9:00 to 14:00. Some banks keep Saturday hours in summer, though they are trimmed.

The current lunch-break rule for banks is unclear. A 2007 union bulletin reproduces a collective agreement with a continuous schedule and a split schedule with a one-hour lunch break. That agreement is more than fifteen years old, so treat the midday break as unknown when you plan a banking errand.

Sunday and Holiday Hours

Sundays are the day when the sectors diverge most. Shops follow the regional calendar, so a Sunday opening depends on the region and the date. Museums with official pages show Sunday hours of 10:00 to 15:00 and free Sunday entry, which makes Sunday morning a common choice for a visit. Banks are closed on Sundays. Restaurants follow the late weekend pattern, but Sunday hours vary by restaurant.

Public holidays work the same way in most places. Shops follow the regional holiday calendar, museums list their own closing dates, and banks close on 1 May. For a holiday weekend, check each place a day ahead.

Regional Differences Across Spain

The strongest regional differences are in shop rules. Each region sets its own Sunday and holiday count, and the Andalusian and Murcian calendars allow the most openings, at 16 each. Other regions use 10 or 11. Regional rules also change the local weekly hours. Valencia’s rules let hours on permitted Sundays fall outside the weekly limit. The Canary Islands set different dates by island, so a trip across islands needs a check of each island’s calendar.

Restaurant habits differ by city more than by region. Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia have a split pattern, with some workers eating lunch at about 13:30 and dinner at about 20:30, while hospitality and retail workers keep the classic late pattern. Dinner in the south and along the Levante coast tends to run later in summer.

Under the Catalan law on food shops, Ley 8/2004, food shops that opened on Sundays and holidays had to close by 15:00 until the law was repealed in 2017. Before you assume that Madrid shops set their own opening days, check the local calendar.

Banks and museums show less regional variation in the research. Bank hours depend on the bank and the type of office more than on the region, and the museum pages listed here cover only Madrid. A trip to Seville, Valencia, or Bilbao needs local checks for museum hours and free windows.

Planning Tips by Place

• Confirm shop hours on the door: Spain sets no national daily shop schedule, and shops in Andalusia commonly close from about 14:00 to 17:00, so plan errands for the morning or the early evening.
• Plan lunch before 15:30 and dinner after 20:30: Restaurant kitchens commonly stop serving between about 16:00 and 20:00, so use a bar or café for the afternoon gap.
• Check your Sunday against the regional calendar: The 2026 regional Sunday and holiday openings range from 10 to 16 days, so the same Sunday can be open in one region and closed in another.
• Visit Madrid state museums Tuesday to Saturday: The Ministry pages show Monday closures and Sunday hours of 10:00 to 15:00, with free Saturday afternoon and Sunday entry, so confirm each museum’s current hours on its own site.
• Book bank errands for weekday mornings: Most branches open from about 8:15 to 14:30 on weekdays and close on Saturday and Sunday, so bring cash and plan any cash-counter visit before noon.