October is Valencia's own month. The region's day falls on the 9th, with a civic procession at midday, a Moors and Christians parade in the afternoon and marzipan fruit wrapped in a silk handkerchief in between. Three days later there is a second public holiday, and when the two line up with a weekend they make a long bridge. It is also, on average, the wettest month of the year, which matters more here than the number suggests.
This is the October entry in our month-by-month series. It sits between September and November, and if you want the other end of the year, August is the month everything shuts.
The weather in October
AEMET's climate normals for the Valencia city station give October an average temperature of 19.7C, with typical highs of 24.3C and lows of 15.2C. It is the wettest month on the chart, around 77mm over about five days, and still brings roughly 202 hours of sunshine. Most days are T-shirt weather; the trick is that the rain comes as a few violent episodes rather than a grey fortnight.
The sea is still around 22C in the first half of the month, and plenty of residents swim into the second week. The clocks go back on the last Sunday, so the evenings shorten abruptly. The full year is in our Valencia climate guide, the storm season has its own guide to reading a DANA alert, and the figures above come from AEMET's published normals.
9 d'Octubre: the region's day and the mocadorà
Photo: Ponscor, CC BY-SA 4.0
The Nou d'Octubre () is the Dia de la Comunitat Valenciana, the anniversary of Jaume I's entry into the city in 1238 and a public holiday across the region. At midday the Processó Cívica lowers the Senyera from the town hall's main balcony and carries it through the old town without ever letting it bow; in the afternoon the Entrada de Moros i Cristians runs through the centre from the Glorieta down to Marqués de Sotelo, with bands, gunpowder and costumes that take a year to make.
It is also Sant Donís, the Valencian Valentine's, and the tradition is the mocadorà (): marzipan shaped into fruit, tied up in a silk handkerchief, given by men to the women in their lives. The bakeries fill their windows with it from the first days of the month. We wrote a full guide to the 9 d'Octubre and the mocadorà, including where to buy it and what the two rolled pieces in the knot mean.
The half marathon and the film festival
The Valencia Half Marathon falls on a Sunday in late October, starting and finishing on the Avinguda dels Tarongers by the university campuses, with about 25,000 runners on a course where the women's world record for the distance still stands. The men's record was set here too, in 2024, before it moved to Buenos Aires in 2026. Entries sell out months ahead, and the northern half of the city closes to traffic for the morning. If you are not running, it is a good spectacle from the Turia gardens; our sports guide covers the rest of the calendar.
The Mostra de València, the city's Mediterranean film festival, lands somewhere around the turn of the month - some years in the last week of October, some years pushed into November - with screenings at the Filmoteca and the Babel cinemas. Check the organiser's dates before you plan around it. And on the 31st the city does Halloween in a half-hearted way that is mostly for children, because the real date is the day after, which is the next entry in the series.
What to eat in October
October is persimmon month. The kaki from the Ribera del Xúquer, sold hard and crisp under its own denomination, arrives in the markets in the first weeks and stays until Christmas. Pomegranates from the south, the first sharp mandarins, and the new-season rice from the Albufera fill the rest of the stall. By the end of the month the roast chestnut stands appear on the corners of the old town.
The seasonal sweet is the mocadorà above, but you can also start looking for the buñuelos that belong to the next month. Our guide to the huerta and its seasons has the month-by-month table.
What changes for residents
Two public holidays in four days. The 9th is regional and the 12th, the Fiesta Nacional, is national, so when they fall midweek the days between become el puente (), the bridge, and half the city takes it off. Offices, schools and public counters close on both; supermarkets and large chains mostly stay open. The regional government publishes the official holiday calendar each year.
If you are self-employed, the third-quarter returns fall in October; our autónomo guide has the calendar. The rental market calms down after the September crush, which makes October a better month to look for a flat than the one before it.
And the weather point again, because it is the one that matters. Late October is the peak of the DANA season, and the region's worst flood in living memory hit on 29 October 2024. Know where your flat sits relative to a ravine, have the AEMET app installed, and take a red warning literally.
If you are moving this month
October is a comfortable month to arrive. The offices are fully staffed, the heat is gone, the flat market has loosened and the only thing to plan around is the two holidays. Aim your first appointments at the week before the 9th or the week after the 12th, and you will lose nothing.
Our moving to Valencia guide covers the order of the paperwork, and the climate guide explains why September to mid October is one of the windows we suggest for viewing flats.
October gives you the region at its most itself: a flag that bows to nobody, marzipan in a handkerchief, and a sky that occasionally means business. Take the bridge weekend, buy the mocadorà, and keep the AEMET app open. November brings Tots Sants, the MotoGP finale and the Christmas lights, which is the next entry.
Arriving in October?
We help you time the paperwork and the flat search around the two holidays, so the bridge weekend is a day off rather than a lost week.
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About the author
Michael Bastin
Founder, ValenciaMove - Valencia since 2016
Michael moved to Valencia in 2016 and has helped dozens of families relocate since. He writes every guide on this site personally and verifies every fact against Spanish government sources before publishing.
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