Sunset and golden hour in Portugal, month by month (2027)

A wedding’s best photographs are usually taken in the last light of the day, and in Portugal that light moves by almost four hours over the year. This page gives the times for 2027 in the five cities most couples plan around — Lisbon, Porto, Faro, Funchal and Ponta Delgada — and then turns them into a plan: when to hold the ceremony, when to step away for portraits and what changes on the islands.

How were these times worked out?

We computed every time on this page ourselves, so that one definition holds throughout and the working can be checked. The script uses the solar-position equations published by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) — the ones behind its Solar Calculator, based on Jean Meeus’s book Astronomical Algorithms — for the 15th of each month of 2027 at the centre of each city, and converts the result to the local clock.

• Sunrise and sunset are the moments the top edge of the sun meets a flat, sea-level horizon, allowing for normal atmospheric refraction — the sun’s centre 0.833° below the horizon. This is the standard almanac definition.
• Golden hour means the time when the centre of the sun is between 6° above and 4° below the horizon. In the evening it begins before sunset and ends after it; in the morning it is the same band, with the sun rising.
• The clock follows Portuguese law: the mainland and Madeira keep UTC in winter and UTC+1 in summer, the Azores one hour less. In 2027 the clocks go forward at 01:00 UTC on Sunday 28 March and back at 01:00 UTC on Sunday 31 October. The times assume the change still happens in 2027, as the law stands in October 2026.
• Rounding is to the nearest minute.

We checked the results against two independent sources. The US Naval Observatory’s astronomical data service gives all 60 sunrises and sunsets on these dates and places within 32 seconds of ours, and on the 25 dates we sampled it puts the sun within 0.01° of +6° and −4° at our golden-hour limits. The Observatório Astronómico de Lisboa, which keeps Portugal’s legal time, publishes daily sunrise and sunset tables for the same five cities; its latest, for 2022, matches the same code to within one minute on every one of 3,650 times.

What time is sunset in each city?

Sunset on the 15th of each month of 2027, on each place’s own clock. Around the September equinox sunset moves by up to 1.6 minutes a day in Lisbon and 1.7 in Porto, so for a date far from the 15th, look up the exact day.

• Porto sees later sunsets than Lisbon in summer and earlier ones in winter — 21:09 against 21:03 in June, 17:06 against 17:16 in December — because it lies 2½° further north.
• Faro has the earliest summer sunsets of the three mainland cities, about ten minutes before Lisbon in June and July.
• Funchal is the latest all year. The difference from Lisbon is smallest in June (14 minutes) and largest in December (47 minutes).
• Ponta Delgada reads like Lisbon on its own clock, but that clock is an hour behind: subtract nothing on the island, add an hour when you call the mainland.

When is golden hour, city by city?

Each table gives, for the 15th of each month: the morning golden hour (sun from 4° below to 6° above the horizon), sunrise, sunset, the evening golden hour (from 6° above to 4° below) and the evening golden hour’s length in minutes. The clock in use is shown with the month.

Lisbon

Porto

Faro and the Algarve

Funchal, Madeira

Ponta Delgada, Azores

Read the evening column as two halves. In Lisbon on 15 June the golden hour begins at 20:23, the sun sets at 21:03, and the colour lasts until about 21:22: forty minutes of low, warm, directional light on faces, then nineteen of soft glow with the sky still bright. The second half fades quickly, so photographers usually start portraits in the first.

Why is golden hour shorter on Madeira?

The closer you are to the equator, the more steeply the sun drops through the horizon, so the band from 6° above to 4° below is crossed faster. It takes 47–54 minutes in Funchal (32.7° N), 52–60 in Lisbon (38.7° N) and 53–64 in Porto (41.1° N). The angle also changes with the season: the sun’s path is steepest around the equinoxes in March and September, when golden hour is shortest, and shallowest at the solstices, when it is longest — 60 minutes in Lisbon on 15 December, 59 on 15 June, 52 on 15 March and 15 September.

Where does the sun set — and does your spot face it?

In mid-June the sun sets at a compass bearing of about 300°, well north of west; in mid-December at about 240°, south of west; due west only around the equinoxes in late March and late September. The figures are within a few degrees of each other in all five cities.

That decides more than people expect. A west-facing clifftop on the Lisbon, Sintra or Alentejo coast sees the sun go down into the sea in every month. A south-facing beach on the Algarve faces the winter sunset, but in summer the sun goes down far to the right, over land or a headland at many spots rather than straight out to sea. A terrace that looked perfect on a site visit in March may face away from a June sunset — check the bearing for your date, or ask your photographer, before you choose where to stand.

When should the ceremony be, and when the portraits?

There is no correct hour, but there is a reliable way to work: take sunset on your date, put a 15–20-minute portrait walk at the start of the evening golden hour, and give everything before it — the ceremony, the hugs, family photos, drinks — room to run late. As a rule of thumb for an outdoor ceremony, start it about three to three and a half hours before sunset. The wedding-day timeline shows two full days built this way.

The table uses Lisbon; shift it by the difference in the sunset table for other places. The last column is the sun’s height above the horizon at 17:00 local time, which is what makes a summer afternoon ceremony bright and squinty and an October one soft.

• December to February. In Lisbon the sun climbs no higher than 28° at midday on 15 December and 39° on 15 February, so the light is soft for hours. A lunch-led day suits: ceremony in the early afternoon, portraits from about 16:30–17:40, and the last of the twilight gone by 17:46 in mid-December, 18:08 in mid-January and 18:41 in mid-February.
• March. Until the clocks change on 28 March, sunset in Lisbon moves from 18:29 on 1 March to 18:55 on 27 March; from 28 March it is just before 20:00. Two weddings a weekend apart get very different evenings.
• April and May. Sunset in Lisbon moves from 20:00 on 1 April to 20:55 on 31 May. The sun is still 36–41° high at 17:00, so an outdoor ceremony at 17:00–17:30 is bright; shade helps.
• June and July. From mid-June to mid-July sunset is after 21:00 in Lisbon, Porto and Funchal and just before it in Faro. Golden hour lands during dinner: plan the portrait walk between courses and tell the venue. In Lisbon the sun is 45° up at 17:00 and 33° at 18:00 — an argument for a ceremony at 17:30 or later, in shade.
• August. Sunset is half an hour earlier than in June (20:31 in Lisbon), which pulls golden hour back towards drinks.
• September and October. The fastest-moving weeks: Lisbon’s sunset goes from 20:07 on 1 September to 19:20 on 1 October and 18:39 on 30 October. Golden hour often falls during drinks, before anyone sits down — easy for portraits.
• November. After the clocks go back, sunset in Lisbon is at about 17:15–17:40, golden hour starts around 17:00 or earlier and the sun is barely 3° up at 17:00 in mid-month. Plan as for winter.

What about sunrise ceremonies and elopements?

For a dawn elopement, the morning golden hour is the mirror image of the evening one, around sunrise. In Lisbon on 15 June it runs from 05:52 to 06:51, so hair and make-up happen in the dark. Later in the year it gets easier: the latest sunrise of 2027 on the mainland is on 30 October, the last day of summer time — 08:01 in Lisbon, 08:03 in Porto, 07:53 in Faro — and the next morning everything is an hour earlier. On the west coast the sunrise comes up behind the land, so the sea in front of you takes soft pastel light rather than the sun itself. The elopement guide has a sample half-day.

What changes on Madeira and in the Azores?

• Madeira uses the same clock as Lisbon and changes it on the same dates, but its sunsets and sunrises are later — sunrise on 15 December is at 08:02 in Funchal. Golden hour is the shortest of the five cities, 47–54 minutes. The island’s steep relief means many spots lose direct sun before the official time.
• The Azores are an hour behind the mainland all year (UTC−1 in winter, UTC in summer) and change their clocks at the same instant, 01:00 UTC. On their own clock, Ponta Delgada’s times are close to Lisbon’s; on Lisbon’s clock they are an hour later. Put the island time on every schedule you send to guests and suppliers flying in.
• Weather decides more than the sun on both archipelagos: check the weather by month and keep a covered plan.

Once you know your date, browse photographers who work where you are marrying, or tell us about your day. For the month itself, see the best months by region; for the light in Lisbon & Sintra, the Algarve, Madeira and the Azores, the region pages show photographers who know it.