Winter in the Montseny: Is a Rural Coliving Worth It in the Cold Months?
Cool rather than harsh, short on light and quiet: what a winter month at Kalart really looks like, with official temperatures and an honest take on who it suits.
By Roger Riera
In short: yes, if you want focus more than sunshine. Winter at the foot of the Montseny is cool rather than harsh: at the Meteocat weather station in Granollers, on the Vallès plain, January averages 8°C, with afternoons around 14°C and nights around 3–4°C. Days are short (about nine hours of light around the solstice) and the village is quiet. At Kalart, a rural coliving in Sant Esteve de Palautordera, at the foot of Montseny Natural Park, the winter months suit people who want to move a project forward, with a shared weekday lunch, walks in the forest and a small community around them. If you need warmth to feel good, come in spring.
What winter in the Montseny is really like
The Montseny massif rises from under 200 metres to 1,706 metres at Turó de l'Home, and the climate changes with it: Mediterranean at the bottom, subalpine near the top, as Spain's Ministry for the Ecological Transition describes the Montseny Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO designation since 1978. Kalart sits at the bottom, in the valley, so the winter we live is the lowland one, not the mountain one.
A useful reference is the official Servei Meteorològic de Catalunya (Meteocat) station in Granollers, on the Vallès plain at 211 metres. We went through its daily records for the last six winters, December 2019 to February 2025:
- December: 9.6°C on average; afternoons around 15°C, nights around 5–6°C.
- January, the coldest month: 8.0°C on average; afternoons around 14°C, nights around 3–4°C.
- February: 10.4°C on average; afternoons around 16°C, nights around 6°C.
- Frost: 23 nights below zero across those six winters, so a handful per season.
Kalart sits closer to the mountain than that station, so treat these numbers as a guide, not a forecast. What they do tell you: this isn't a snowed-in mountain winter. You'll want a proper jacket in the morning and evening, and a jumper is usually enough at midday.
Light is the bigger change. Around the winter solstice, the sun rises at about 08:15 and sets at about 17:20 in Sant Esteve de Palautordera: roughly nine hours of daylight. By mid-February it's back to about ten and a half hours, with sunset after 18:15.
The Kalart version: how a winter month works
What makes Kalart work doesn't depend on the season: a house full of people building their own projects, a room to focus in, a shared table at 14:00 and a forest five minutes away. In winter these things matter more, because there's less outside pulling you away.
Work: long mornings, fewer distractions
Kalart has a dedicated coworking room, a multipurpose room for workshops or quieter work, and fibre WiFi throughout the old farmhouse. Short days make it easy to give work a clear shape: a long morning block, lunch, and an afternoon that ends around dusk.
If you've been postponing a piece of deep work (the book, the business plan, the funding application), a winter month with fewer distractions is a good time to do it. You can see how a full workday runs in a day of coworking at Kalart.
The shared lunch at 14:00
On weekdays we eat together at 14:00. Lunch is flexi-vegetarian and cooked by residents in rotation; ingredients are paid once every three weeks. In winter it falls in the middle of the brightest hours, so it can anchor the day: work in the morning, lunch with the whole house, then a walk while the sun is still up. More on why this table matters to us in the ritual of communal meals at Kalart.
Walks: the forest and the river, five minutes away
The forest and the river are a five-minute walk from the door. With about nine hours of light, our advice is to plan the walk instead of leaving it for later: just before lunch or straight after it. Two shared bikes cover the 500 metres to the village, where you'll find a supermarket, cafés and restaurants.
Evenings: what comes up, not what's programmed
Kalart doesn't run a fixed programme. Activities come from the people living here: masterminds, jam sessions, mentoring coffees, movie and games nights, ecstatic dance. None of it is mandatory: some nights you'll join in, some nights you'll read in your room.
A community that chose to be here
Kalart is a hybrid community: long-term residents who stay 6–12 months live alongside colivers who come for 1–6 months. Everyone arrives through an application, so whoever is in the house in January chose to be there in January.
Who winter at Kalart suits, and who it doesn't
A winter month suits remote workers, creatives and social entrepreneurs, mostly between 30 and 45, who want a focused stretch of work with good people around them. People who don't mind a cold walk, and who would rather plan the year in a quiet valley than in a busy city.
It doesn't suit everyone, and it's better to say so:
- If you need sun and warmth to feel good. Nights drop to a few degrees above zero and the days are short. Spring may suit you better.
- If you want nightlife. Sant Esteve de Palautordera is a small village, not a city.
- If you only have a weekend or a week. The minimum stay is one month, in winter as in summer.
- If you're travelling with a pet. Kalart can't host animals.
Practical details for a winter stay
- Getting here: 46.5 km from Barcelona; about 40 minutes by car off-peak, up to 1h20 at rush hour. Train access from Palautordera station (Renfe R2).
- Stay length: from one month. Short stays run 1–6 months and long-term stays 6–12; extensions are usually possible with a month's notice. Details in the FAQ.
- Rooms: 15 private rooms, each with a double bed and a desk; bathrooms are shared. See the rooms.
- Packing: layers, a warm jacket, shoes you can walk in and a headlamp for coming back after dark. Our guide to what to pack covers the rest.
- Price: it depends on the season and the room. Apply and we'll send you the current rate for your dates.
Winter here is quiet, cool and short on light, and for the right person that's exactly the point. If a focused month with good people around you sounds right, apply for your dates or have a look at the rooms first.
Sources: Meteocat daily data for the Granollers station (XEMA network, 211 m), December 2019 to February 2025, via Dades Obertes de Catalunya, checked 12 November 2026. Altitude, climate zones and UNESCO status: MITECO, Montseny Biosphere Reserve. Sunrise and sunset calculated for Sant Esteve de Palautordera (41.71° N, 2.43° E) with the NOAA solar calculation method, flat horizon.
