diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 375aad4dd7a32429fcc91b535eeabfe2ea27139d..68c2939ec631b5b7d47eedec94ea6bab7b02a3bc 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -23,7 +23,8 @@ See the
 [Feature Overview](http://spack.readthedocs.io/en/latest/features.html)
 for examples and highlights.
 
-To install spack and install your first package:
+To install spack and install your first package, make sure you have
+Python (2 or 3).  Then:
 
     $ git clone https://github.com/llnl/spack.git
     $ cd spack/bin
diff --git a/bin/spack b/bin/spack
index f33d219b8bbc8e03a44f195129d87a2d1a2af0d5..c737a0f178cb5f85a7d7578cedc4627479a9fabb 100755
--- a/bin/spack
+++ b/bin/spack
@@ -27,9 +27,9 @@
 from __future__ import print_function
 
 import sys
-if (sys.version_info[0] > 2) or (sys.version_info[:2] < (2, 6)):
+if sys.version_info[:2] < (2, 6):
     v_info = sys.version_info[:3]
-    sys.exit("Spack requires Python 2.6 or 2.7. "
+    sys.exit("Spack requires Python 2.6 or higher."
              "This is Python %d.%d.%d." % v_info)
 
 import os
diff --git a/lib/spack/docs/contribution_guide.rst b/lib/spack/docs/contribution_guide.rst
index e9cfe1fa54071f47eb30ed26c4051c26bf0fdb4c..a3b31971816434a83ada1270964997f11c35d8fa 100644
--- a/lib/spack/docs/contribution_guide.rst
+++ b/lib/spack/docs/contribution_guide.rst
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ for the results of these tests after submitting a PR, we recommend that you run
 locally to speed up the review process.
 
 If you take a look in ``$SPACK_ROOT/.travis.yml``, you'll notice that we test
-against Python 2.6 and 2.7. We currently perform 3 types of tests:
+against Python 2.6, 2.7, and 3.3-3.6. We currently perform 3 types of tests:
 
 ^^^^^^^^^^
 Unit Tests
diff --git a/lib/spack/docs/getting_started.rst b/lib/spack/docs/getting_started.rst
index 3c2610beb0cfa9716070bc724fa2cdce82f03b39..2460f7e54d0152a30e34bc0567296b7811727d28 100644
--- a/lib/spack/docs/getting_started.rst
+++ b/lib/spack/docs/getting_started.rst
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ Prerequisites
 Spack has the following minimum requirements, which must be installed
 before Spack is run:
 
-1. Python 2.6 or 2.7
+1. Python 2 (2.6 or 2.7) or 3 (3.3 - 3.6)
 2. A C/C++ compiler
 3. The ``git`` and ``curl`` commands.