ES Spain: how to get around

• ALSA (formerly Continental Auto), ☏ +34 902 422242. Largest bus company with point to point routes across the country and alliances with various other regional companies and/or subsidiary brands. (updated Apr 2016)
• Grupo Avanza, ☏ +34 902 020999. Operates buses between Madrid and the surrounding autonomous communities of Extremadura, Castile-Leon, Valencia (via Castile-Leon). In some areas they operate through their subsidiary brands of Alosa, Tusza, Vitrasa, Suroeste and Auto Res. (updated Apr 2016)
• Socibus and Secorbus, ☏ +34 902 229292. These companies jointly operate buses between Madrid and western Andalucia including Cadiz, Cordoba, Huelva and Seville. (updated Apr 2016)

At the bus station, each operator has its own ticket counter or window and usually a single operator from here to a particular destination. Therefore, the easiest is to ask the staff who will be happy to tell you who operates which route and point you to a specific desk or window. You can also see what is all available on Movelia.es or see "By bus" under "Getting in" or "Getting Around" in the article for a particular autonomous community region, province or locale. It is usually not necessary or more advantageous to book tickets in advance as one can show up and get on the next available bus. Most bus companies can be booked in advance online. however English translation on their websites is patchy at best.

Regular ferries travel from mainland Spain to the Balearic Islands (3-7h) and Canary Islands (36-40h). The major port serving Mallorca is Barcelona, while for Ibiza it is Denia. The Canaries are served from Huelva and Cadiz.

With a private yacht you can enjoy gorgeous scenery and distance yourself from the inevitable crowds of tourists that flock to these destinations. May is a particularly pleasant time to charter in the regions of Costa Brava, Costa Blanca and the Balearic Islands as the weather is good and the crowds have yet to descend. The summer months of July and August are the hottest and tend to have lighter winds. There is no low season for the Canary Islands, as the weather resembles springtime all year round.

If you would like to bareboat anywhere in Spain, including the Balearic or Canary Islands, a US Coast Guard License is the only acceptable certification needed by Americans to bareboat. For everyone else, a RYA Yacht Master Certification or International Certificate of Competence will normally do.

Although a skipper may be required, a hostess/chef may or may not be necessary. Dining out is strong part of Spanish custom and tradition. If you are planning on docking in a port and exploring fabulous bars and restaurants a hostess/cook may just be useful for serving drinks and making beds. Extra crew can take up valuable room on a tight ship.

In major cities like Madrid or Barcelona and in mid-sized ones like San Sebastian, moving around by car is expensive and nerve-wracking. Fines for improper parking are uncompromising (€85 and up). Access by car has been made more difficult by municipal policies in Barcelona and Madrid in the 2010s. The positive effects on the urban fabric of those policies have proven widely popular, so expect more of this.

Having a driving map is essential - many streets are one-way; left turns are more rare than rights (and are unpredictable).

Getting around by car makes sense if you plan to move from one city to another every other day, ideally if you don't plan to park overnight in large cities. It also doesn't hurt that the scenery is beautiful and well worth a drive. With a good public transport network that connects to (almost) all points of interest for travellers, you might ask yourself whether driving is really worth the cost and the hassle, as you are often much faster by train than by car.

There are two types of highway in Spain: autopistas, or motorways, and autovías, which are more akin to expressways. Most autopistas are toll roads while autovías are generally free of charge. In some autonomous communities whether a highway is tolled depends on whether the central or regional government built and operates them. To a foreigner the system can seem rather confusing. Tolls often work out to "odd" Euro amounts leading you with a lot of copper coins if you pay cash. Speed limits range from 50 km/h (30 mph) in towns to 90 km/h on rural roads, 100 km/h on roads and 120 km/h (75 mph) on autopistas and autovías. Starting from May 2021 all roads with only one lane per direction inside built up areas will have a blanket speed limit of 30 km/h (19 mph).

Spaniards are somewhat notorious for seeing traffic infractions such as speeding, second row parking or red light infractions as "minor", but the government is increasingly cracking down on this kind of behavior and police will have a field day writing a ticket to a foreigner who doesn't speak the language.

Gasoline/petrol costs in the range of €1.60/L in Dec 2023, and diesel costs €1.55/L. Filling procedure for gas stations varies from brand to brand. At Agip, you first fill the tank yourself, and then pay inside the shop.

Motorcycling is very popular with Spaniards and the country is served by a superb network of road and off road motorcycling routes making it a popular destination for European motorcyclists. Spain is possibly the most motorcycle friendly country in Europe. Touring infrastructure for motorcyclists is very well developed and it is common for owners of hostelry establishments to provide secure parking for motorcycles. Driving while wearing flip-flops or going barefoot is considered unsafe and carries a fine of up to €200.

Spain isn't a good country for hitchhiking. Sometimes you can wait many hours. Try to speak with people at gas stations, parking lots, etc. They are scared and suspicious, but when you make them feel that they don't need to be afraid, they gladly accept you and mostly also show their generosity.

In the south of Spain, in and around the Alpujarras, hitchhiking is very common and it is also very easy to get a ride. As long as you can speak a bit of Spanish and don't look too dirty or frightening, you should be able to get a ride moderately easily.

Spain is a suitable country for cycling, and it is possible to see many cyclists in some of the cities. Cycling lanes are available in a large part of North-Easter Catalonia, and elsewhere in mid-sized and large cities, although they are not comparable in number to what you can find in for example central Europe.

Depending on where you are in Spain, you could face a very mountainous area. Much of central Spain is very flat, though elevated, but towards the coast the landscape is often very hilly, especially in the north. Consider using an E-bike if your visit involves going by hilltops and you aren't used to that kind of biking or don't like the effort needed.

There are several options for touring in Spain by bicycle: guided or supported tours, rent bicycles in Spain or bring your own bike, or any combination. Supported tours are ubiquitous on the web. For unsupported tours a little Spanish helps a lot. Shoulder seasons avoid extremes of temperature and ensure hotel availability in non-tourist areas. Good hotels are €35–45 in the interior, breakfast usually included. Menú del día meals are €8–10 eating where the locals eat. Secondary roads are usually well paved and have good shoulders, and as a rule Spanish drivers are careful and courteous around touring cyclists. Road signs are usually very good and easy to follow.

Most municipalities in Spain, towns and cities are modernising their streets to introduce special lanes for bicycles. Bike share systems with usually quite reasonable prices are also being installed in cities throughout the country.

On high speed trains only dismantled bicycles in a cover are allowed, and a place for it has to be reserved. Normal, non-dismantled bicycles are only allowed on Cercanías and Media Distancia trains, and Euskotren in the Basque Country. No reservation is required, except on Media Distancia trains, where reservations for bicycles and seats are mandatory. A new regulation that came into force in 2025, gradually allows bicycles to be carried on Avant regional high-speed trains, starting with the A Coruña–Santiago–Ourense route. Renfe plans to introduce bicycle transport on its other high-speed trains (AVE, Avlo, and Alvia) as soon as the trains undergo a “mid-life renovation.”

Several cities in Spain are covered by Uber, Cabify, Bolt, Free Now and Pide Taxi (updated May 2024)

All the major cities in Spain are served by taxis, which are a convenient, if somewhat expensive way to get around. That being said, taxis in Spain are more reasonably priced than those in say, the United Kingdom or Japan. Most taxi drivers do not speak English or any other foreign languages, so it would be necessary to have the names and/or addresses of your destinations written in Spanish to show your taxi driver. Likewise, get your hotel's business card to show your taxi driver in case you get lost.

All taxis should have a visible fare table. You may be offered a fixed price to go from an airport to a city, but in most cases, the taxi driver will be earning more money than with the metered fare.

Many taxi drivers will demand a tip from foreign customers and for airport drives. The tip is in no way mandatory. You may round up to the nearest euro though, see also Tipping below.