Spain - Driving in Spain. What you need to know

Whether we live in Spain, or are just on holiday and wish to hire a car, there are things that we should know, other than the plain obvious.... in Spain we drive on the right hand side!

Concentating on holidaying first, the essentials you should know about driving in Spain are as follows:

Speed limits on motorways are 120km/hour, normal roads ( A roads ) 80, and then 70 , 50, or even 30 in residential areas. There are speed cameras all over the roads in Spain, although in a lot of places they are kind enough to warn you in advance!

The Spanish drive extremely erraticaly, maybe not as bad as the Italians, but near to it. Although they have passed their driving tests, and have to renew their license every 10 years unlike in the U.K, I doubt your average citizen could correctly answer any question on the highway code. Use of indicators is often completely forgotten about, and cars change from lane to lane as if they were in a rally contest.

Big cities like Madrid, and Barcelona are only for the very brave, I just manage Girona, knowing my way round the city well now, so as not to panic when I find myself on a 6 exit 3 lane roundabout, as I generally know where I am heading.

The motorways are not free in Spain, so always have a collection of change, or you can pay by credit card. However, more interesting to those of us who live here, because of this, I, for example pay 50€ a year road tax.

Motorway service stations are not as expensive as you might expect ( apart from the price of petrol ) and you can even eat a 3 course meal of average quality without feeling you have been completely robbed.

Although extremely reluctant to, if we choose to live permenantly in Spain, we must change our driving license to an E.U license, or in my case, I have a Spanish driving license as I changed it before the introduction of the credit card style E:U license. This change can be done in your local traffic office, but be prepared to need fotocopies of passport, proof of residence from your town hall etc..

Also, if your car is here for more than one year, you must change the license plates to Spanish. No one actually does this, and drives out of the country and back in again, or pleads ignorance.

Road tax depends on the age of your car and horse power. It could be between 40 upto a max of around 120€ per year. Tax discs do not exist, we pay to our local town hall once a year for use of the roads, and then all motorways are tolled.

Be prepared for on the spot checks, especially when driving a foreign plated car. Drink driving is no longer allowed in Spain, as in passed years, one beer with your lunch bringing you upto the limit.

Prepare for on the spot fines if you have been stopped for speeding etc. If you pay them on the spot, you get a 40% reduction in the fine, other wise you have a certain amount of days to pay the fine at a number of banks.

The points system finally arrived in Spain around 3 years ago, but the reverse of the U.K. You recieve points instead of having them deducted, and when you have collected twelve, you have your license removed.

Scooters are as ever popular as a form of transport as ever in Spain, and chidren as young as 14 are allowed to drive them, with no driving license, just a paper from the town hall. All this is starting to change, and they are trying to put the age limit up, but at the same time are putting down the age limit to take a car driving test form 18 to 17. What has changed with scooters is that now even the 49cc scooters require an M.O.T, as before they were exempt, and full head crash helmets must be warn.

Your car, after it is 3 or 4 years old needs to pass its' M.O.T. This is of course if you have acquired a car in Spain, otherwise, as said before, you will have to take your car to England and back, or change the plates. The fee for the M.O.T (I.T.V) is nominal, I think last year  I paid 28€. They don't seem to be very strict, although my experience is with one particular centre, although you do see many cars on the road that look unroadworthy.

A new law has just come into Spain that if a car has been left without being moved for over 6 months, then it will be towed away. This law is welcomed by the majority of people as the streets here in Spain, and especially some more hidden away car parks were little more than dumping grounds for abandoned cars!