Spain was lovely to drive; it was largely similar to Italy, but I found it to be cheaper. Tolls are almost non-existent, and during my 10 days there driving about 2,000 km, I’ve only paid about S$10 worth of tolls, mostly while I was entering Madrid. I drove from Barcelona to Madrid, then to Seville, before returning my car at Granada. I took a domestic flight back to Barcelona, and then picked another car (EV) at Barcelona.
Like most of their Europe counter parts, they drove on the right side (steering on the left), and I found Spain’s roads to be relatively tight, highways largely empty and easy to drive. Culture seems to allow +10% above the speed limit, according to my friends who live in Spain.
I used Sixt at Barcelona when I landed, and they gave me a almost brand new 1.2T Opel Astra. I had booked a manual and it was lovely and easy to drive. It automatically holds the handbrake for you, and even has near obstacle detection. What I don’t like it the speed warning, and the auto lane assist; I don’t like the computer to adjust the steering for me, as it sometimes automatically triggers during a lane merger. Shutting it off will only result in “temporarily disabled until the next startup”. No, I would like to switch it off permanently.
Tolls can be paid using credit card or cash, and my Visa didn’t work at a couple of places. What I recommend would be to drive to the “manual” gate, where it is manned by a staff, and you can simply pass you card/cash to him to process the payment for you. Driving long distances across Spain is very cheap as there are almost no tolls. I read that it is part of the government’s incentives.
While Sixt is a renowned premium car rental company, their cars and on the ground service is fantastic, their billing is absolutely terrible. They had billed me an extra 10 Euros, and still have not refunded to me yet, despite being almost 2 weeks and 2 emails later. It is a small sum, but it is mistaken billing, after all. I did a one-way travel from Barcelona and returned my car to Granada, as driving back from GRX would be a little bit too long. I took a flight back, and then picked up an EV from National.
National was fantastic. Staff was friendly, fast and they gave me a brand new Citroen-eC3 that had only 200+ km on the odometer for only $40/day. The range was about 300 km, and charging was a little frustrating because I couldn’t get it to properly work at a couple of places. Thankfully, the Ibis that I stayed at had chargers right at their hotel, and I could simply use the QR to scan, start and charge my car. It’s about 0.54 Euros/kWh at the time of writing. Petrol was about 1.80 Euros, so it easily really much cheaper if you have an economic petrol car. It’s just that I haven’t been driving EVs for a while, and wanted to try it.
If possible, avoid the common car rentals like Budget/Ibis because I saw really long queues for those. I usually like to pick a better rated operator, even though it may be a little bit more expensive. Support from a car rental company is very important, especially in a foreign land. I also hate queuing at the airport air rentals, which the cheaper operators have a lot.
One extremely difficult thing that I noticed about Spain is that they have possibly, the SMALLEST carparks in the world that I have ever driven. Straight-out the airport the carpark ramp is extremely tight, and this will continue in many of the garage car parks all over Spain. Steep inclines, super tight turning radius and extremely small lots. Get the smallest car that can accommodate you/your family. Less is more. It’ll make driving less stressful. I don’t usually do this, but I had to ask my wife to get down from the car to assist me at some of the carpark lots. It’s ridiculous.
Other than that, people are lovely while driving and I didn’t notice any aggression in the 10 days of driving there. No one really squeezes you, and when you signal, people give way to you, just like in Japan. They are more orderly than driving in Rome. Unlike Rome, there aren’t like ZTL where you simply cannot drive in; if you’re driving EV or a low-emissions vehicle, you can practically drive anyway in Spain. This makes sightseeing more convenient, as long as you can find a parking lot. I recommend searching for parking near your destinations before you set off.
Roadside parking is available; look for white/blue lots. At certain green lots, you may be permitted to park 1-2 hours at most, as those are resident lots. In Barcelona, I could use the EasyPark app, but in Madrid I simply look for the nearby parking machine where you can throw coins in to get a parking chit (picture above), where you can put it on your dashboard. In Barcelona, in one of the machines, it only took my vehicle’s registration number, but no ticket. The locals told me that this is common, as Madrid has a different practice.
As with all Europe countries, avoid exposing your bags, valuables and the like and keep them stored in your boot and out of sight. Break-ins do occur, and petty theft. As a Singaporean, you just have to drive/behave like when you are in Indonesia, Malaysia or Thailand…. be a little more careful.
Driving in Spain is relatively easy; only parking is a little bit more difficult due to the tight spaces. At all the places I stayed, no hotel gave me free parking and I was charged between 10-22 Euros/night at various places. I even had to use an underground car lift at Granada!
Take note that for EVs, the rental company should provide you the charging cable as well, as at the charging stations, the slower/cheaper charger requires you to plug in your own cable. The faster/more expensive cables are provided. If you’re just driving around the city, an EV works extremely well. For long distance, I still think petrol is much better. I could do around 600+ km in my Opel Astra at around 16km/l.
Garage parking should be between 3-4 Euros/hr for the city. For street, I always feel it’s a bit like roulette where you throw the coins into the machine and let it tell me how long I can park.
Happy driving worldwide!
