Spain essentials
What a well-travelled friend would tell you before you land: when to eat, how to pay, how to get around. Evergreen basics, each checked against a source.
Eating and drinking
Spain eats later than northern Europe, and the day turns on a long lunch. Shift your hunger to Spanish time and the rest falls into place.
Lunch is the big meal of the day. Restaurants serve it from about 13:30 or 14:00 until around 15:30.
Dinner starts at about 20:30 or 21:00. In between, most restaurants and cafés close, though a bar can usually make you a bocadillo.
Around 18:00 comes the merienda: a coffee with something sweet or a small sandwich. It is how Spain makes it to dinner.
Breakfast is small: coffee and a tostada with tomato or olive oil, or a pastry. Churros with thick hot chocolate are a treat rather than an everyday thing.
The menú del día is the weekday lunch deal: one fixed price for a first course, a main and a dessert, with dishes that change daily. It is usually served from about 13:30 to 16:30.
Locals often have one tapa and one drink, then move on to the next bar. In some parts of Spain a free tapa still comes with your drink, but don't count on it everywhere.
Opening hours and holidays
Small towns keep their own rhythm. A little planning avoids the shuttered-shop moment.
Small shops often close from about 13:30 or 14:00 and open again late in the afternoon. Do your errands in the morning or after about 17:00.
The midday break is mostly a long lunch, not a nap. Many people work again from about 17:00 into the evening, so the whole day simply runs later.
On Saturdays many shops do not reopen in the evening, and almost everything is shut on Sunday. In a small town, do the weekend shopping by Saturday lunchtime.
Holidays are set nationally, by each region and by each town, and every town celebrates its own patron saint. A holiday that falls on a Sunday can be moved, so a shut Monday may catch you out. Check the town hall's calendar.
Money and tipping
Spain is easy to pay in. A few habits save you fees and awkward moments.
Cards work almost everywhere. Some shops ask for ID when you pay by card, sometimes your passport rather than a foreign ID card, so keep it on you.
Cash machines often add their own fee on top of your bank's, so compare two or three nearby. If the screen offers to charge you in your home currency, say no and choose euros: that conversion usually costs more.
Exchange offices have all but disappeared outside airports and tourist districts. A card and the odd cash withdrawal will do.
Nobody expects a tip in a simple bar or for a menú del día. If the service was lovely in a nicer restaurant, leave a little cash, and in a taxi rounding up to the next euro is plenty.
Trains, buses and ferries
Spain has a good rail and coach network. The trick is knowing which kind of train you are looking at.
Renfe runs most trains, including the high-speed AVE. Ouigo and Iryo run on the same fast lines, so check all three before you book.
Buy long-distance train tickets ahead rather than at the station on the day. Fares change over time, a bit like flights.
Avant is Renfe's fast train for mid-length trips. Alvia and Euromed use the high-speed line and then carry on along ordinary track, so they reach towns the AVE does not.
Cercanías are the local commuter trains of 14 city areas, including Madrid, Málaga, Seville, Valencia and Bilbao. In Catalonia they are called Rodalies and in Valencia Rodalia.
Coaches go where trains don't. Alsa covers much of the country, and regions and cities have their own companies, so look up the local one when a town has no station.
Ferries connect the Balearic Islands to the mainland and can take a car. A night crossing from Barcelona takes around eight hours, while flights from Barcelona, Madrid or Valencia take under an hour.
Most taxi drivers speak little or no English. Have the address written down in Spanish, or show the card from your hotel.
Driving
A car opens up small towns and coves. Here is what tends to catch visitors out.
Motorways marked AP (autopistas) are mostly toll roads, while A roads (autovías) are generally free. Toll booths take cash and the common cards.
Bays painted blue are regulated, paid parking: find the machine or the sign before you walk off, because parking fines are steep. Colours and time limits are set by each town, and in Madrid, for example, green bays are mainly for residents while visitors get a shorter stay. Check the town's own rules.
Many cities, Madrid and Barcelona among them, have low-emission zones (ZBE) with their own rules. A foreign car doesn't need a Spanish sticker, but check the city's rules before you drive in.
Fuel stations are easy to find on the main roads, and motorway service areas are often staffed around the clock. Cards are widely taken, but how you pay varies from one station to the next.
Seat belts are compulsory and holding your phone while driving gets you fined. In towns the default limit is 30 km/h on streets with one lane each way, 20 where road and pavement are on one level, and 50 on wider roads, but signs can set others. Limits are not always signposted, so ease off when unsure.
Sun and heat
Summer in the south is hot, and the local day bends around the heat. Do as the locals do.
Save walks, sights and the beach for the morning and the late afternoon, and spend the hottest hours over lunch and in the shade.
Carry water wherever you go. Every summer the Ministry of Health publishes heat advice and a heat-risk level for each area, worth a look before a hot trip.
Summer life moves into the cooler evening. Squares and promenades fill up late, so eat late and stroll after dark like everyone else.
Beach and sea
Learn the flags and you will know at a glance when to stay out.
Green means calm, yellow means take care, and red means stay out of the water. Jellyfish usually bring a yellow or red flag, and some beaches fly their own jellyfish flag, so ask the lifeguard about any flag you don't recognise.
Red-and-yellow flags mark the stretch watched by lifeguards. Swim between them.
A rip current often shows as a gap in the breaking waves, a line of foam heading out to sea, or murky water. If you spot one, pick another place to swim.
If a current pulls you out, don't swim straight against it. Swim parallel to the shore until it lets go, then angle back in, or float and wave for help.
Safety and emergencies
Spain is an easy country to visit, and a few habits head off most of what goes wrong.
112 works for any emergency in Spain. Save it in your phone before you go.
The National Police are on 091 and the Guardia Civil on 062. In some regions 061 is the line for medical emergencies; elsewhere, call 112.
Pickpockets are common in Madrid and Barcelona, so keep your phone and passport close. Never leave anything in a parked rental car, least of all at service areas on the coastal motorways.
Politely refuse anyone pressing a sprig of rosemary on you, walk past the street shell game, and if someone says they are police, ask to see their ID before you show yours.
Language
Spanish is enough almost everywhere, and a few words in the local language are always welcome.
Spanish (Castilian) is the official language. Catalan, Galician and Basque are also official in their regions, so signs and menus may be in two languages.
Away from hotels and tourist spots, English is rare. A few words of Spanish, however rusty, go a long way.
The letter h is silent, ñ sounds like "ny", and c or z before e and i sounds like "th" in most of Spain.
Use disculpe to get a waiter's attention and perdone when you bump into someone.
Power, phone and water
The small things to sort before you fly.
Spain runs on 230 V and 50 Hz, with two-pin European sockets (Europlug and Schuko). Bring an adapter if your plug has a different shape.
Prepaid SIMs are sold in operator shops, and top-ups come as scratch cards from small shops, supermarkets and tobacconists. An unlocked phone can also take a local eSIM.
Mobile plans from EU and EEA countries generally work as at home. From outside the EU, such as the UK, free roaming is not guaranteed, so ask your provider before you go.
Bars and restaurants have to offer free tap water (agua del grifo), so just ask. In parts of the south the water is heavy with minerals, which is why many locals buy bottled.
Twelve phrases to start with
Spanish on the left. Say them with a smile and the rest takes care of itself.
- HolaHello
- Buenos díasGood morning
- Por favorPlease
- GraciasThank you
- DisculpeExcuse me
- ¿Cuánto cuesta?How much is it?
- La cuenta, por favorThe bill, please
- ¿Dónde está...?Where is...?
- No entiendoI don't understand
- ¡Salud!Cheers!
- Agua del grifoTap water
- Un tinto, por favorA red wine, please
Every tip is checked against a source, listed with dates on our data and sources page. Data and sources
General travel information, not medical, legal or insurance advice. Follow the official links for those.