twoflower

Reading a thread recently, people were advising against driving in Madrid - especially for those of us who are used to driving on the left side of the road. Fair enough. I had already decided I wouldn't want to drive in Madrid anyway. My present thinking is (not being much of a big-city person) to stay in Segovia and commute in to Madrid for an intro visit only on this first trip.

My question is: how to judge which Spanish cities a visitor like me might realistically drive in, as opposed to which cities it would be crazy to attempt it. Pamplona, for example, or Salamanca? Drivable? Or not?

As a guide to where I'm at for answering this question, I've driven in Paris twice because I had to, but would never do so by choice. It was horrendous! But cities like Nice I find not too difficult.

Continental_Drifter

We find Spain very easy in which to drive, but we are accustomed to left-hand driving on the right side of the road. It was the first country in which my husband drove abroad and he was impressed with Spain's infrastructure. Directions and roads are excellent. Signage is some of the best around. Drivers are courteous.

We are comfortable driving in Pamplona and Salamanca. They are smaller cities and roads are well-marked.

We drove into Barcelona and parked at our hotel, using it as a base during our stay there. We could have continued to drive, but the parking was much more of a challenge in Barcelona than we were willing to deal with.

I suppose the round-abouts could present a challenge for you initially.

Robert2533

The only major problem with driving in Madrid, or Barcelona for that matter, is not being familiar with the one-way streets, and in some cases, some very narrow streets you might find yourself on. Smaller cities like Pamplona are easy to get around in, but can be very busy at times (outside of fiesta), and like nearly every city, town or village we driven in, parking can be a problem.

qwovadis

Smaller towns like Ronda are fine for me

Big Cities are a nightmare seat61.com/spain AVEs my fav

viamichelin.com good road tips

Also Alsa Bus can be nice there econo air is cheap too.

fast distances are vast skyscanner.net

yorkshire

I don't think it is the driving that is so much as issue as the parking, which is often strictly limited, as well as the navigation of tricky streets as mentioned above. Plus, when the train system is so good, why limit yourself to hotels with parking, etc?

lincasanova

getting lost where a wrong turn could take you many unpleasant delays.. high parking fees of 2.5E + /hour make even locals refrain from using their cars in these large cities. Madrid/Barcelona/Sevilla.

bilboburgler

In the old days I would want a map reader with me while now I must have GPS but other than that it should be ok, I took a TVR through most of the northern cities a few years back and apart from a donkey and a manhole cover had no problems (Spanish donkey herd has reduced significantly in the past few years so you should be safe)

twoflower

Thanks everyone. It's reassuring to know that most places in Spain (excepting Madrd, Barcelona & Seville) will be not too bad to drive in. Yes, parking is always a nightmare - even in England!

DickieG

There is only one road in Spain that I would avoid, it is the Costa Del Sol coast road. After many 10,000s miles of driving around Spain, it is the only place we ever encounter problems. Mainly due to expat drivers.

Aduchamp1

The point remains that you are going to pay for a rental car, that you will not use in many places. And some areas of the cities were made for dray carts.

Another thing we do is try and find a car rental facility on the periphery of a city so we do not have to navigate our way out of the city.

blamona

Disclosed: I have family in Spain, so it might be a little easier for me, but I've driven everywhere, including Madrid.

I'm not crazy about driving in Madrid, and try to avoid it.

The worse part are traffic circles, (rund a bouts) no one allows anyone in, everyone honks, and tourists go in circles!

Having said that, I find Pamplona to be fine. I even think Sevilla is okay. Once your out of the cities driving is super easy, actually gorgeously scenic.

I even found Barcelona to be okay.

To compare to France, I find Madrid to be like Paris, but then it was fairly easy to navigate the other French cities, just like the other cities in Spain.