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Gitelink
España - Traditional
accommodation in Rural Spain The Spain Travel Page |
The regions of Spain
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Spain is a big country, and distances can be long; driving from Northern Europe to Spain is a time consuming operation, which explains why the majority of British or German tourists visiting Spain prefer to fly and then use some form of local transport - hire car, bus, or train. Flying to Spain Spain is very well served by scheduled flights from Britain and the north of Europe. Consult the websites of the following airlines, among others, for route maps and timetables: Flybe, British Airways, BMI UK , Jet2, Ryanair and Easyjet. Along the north coast of Spain, there are airports at Bilbao, Santander, Oviedo, La Coruña, Santiago and Vigo - though these are not served as well as the airports in the south. To all intents and purposes, there is only one international airport in central Spain, and that is Madrid. Madrid is a major international hub, with worldwide connections, and connecting flights to domestic airports throughout Spain, including some not served by any international flights. Driving in Spain Spain can be a great place for driving, or else a nightmare; it depends on the location. Most of the time, S pain offers a stress-free driving experience, especially on long cross-country routes, where the roads are frequently good, and the traffic sparse. Spain has received a lot of EU funding, in order to develop its road infrastructure, and the result is a network of top quality highways, and motorways, that are free of congestion and in some cases almost empty. Take the A66 motorway, for instance, that will eventually run from Oviedo to Sevilla, down the west side of Spain. Some long stretches of this are open, but virtually traffic-free! There are plenty of other good roads that offer the same kind of hassle-free driving. At the other end of the scale, there are the nightmare locations; between Girona and Valencia, the Mediterranean Motorway can be hell on earth, specially at peak periods. The stretch round Barcelona is particularly busy, with the added enjoyment of perpetual roadworks and relatively poor signposting. In fact, motorways in any suburban area of Spain can be pretty alarming, as they are often inadequate for the volume of traffic they carry. Anyone thinking of driving from the UK or northern Europe down to the south of Spain should be prepared for some long tiring kilometres along the north Mediterranean coast. It is not really until after Murcia that driving conditions really begin to become more relaxed. Autopistas and Autovias The busy parts of the Spanish inter-city motorway system are toll-roads, called Autopistas, and relatively expensive; these are designated by the letters AP, as in AP7, which is the Mediterranean coast motorway on which you enter Spain if you come in from France at La Junquera. However most of the network apart from the busiest routes consists of free motorways, known as Autovias. For example the AP7 turns into the A7 after Valencia. The speed limit on Autopistas and Autovias is generally 120 km/h. Car hire in Spain Cars can be hired all over Spain, and there is plenty of choice of car rentals at Spanish airports. Generally speaking, hire is relatively cheap compared to many other parts of Europe - but take care if you rent or hire from a cheap-o independent car hire company; While you may get a perfectly good hire at a bargain rate, on the other hand the quality and safety of the vehicles hired out is not always up to the mark. Watch out for dangerously worn tyres, missing equipment, or even headlights that do not work. Public transport in Spain The Train in Spain goes fast across the plain.... or at least it does if you can take the "AVE", the Spanish TGV or high speed train. AVE lines link Madrid with Seville, via Cordoba, and with Saragossa and Barcelona in the north east. The Barcelona AVE line opened in March 2008. With maximum speeds of 220 km/h, the AVE is fast, but not quite up to the level of the French TGVs, which run at up to 300 km.h. Where there is no AVE service, the train in Spain is a relatively slow-moving beast, and many Spaniards will prefer to use the country's good network of long-distance bus services. These services - by air-conditioned coach - link most big towns and cities, and offer fast and comfortable transport, which is above all cheap and good value for money. You can check out times and routes, and make bookings, here.
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