Spain: know before you go

For most visitors from the United States, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Spain is visa-free: 90 days in any 180-day stretch, counted across the whole Schengen area, so days spent in France or Portugal use the same allowance. Your passport needs to have been issued within the last ten years and to stay valid for at least three months past your departure. Border officers can ask for your onward ticket, a hotel address and proof you can pay your way; the published 2026 minimum is €122 per person per day, or at least €1,099 for stays of nine days or more. ETIAS, the EU's pre-travel authorization for visa-free visitors, is not live yet. Spain's consulates say it is expected in late 2026, and the EU will give months of notice, so there is nothing to apply for right now.

Almost everyone arrives by air, landing at Madrid-Barajas, Barcelona-El Prat or the coastal and island airports. Under the EU's Entry/Exit System, short-stay arrivals register a photo and fingerprints at the border; it is free, it adds a few minutes at passport control, and the record lasts three years. If you would rather come overland, high-speed trains link France and Spain, including the TGV from Paris to Barcelona. From London the route runs Eurostar to Paris first, then a separate train south, as there is no single through-ticket to Spain. Eurostar seats open about 11 months ahead and the French TGV about six months ahead, so lock the long legs in first.

Spain's high-speed network is the reason few people fly between Spanish cities. Renfe's AVE trains run between Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Valencia, Málaga and more, and the low-cost operators Iryo and Ouigo compete on the busiest corridors, which keeps fares sharp when you book early. Point-to-point tickets released months ahead usually cost less than any pass. If your plan has four or more long hops, look at the Renfe Spain Pass, sold to travelers who live outside Spain in blocks of 4, 6, 8 or 10 journeys; note that it covers Renfe trains only, not Iryo or Ouigo. ALSA's long-distance coaches fill the gaps the rails leave and run beyond Spain into the rest of Europe. The Balearic and Canary Islands are reached by plane or ferry.

A rental car earns its keep in rural Andalusia, the Picos de Europa, Galicia's back roads and the emptier stretches of coast. In big cities it becomes a liability: parking is scarce and expensive, and Spain's climate change law requires municipalities with more than 50,000 residents to run low-emission zones, which restrict which vehicles may enter central areas. Check the zone rules for Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and any other city on your route, and ask your rental company what badge or registration the car carries before you drive in. For pure city-to-city travel, the train is almost always the smoother choice.

Spain runs on the euro and is comfortable with cards: contactless is standard in supermarkets, restaurants and museums, and prices include IVA, so the menu price is what you pay. Small bars, market stalls and some rural businesses still prefer cash, so keep a little in your pocket. Tipping is a rounding-up habit more than a rule, and nobody minds if you skip it at a café counter. Visitors from outside the EU can claim IVA back on goods they take home; the shop issues a tax-free form, and you collect the refund at the airport on the way out. Tourist taxes are regional rather than national, and your hotel bill in Catalonia or the Balearic Islands will add a per-night charge.

Spain is a low-risk country by European standards, and the crime you are most likely to brush against is theft, not violence. Pickpockets and distraction teams work the arrivals halls at the big airports, the metro, the busiest monuments and street markets; phones, wallets and passports are the prizes. Wear bags across your chest, leave the passport in the hotel safe with a photo of it on your phone, and never leave a phone sitting on a café table. Police can ask to see photo ID, so carry something. Some towns fine public drinking, so keep the party inside. At the beach, swim between the flags; parts of the Atlantic coast have real currents.

Pharmacies, marked with green crosses, are everywhere in Spain and handle minor problems quickly. EU visitors with an EHIC and UK visitors with a GHIC get medically necessary state care, but those cards cover neither private clinics nor a flight home, so carry proper travel insurance. Not every resort area sits close to a public hospital. Inland Spain turns seriously hot in July and August: drink water through the day, sightsee in the mornings and evenings, and treat headaches and dizziness in the heat as a warning sign. Check that routine vaccinations are current, and if you take regular medication, bring it in its original packaging with a copy of the prescription.

If your phone plan is from another EU country, it travels with you: roam-like-at-home rules mean calls, texts and data in Spain cost the same as at home, with fair-use limits on big data plans. Travelers from outside the EU who need a local number usually pick up a prepaid SIM or eSIM, sold at airports and city shops. Coverage is strong in cities and along the high-speed rail corridors and patchier in mountain valleys and on rural roads. Hotel, café and many train Wi-Fi networks are common, but treat public Wi-Fi as open and save banking for your own connection.

Spanish days run late. Lunch is the main meal and often starts around 2 pm; dinner rarely begins before 9 pm, and a restaurant serving dinner at 7 is aimed at visitors. Tipping is optional and modest, and plenty of locals leave nothing at a café counter. Greetings are warm but easy: a handshake on introduction, two cheek kisses among friends. Social plans tolerate a little lateness, but a restaurant booking does not, and the long chat after a meal is part of the evening rather than a sign to move on.

Castilian Spanish is the official language of the whole country, and three more languages share official status in their home regions: Catalan in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, where it is called Valencian; Galician in Galicia; and Basque in the Basque Country and parts of Navarre. Signs, menus and station names in those regions often appear in the regional language, sometimes alongside Castilian, so one place can carry two spellings. English is common in tourist areas and rarer the moment you leave them; a greeting and a please in Spanish change how the day goes.

Spain's 2026 calendar has nine nationwide public holidays: January 1, January 6, April 3, Good Friday, May 1, August 15, October 12, November 1, December 8 and December 25. Regions add their own days and can shift a Sunday holiday to the following Monday, and municipalities add up to two local fiestas, so closures differ from town to town. Banks, government offices and small shops shut on holidays, while big-city shops, restaurants and most museums stay open. August brings a second kind of closure, when independent businesses take their annual break, especially in cities and resort towns.

Two categories in Spain punish late planning: headline monuments and long-distance trains. Alhambra tickets are timed to the Nasrid Palaces and linked to your passport or ID, so book as soon as your dates are firm; summer and Easter slots go first. Sagrada Família entry also runs on timed tickets. On the rails, Renfe opens sales between 15 days and nine months ahead depending on the route, and the cheapest fare classes disappear first, so booking a few weeks ahead usually beats both walk-up prices and a pass on a short loop. If you are traveling in July, August or Holy Week, secure trains and monuments before you commit to flights.