Before you drive in Spain, make sure that you have the necessary permit to do so.

Driving licenses issued in any Member State of the European Union and European Economic Area (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) are valid for driving in Spain while in force and have not been withdrawn for any reason, provided that the age required for driving corresponds to that required to obtain the equivalent Spanish driving license.

You could also exchange your country’s permit for a Spanish one, register your permit in the Spanish record, renew your license if it is about to expire (you will get a Spanish one) or get a duplicate if you have lost, impaired or have it stolen.

I have been stopped once by a policeman who claimed that I should have a Spanish driving license instead of my Maltese one, since I’ve been living here for more than two years. This is incorrect due to what I said above. There are some cases where this is true (see conditions here) but in my case it wasn’t. Beware of the fact that some traffic police don’t actually know the laws properly and you might get fined unjustly.

Driving licenses that have been issued in countries with which there is agreement can be exchanged for equivalent Spanish license when a number of administrative requirements are met. In some cases it will be necessary to test additional ability to perform the swap.

If your permit has not been issued from the European Union, European Economic Area (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) and does not appear in the special list of countries with which Spain has an agreement, you’ll have to get a new permit.

There aren’t many reasons to change your driving permit to a Spanish one if you’re a European citizen. In my case, I opted to do so since I needed an international driving permit to drive in the United States and in Thailand. To get one I would have needed to apply for it in Malta, which was inconvenient and more expensive, so I opted to apply for it here. In order to do so, I had to change my driving permit to the Spanish one and only then be able to apply to the International Driving Permit here in Spain. You need to prepare some papers and get an appointment here.

A note on International Driving Permits: You may be thinking of getting an IDP for driving in Spain. These types of permits are issued by a select number of national authorities in each country, however there are many websites that claim to offer an IDP with a validity longer than one year, a plastic card and a digital version.

These are all scams, and while they can indeed work due to police or rental desk people not knowing the difference between a real and fake IDP, I would always recommend you get a real IDP from your country of residence.

Insurance

It’s usually recommended to get full/comprehensive insurance on new or semi-new cars and third-party coverage for cars that are more than 4-5 years old, since by then they would have lost almost half their value. You can find the best deals on comparison sites such as Rastreator, Acierto or Rankia. You can also use the Coverfy app to get great deals on insurance.

Published by jeangalea.com