7 Spain Road trips for an ultimate and authentic experience 7 Spain Road trips for an ultimate and authentic experience

Top Spain road trips

2023 - road trips in Spain

8 recommended itineraries for your road trip in Spain - Updated November 2022

Spain has a fantastic road network that connects many Unesco heritage cities. A road trip in Spain is an excellent option to enjoy Spain. However, building up a good road trip itinerary is very time-consuming. Building an amazing one is even more… and on many occasions, the results are not as good as they should. Most recommendations and blogs on the web are written by people who have been only once to an area, or that have only been to a restaurant or hotel in a city. We have visited attractions, hotels, and restaurants and are happy to share them with you. In these road trips, you will find amazing ideas which we believe are awesome!

Our team of local experts has designed some fantastic road trip itineraries to enjoy in Spain. These guides are free of charge and are ready to be used by you. In case you book any of the services we recommend from links on our website we receive a small commission that helps us in our effort to build great itineraries for you.

These 8 road trip itineraries provide a fantastic and diverse experience of Spain on the road

 

You can find here the maps of each road trip itinerary proposed. By clicking on any of them you can also access the full itinerary with all the recommendations to visit the area, driving times, best hotels for different budget levels, some of the top restaurants that offer great local food, fantastic tours, and activities as well as many other interesting details.

2023 Spain road trip guide

Selection of the best 8 itineraries for a Road trip in Spain

Design a fantastic road trip in northern Spain from Bilbao to Sntiago de Compostela with this free itinerary planner that includes recommendations to discover the north of Spain by visiting elegant cities such as San Sebastian, Santander and Oviedo and small fishing villages, all with their traditional architecture. This road trip itinerary has been selected as one of Spain’s best holidays by The Times. Our team of local experts recommends top hotels, restaurants, hidden gems, and activities to enjoy

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This gastronomy road trip itinerary in Spain takes you through the North of Spain (Bilbao, San Sebastian, Pamplona and Rioja) and the French Basque country. It is a fantastic opportunity to get to know the real and authentic culture, gastronomy and wine of these regions. You will enjoy wine culture in Rioja, amazing gastronomy, beautiful landscapes and some of Spain´s most charming villages. There is so much to discover in a gastronomic road trip through the North of Spain!

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Design a fantastic road trip in northern Spain from Bilbao to Sntiago de Compostela with this free itinerary planner that includes recommendations to discover the north of Spain by visiting elegant cities such as San Sebastian, Santander and Oviedo and small fishing villages, all with their traditional architecture. This road trip itinerary has been selected as one of Spain’s best holidays by The Times. Our team of local experts recommends top hotels, restaurants, hidden gems, and activities to enjoy

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Discover the best of La Rioja with this short but complete road trip itinerary in Spain´s top wine region in which you will visit emblematic wineries and taste their wines, explore magnificent landscapes, taste the traditional gastronomy of Rioja, get to know its culture and curiosities, and enjoy activities related to the world of wine. We have carefully selected each of the services recommended to make this the best way to discover this wonderful region.

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Design a fantastic road trip in northern Spain from Bilbao to Sntiago de Compostela with this free itinerary planner that includes recommendations to discover the north of Spain by visiting elegant cities such as San Sebastian, Santander and Oviedo and small fishing villages, all with their traditional architecture. This road trip itinerary has been selected as one of Spain’s best holidays by The Times. Our team of local experts recommends top hotels, restaurants, hidden gems, and activities to enjoy

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An amazing itinerary to enjoy Spain and Portugal with a road trip along the Duero river and stops at top cities like Segovia, Salamanca, Avila, porto, Braga, Santiago de Compostela and many more!

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Recommendations and itineraries for a road trip across the South of Spain written by our local destination experts. We aim at providing recommendations that offer overall great road trip experience, value and a fantastic selection of ideas collected with all the inside knowledge of our local experts.

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Recommendations and itineraries for a road trip across the North of Spain written by our local destination experts. We aim at providing recommendations that offer overall great road trip experience in the north of Spain. This is one of the best guides to enjoy a road trip in Spain´s northern coastline. You will find value options and a fantastic selection of ideas collected with all the inside knowledge of our local experts.

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Spain Road trip Maps

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Some recomendations for a road trip in Spain in 2023

Are roads safe in Spain? Are they good? 

This is one of the questions most frequently asked to our team. Good news is roads are very good in Spain. You will find some few exceptions, of course, but in global terms Spain has an excellent road and hihgway network.

One of the most important things to consider when deciding on driving in a country is the quality of the roads. Spain has a very good highway network and secondary roads are also good. While using highways means you would lose a lot in terms of sightseeing, they are convenient and should be used to cover longer distances on those areas which are not of particular interest. We would recommend for instance using highways when returning from the road trip in case the car is being dropped off where it was originally picked up. Another option is to start with a long driving distance and continue on secondary roads the following days. 

As an example, our Spain road trip itineraries are built taking into consideration 3 elements: the total amount of driving per day, the recommended stops to make the road trip interesting, and the kind of road you drive on that day.

The show case of itineraries we have prepared include routes that can be enjoyed by people that have planned for 7 to 9 days on the road. This can be considered by many travelers to Spain as short itineraries. In any case we would recommend to focus on an area rather than trying to cover the whole country. In case you have 20 days or more you can be more ambitious. You can get some inspiration by combining 2 of the itineraries we propose and which, if put together can get close to 20 days. 

Driving distances in Spain

Spain is not a huge country and the fact it is almost square means driving distances are also reduced. A typical road in Spain could be driving from Barcelona in the North east to Seville in the south. This implies between 1,000 and 1,200 kilometers.

Driving from Barcelona in the North east to Santiago de Compostela in the North west implies driving a total distance of 1,100 kilometers.

Madrid is located in the center of Spain and it can serve as a good starting or end point for many road trip itineraries.  

Things to bear in mind when you plan a road trip in Spain

– Accomodation. Most high quality small family run hotels will request a minimum of 2 nights accommodation during high season. Bear this in mind if you are planning an itinerary for which you have limited time and an ambitious itinerary with many things to see and do.

– Local food: Spain offers a very diverse and rich local gastronomy. We strongly recommend to eat local food and to find restaurants that offer a good example of local famous recipes. We recommend to take time to plan your road trip itinerary carefully to include those villages which are famous for local gastronomy. Get restaurants booked in advance, specially in high season. Trying to find the perfect place while strolling around a village can be a great story if it ends well… but many times, specially with limited time during your road trip you would prefer to enjoy the village and relax knowing you are booked.

– Prioritise: Spain is full of history and culture. There are so many monuments, museums and places than you can visit that it takes a lot of preparation to ensure you prioritize well. A good method we use when building our itineraries is to get always a “must see” attraction and then a good list of venues and experiences which are very interesting and not so popular. We do also make sure and we believe it is a good idea ensure there is always a bit of time time to “get lost” in the streets of a small village and discover something unexpected.

– Roads: all distances are expressed in Kilometers Spain. Please note that local roads change name if a different province. You can drive on a road, continue on it, but it will change name if you change province.

– Where to get reliable news on traffic and road recommendation information?. We recommend using local Guia repsol or via Michelin to get recommended roads in Spain.

– Car rental. Make sure you rent with a company that has no problem in dropping off at your end point. This becomes even more important if you are planning to continue your road trip to Portugal or France.

– Petrol Stations. Nearly all petrol stations offer snacks and drinks in Spain. The distance among petrol stations in regulated and you should be able to find one before you run out of petrol (from the moment you get your low level petrol warning from your car. We of course recommend to refill once your level is a ¼

– Toilet at petrol stations. Despite big improvements have taken care in this area in past years you may still find poor examples of what a toilet should never look like. Petrol stations on larger motorways are normally safer in this respect.

– DGT. This is Spain´s institution in charge of the road network. They provide with alerts on their website for things like work on a road, etc. Their website is here

– Weather forecast. Being on the road it is always wise to have a look at the weather forecast. With so many websites providing weather information, a good idea is to stick to the ones you normally use if they have proved good at providing information. 

For a general overview on the weatehr in Northern Spain we recommend this section of our website. It provides with a good summary of temperatures and rain per month in different areas in North Spain. 

For the same sort of information but on the South of Spain we recommend this southern Spain weather of our website

Road in Spain