Local guides
Driving in Spanish cities
Each city has its own quirks - different DGT office, different low-emission zone, different local rules that catch expats out. Pick yours below for a focused guide.
Driving in Madrid
Madrid combines wide boulevards, narrow historic streets, and one of the most aggressive low-emission zones in Spain. Most expats can handle it after a week - b...
3 DGT exam centres listed
Driving in Barcelona
Barcelona is laid out on a grid (the Eixample), which makes navigation easy, but the city has Spain's most enforced low-emission zone (ZBE Rondes de Barcelona)...
3 DGT exam centres listed
Driving in Valencia
Valencia is Spain's third-largest city, with flat terrain, generous boulevards, and Europe's longest urban park (the old Turia riverbed). Driving is significant...
3 DGT exam centres listed
Driving in Seville
Seville is famously hot, famously hospitable, and the historic centre is notoriously hard to drive in. The Casco Antiguo (old town) is a maze of one-way alleys...
3 DGT exam centres listed
Driving in Zaragoza
Zaragoza sits at the crossroads of the AP-2 (Madrid-Barcelona) and the A-23 (Pyrenees-Levante). The city itself is flat and easy to drive in - wide post-Expo 20...
2 DGT exam centres listed
Driving in Málaga
Málaga is the gateway to the Costa del Sol and one of the fastest-growing expat hubs in Spain. The city centre has been heavily pedestrianised over the last dec...
3 DGT exam centres listed
Driving in Murcia
Murcia is the capital of one of Spain's most agricultural regions - its huerta (market garden) surrounds the city for kilometres. Driving in central Murcia is s...
3 DGT exam centres listed
Driving in Palma
Palma de Mallorca is the busiest island capital in Spain, with year-round driving demand from a permanent population of ~415,000 plus seasonal tourists. The cit...
3 DGT exam centres listed
Driving in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Las Palmas is the largest city in the Canary Islands and Spain's eighth-largest. The city sits on a narrow isthmus joining the rest of Gran Canaria to the La Is...
3 DGT exam centres listed
Driving in Bilbao
Bilbao is the cultural and economic capital of the Basque Country, transformed since the 1990s from a heavy-industry port into a design-conscious city around th...
3 DGT exam centres listed
Driving in Alicante
Alicante is a major Mediterranean port and the gateway to the Costa Blanca, with a permanent population of ~340,000 and one of the highest concentrations of Bri...
3 DGT exam centres listed
Driving in Córdoba
Córdoba is a UNESCO World Heritage city famous for the Mezquita-Cathedral and its labyrinthine Judería (Jewish quarter). Driving in central Córdoba is challengi...
2 DGT exam centres listed
Driving in Valladolid
Valladolid is the historic capital of Castilla y León and a major automotive manufacturing hub (Renault's largest Spanish plant). Driving here is generally easy...
2 DGT exam centres listed
Driving in Vigo
Vigo is the largest city in Galicia and Spain's busiest fishing port. Driving here is unlike anywhere else in Spain - steep hills (Vigo is essentially built on...
2 DGT exam centres listed
Driving in Gijón
Gijón is the largest city in Asturias, a coastal industrial port that has reinvented itself around tourism and tech. The city is laid out along a curving beach...
2 DGT exam centres listed
Why local guides matter
Spain's DGT theory exam is national - the same 30 questions, the same pass mark, the same Spanish driving code from Tarifa to A Coruña. But the day you actually get into a car, everything is local: which DGT office offered the English exam slot fastest, whether your neighbourhood is inside a low-emission zone, what the local parking colour means, which way the trams run.
Each guide above is written for an expat about to drive in that specific city for the first time. Real DGT addresses, real ZBE rules, the mistakes British and American drivers consistently make there.