Spain by rental car

We loved Granada's royal chapel, too. I love a road trip! Not trying to play devil's advocate, but all your locations except the white villages are easily accessed by train. I am wondering what advantages you had with the car? Certainly, its great to not be tied to train schedules and to be flexible. Where there unplanned stops for sites or viewpoints? Where did you park in Sevilla and Granada?

Sorry not all your experiences with the rental car were good. I always have a rental car and haven’t had the issues you seem to have had. Then again, I seldom go into the larger cities and always look up parking lots beforehand. Getting a ticket for crossing a white line seems odd. The infraction should say where exactly it occurred. If you pay online within 30 days the fine is reduced by 50%. When I received a speeding ticket after our 2017 trip I went to the mile marker on the ticket and sure enough, there the camera was.

Other than the Alhambra we’ve never pre-purchased tickets for anything and had no problem getting in. Your experience with cancelled tickets via 3rd party vendors is a nice reminder to buy through the official websites.

Overall, I hope you enjoyed the trip.

I want to say our Spain trip was fantastic. I would say about equal to Portugal, but bigger and maybe more majestic. We lived in Greece 2013-2016 and drove everywhere in Europe. So I am experienced but parking is still a drag.

Why chose a rental car? Really to go through the small towns like Arcos, Zahara and Ronda. You can only drive to these places. I like the freedom, we normally do not book everything in advance. We had very special experiences in the small villages, even without knowing Spanish. If we had the language it would be better. I book my hotels 2-3 days ahead depending on how long we stay. We stayed longer in Granada and Toledo and skipped Salamanca as we liked them so much. Cordoba was a great first city to enter, small and walkable and not crowded.

In some cities there are resident only driving zones, we were not aware, our hotel in Granada reported our car so we would not be fined. Never encountered this before. The traffic ticket comes with a picture of the car and the exact location. When you are near Madrid in heavy traffic i was paying attention to cars, not lines. I called the phone number in Spain on the ticket, got an English speaking operator, and she walked me through the online website to pay fines. Yes, 50% off if you pay within one month. I do not have a Spain ID number, so you have to put in 999-999-999 instead of an ID number. That is not mentioned on the website. Without calling you would not be able to figure that out. You can only pay online.

I would skip the small towns and stick to trains. As the train zoomed by me, I was jealous. You cannot drive in the towns anyway, and parking is hard. The hotels had to give you a map to find the parking lot, all one way streets and not easy.

By the way, metro in Madrid and Seville were great. Seville you swipe a Visa card, and Madrid we bought a 10 ride pass for 8 Euros. Two can share one pass. Madrid metro allows one to stay further away and get cheaper hotels. We stayed at Plaza Mayor Euro 270 a night for small place.

@jaimeelsabio is the Forum expert on driving in Spain! We have had similar positive experiences driving throughout Spain. Scoping out where to park (sometimes with the help of @jaimeelsabio — thank you!) in advance makes things simple. Ending the trip in our departure city (e.g., Barcelona, Madrid) allows for dropping the car on arrival and sightseeing on foot. The only place we’ve had a hassle driving was in Granada but that was due to local construction which was presumably bad timing. And, yes, there has been one after the fact traffic ticket that was easily resolved online. We won’t hesitate to drive next time we return to Spain.

Parking in Spain:
Hesperia Cordoba Hotel, lovely hotel, parking under the hotel Euro 20
Hesperia Seville, lovely, parking on ground behind hotel Euro 25
Arcos La Casa Grande, Rick recommends, wonderful, parking garage just outside before old town, 15 Euros
Ronda Hotel San Francisco, Rick recommends, parking lot 1/3 mile away 15 Euros
Granada, Casa del Capitel Nazari, Rick recommends very lovely, public parking garage 1 km away a bit hard to find but okay, hotel gives direction, 20 Euros
Toledo parking garage next to Pintor El Greco Hotel, garage has to be booked ahead by hotel, called Parking del Transito, Euro 20 or 25, there are other garages in town. Hard to drive in Toledo.

We also loved the white villages. We did it by picking up a car in Sevilla and returning when we arrived Granada. In addition to the villages, we loved the Mountain Views. There is no one best way to travel.

The only city I got lost in while driving even with a GPS was Granada, so many round abouts with 3 or 4 routes and the GPS could not keep up. I slowed down before the round about and waited a few seconds. Driving from Seville to Granada to see the hill towns is smart and easy. Train the rest. Good idea.

We drove a car in Spain to get from point A to point B. Once we got to our destination we parked the car and went sightseeing on foot. We mostly stayed in airbnbs that had parking available. Sometimes our accommodations were away from the historic area of town but we were okay with that we didn't mind taking public transportation or walking. If you rent a car definitely get the zero deductible insurance as even minor damage to the car can be costly.

Good for you!! Sounds like an excellent vacation!!

I am one who always rents a car in Spain when I am outside the big cities. So far I've always had great experiences, and find the roads in the regions Ie visited have been excellent (far better than in my home country!!). And drivers have been uniformly polite. I drive slowly, so when there is a line of cars behind me, as often happens, I try to pull over to the right and let them pass. Then I drive on until, shortly after, another line forms behind slow-driving me!!

I always get a car with GPS included. Did you have that, or did you rely on your phone for navigation? In the past few years, I've booked with SIXT, which has always provided excellent service with no surprises. (I used to book with AutoEurope but no longer do so, for various reasons). The employees at SIXT have gone out of their way to help me when I pick up the car, setting up the GPS, showing me various quirks of that particular model, etc. I usually end up with small Audi or BMW and like that, since I'm now used to driving those makes.

I also take the full insurance offered, with no deductible. It costs more but gives me peace of mind.