Spain stands out for being a country with high quality roads, having a Mediterranean vibe and a warm and dry climate. The Pyrenees Mountains span the Spanish-French border and are rather rocky where they meet the road. The Pyrenees are normally packed full of trees and have high quality roads. Olive trees are found across Spain. Spanish houses are normally either white or a shade of a warm colour such as red, yellow or orange. The Spanish bollards have a yellow, narrow rectangle inside the standard European black part of the bollard. This bollard is unique to Spain. Dacia Sandero cars are found right across the country. These cars are also common in Romania and Bulgaria. The Spanish language is a good indicator that you are in Spain. This language is fairly easy to identify just by reading it. There are some key differences between Spanish and the similar Portuguese. Spanish has the word ‘y’ meaning ‘and’. This letter appears everywhere as a word in Spain. Finally, the letter ‘ñ’ which is an ‘n’ with a squiggly line on top is found in Spanish but not Portuguese. The Spanish highway system is explained in detail in the ‘Highways Numbering Systems’ section further up this article. Spanish bollards are fairly unique. They feature the standard European black and white bollard with a bright yellow, narrow rectangle encased in the black section of the bollard. Dacia Sandero cars are found across much of Spain. They are also found abundantly in Bulgaria and Romania. They can be identified by their logo, pictured. Other than the written language sounding Spanish, there are some specific things to look for to identify Spanish and distinguish it from Portuguese and other languages. Look for is the letter ‘y’ as its own word. This means ‘and’ in Spanish. Also, Spanish sometimes has the letter ‘ñ’ appear which is the letter n with a squiggly line over the top. The Basque language is spoken in a small pocket of north-eastern Spain. This region has signs in both Basque and Spanish. The Pyrenees Mountains stretch across North-Eastern Spain and continue into France. The hill bases next to the roads are often rocky, there are many trees and the roads are typically high quality. Spain is one of the hot spots for olive trees with the southern 2/3rds of the country being particularly full of them. Most of Spain has a warm feel. The main roads are typically of a high quality and much of the country has a Mediterranean vibe. Spanish houses are generally either white or a shade of some warm colour such as red, orange or yellow. The Spanish landscape tend to be undulating with the vegetation looking very dry. Rural Spain can look similar to the Mediterranean parts of Eastern Europe however Spain can generally be distinguished thanks to its better maintained roads. Part of Spain between Madrid and Murcia due to the lack of rain resembles a desert. The northern section of Spain due to the high rainfall is very green and lush. Guardrails in Spain have these yellow-orange reflectors which are typically found every few meters. These yellow-orange reflectors aren’t found elsewhere in Europe. Scattered right across rural Spain on the outskirts of rural Spanish properties are small flags. The most common of these flags are black and white in colour and indicate ‘no public hunting’. Although the black and white small flags are by far the most common, there are small flags featuring a number of colours on Spanish properties including red as well as green and white. These small, Spanish flags are typically mounted on tiny stakes around 50cm high. Spain has a number of different types of utility poles. The type pictured isn’t the most common pole but it does stand out thanks to its numerous indents. France can have similar looking indented poles however Spanish poles are whiter in colour. Portugal can have similar poles with less indents and featuring holes. The green top on Spanish bollards only occurs in Extremadura in Spain. The location of Extremadura in Spain- where there are green tops to the Spanish bollards. The word ‘CALLE’ means ‘STREET’ in Spanish and often appears throughout Spain and Latin America. 

Spain uses standard long, white European plates with a single blue strip on the left.

Most Portuguese plates have a yellow strip on the right. Italian plates have two blue strips on either side of the plate.

The standard Spanish bollards have a yellow-orange reflector on the front and two white dots on the back (though the back can also be blank). They are typically hollow.

Very close to Andorra, you can find a slightly different bollard, which is also used in Andorra itself.

In Spain, you can find a variety of electricity poles and pole tops. In small towns and sparsely populated rural areas concrete ladder poles and wooden poles are the most common.

“Ladder” poles have indents that resemble a ladder, hence the name.

“French style” poletops are common in Spain. They are shaped like an upside down triangle, with a horizontal top bar that is curved slightly upwards. They are usually found on top of tall ladder poles or medium sized steel poles.

As the name suggests, French poletops are also very common in France.

High voltage electricity lines supported by pylons are very common in Spain, especially compared to other Mediterranean countries.

Spain has distinct road markers with a variety of colourful borders. The code on top is the number of the road.

Andorra has similar markers and the letter codes preceding the road number on these markers are often an important region-specific clue. You can learn more about these codes in the region guessing section.

In rural areas you will often find hunting signs. There are two versions, both of which are unique to Spain. One is a simple white sign with a text starting with “coto” and ending in “caza”. The other one has a diagonally divided black and white background.

These signs have an identifying code that can sometimes be read. In this case “Ex” stands for Extremadura.

Spain has yellow reflectors on rounded A-type guardrails.

Belgium, Andorra and Gibraltar also have yellow reflectors. For a good overview of European guardrails, see this infographic.

Spanish pedestrian crossing signs have 8 stripes. This is the highest number of stripes in Europe, and almost unique to Spain.

The only other European country with 8 stripes is Andorra.

Spanish stop signs have a distinct small font.

These are mostly useful to distinguish Portugal from Spain: Portuguese stop signs have a noticeably larger font.

Red borders on road signs extend all the way to the edge of the sign. There is no small white border separating the red part from the edge.

France, Italy and Portugal have a small white border on the edge of such road signs.

Almost all traffic signs, kilometre markers, chevrons and some direction signs in Spain have a flat signpost.

Flat signposts in Europe are also present in Portugal, France and Andorra.

Spain has two chevrons: black with white arrows, and blue with white arrows. Chevrons with a single arrow are rare.

In Southern Europe, black with white chevrons can be found in Italy, Greece and Albania. 

France is the only other European country that has blue with white chevrons. 

Portugal has black with yellow chevrons.

Spanish direction signs have a white background. They often feature colourful boxes with road numbers, making them recognizable. These road number boxes can be many different colours.

Highway signs have a blue background.

Rural roads sometimes have dashed outer lines. This can help tell Spain apart from Portugal and Italy, where such road lines are (almost) non-existent.

Note that the reverse is not true: like Italy and Portugal, many Spanish roads do have solid outer lines.

Spanish is the main language in most of the country. It is a Romance language that is closely related to Portuguese.

Spanish and Portuguese can look very similar. Some key differences between the two:

Ñ is unique to Spanish. 

Ç and lh are unique to Portuguese (Ç is also present in Catalan). 

Portuguese uses the -ao word ending, and -nh- instead of ñ.

Portuguese uses da and do, where Spanish uses de.

Spain also has several regional languages, some of which are more common than Spanish in their respective regions. These languages are discussed in more detail in the region-guessing section.

The Spanish word for street is calle.

You will often find no parking signs in front of garage doors and gates. They will usually read “Vado permanente”.

These signs will very often have the name of the municipality after “Ayuntamiento de”.

Italy uses signs that read “Passo carrabile”.

While there is not one single definitive Spanish landscape, most of the country has a somewhat dry, Mediterranean climate, with matching vegetation and agriculture.


Bollard:

Spanish bollards are black and white with a yellow rectangle within the black section.

Road Lines:

Spain uses all white lines.

Road Signs:

Spanish road information signs have thick red borders.

Spain uses blue, white, yellow, and brown backed signs.

Electricity poles:

Spain uses wooden and concrete poles.

License plates:

Spain uses the standard EU style plate.

Vegetation/Landscape:

Spain has a variety of landscapes, from alpine mountains on the Andorran border, lush forests in the north, and dryer shrub and desert landscapes to the south.

The Canary islands:

The canaries are a group of Spanish islands off the coast of Morocco, they are volcanic islands and as such can differ in appearance to mainland Spain.
They are very mountainous and often feature darker almost black soil/rocks.


Architecture:

Spain features many smaller single floored buildings, either with flat rooves or red/brown tiles.
Houses will often be painted white or bright colours.

