Spain from Ireland — the Side Switch & City Low-Emission Zones

Spain is one of Ireland’s easiest drive-abroad destinations on paper — your Irish licence needs no IDP, the motorway limit of 120 km/h matches home, and the alcohol limit is the same 0.05. So the two things worth getting right are both about adjusting to local conditions rather than wrestling with rules. The first is the obvious one: Spain drives on the right, while you drive on the left at home. The reflexes that catch Irish drivers out come in the first hour — pulling out of a forecourt, taking a roundabout that now turns the other way, or the instinctive glance in the wrong direction. Pick up the car somewhere quiet, not in central Madrid, and stay deliberate at every junction until it settles.

The second is newer and easy to miss: Spain’s low-emission zones (Zonas de Bajas Emisiones, or ZBE). Driven by national law, cities over 50,000 people are rolling these out, and Madrid and Barcelona already restrict or fine vehicles entering their centres without the right environmental classification or registration. A rental will usually have the correct DGT environmental label, but the access rules differ city by city, and a wrong turn into a restricted central zone can mean a camera fine arriving weeks later. Check before you drive into any Spanish city centre; our Spain driving guide covers how the zones work, and who pays driving fines abroad explains how those charges find a rental.

On the open road, Spain is relaxed and well-signed: motorways 120 km/h, rural roads 90, towns 50, with widespread fixed and average-speed cameras and a firm attitude to enforcement. A typical speeding fine is around EUR 100, and serious offences are settled fast — the speeding fine calculator shows the bands. The car must carry a warning triangle and reflective vest, and Spanish law expects the vest to be reachable from inside the cabin, not the boot, so you can put it on before stepping out onto a hard shoulder.

Fuel sits around EUR 1.70/litre, and the all-services emergency number is 112. Get the side switch settled on quiet roads, check the city zones before you drive into one, and Spain is as straightforward as driving abroad gets.