- Spain
- Parking
Parking in Spain
Kerb colours, signs, paying and fines: what a visiting driver needs to know.
- Continuous yellow line: no stopping or parking
- Dashed yellow line: no parking
- Yellow zigzag: reserved (bus stop, loading)
- Blue bay: paid, time-limited (city rules)
- Green bay: residents first (city rules)
- White bay: no colour restriction, check the signs
Kerb and bay colours
Yellow markings are national rules: a continuous yellow line along the kerb means no stopping and no parking, a dashed yellow line means no parking, and a yellow zigzag marks a reserved place, usually a bus stop or a loading bay.
Blue and green bays are set by each city, so their rules differ. They are usually paid and time-limited on working days. In Madrid, for example, visitors may park up to 2 hours in green bays and up to 4 hours in blue ones, Monday to Friday 9:00–21:00 and Saturday 9:00–15:00 (in August Monday to Saturday 9:00–15:00; public holidays are free). Bays marked only in white have no colour restriction, but the signs nearby still apply.
Facts checked: October 2026
- R-307 no stopping and no parking
- R-308 no parking
- S-17 parking
Signs
Round signs with a red border prohibit: R-307, with a red cross, bans stopping and parking; R-308, with one red diagonal, bans parking but allows a short stop to drop someone off. R-308c and R-308d ban parking in the first or the second half of the month, changing at 9:00. R-308e marks a garage entrance (vado): do not park in front of it. R-309 marks the start of a time-limited zone and R-504 its end. The blue S-17 sign with a white P marks a parking area.
A panel under a sign narrows it: days and hours, “EXCEPTO” with the vehicles it does not apply to (residents, loading and unloading), or a length in metres. Spain changed its official sign catalogue in July 2025, so older guides may show other codes.
Facts checked: October 2026
Paying
In blue and green zones you pay at the parking meter, by card or coins, or with the official apps the city lists; in Barcelona the city app is smou. Where payment is not linked to your number plate, leave the ticket visible behind the windscreen.
Cities may set parking prices by vehicle size and environmental label, and may tow or clamp a car parked without a ticket or for more than three times the time paid; since 1 October 2026 the national traffic rules say so explicitly.
Facts checked: October 2026
Fines and towing
Most parking offences are minor ones with fines up to 100 €; parking in a disabled bay, a bus lane or a dangerous place is a serious offence of 200 €. Paying within 20 days halves the fine. A driver who does not live in Spain may be asked to pay on the spot, or the car may be immobilised, and with a hire car the hirer is responsible.
Some cities let you cancel a pay-zone fine by paying a small amount soon after: in Madrid 4 € for an overstay of less than an hour, in Barcelona 9 € if the overstay is at most half the time paid, in Málaga 5 € for an overstay or 9 € without a ticket within three days. The ticket says how and until when. Towing is expensive: in Madrid 147.55 € plus 19.20 € a day in the pound, in Barcelona 173 € with the first four hours of storage free. Final fines of 70 € or more can be enforced in your home EU country.
Facts checked: October 2026