Introduction
Here's what you can learn to find your location in spain :
-cities and regions
-road numbering system
-regional languages
-phone numbers
Geography
In Spain there is :
-a continental part.
-Baleares islands.
-Canarias islands
-small territories north of Morocco : Ceuta, Melilla, and some minor islands.
The autonomous communities
Spain is divided in 17 regions named comunidades autónomas, plus the 2 autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla.
You can learn them with this quiz Seterra.
Roads
Spanish road numbering system is quite logical, and the prefix is a good clue on where you are. Most prefixes are unique, but some are not.
Highways and national roads
There are 6 main directions :
On direction 1, there is the N-I (with a roman number), the A-1 which stands for Autopista 1, and the AP1 that stands for Autopista Peaje 1.
In general, for highways A, toll highways AP and national roads N, if the first digit is 1, the best scanning zone is between direction 1 and direction 2. However, some roads cross the whole country, sometimes with gaps. So you might want to chack if your road doesnt restart further away.
Beware, roads A are not always highways, some regional roads can be named A.
Regional roads
The Road quiz : Spain can help you train your regional roads prefixes.
Each region (comunidades autónomas) i divided in provinces.
Almost all the road prefixes are either linked :
-to the region. Examples : roads C in Catalunya, roads CM in Castilla la Mancha.
-to the province capital. Examples : OU around Ourense, SA around Salamanca.
So it's quite important to know those cities :
Roads names can have an additional P or V at the end, for example around Barajoz there are BA and BAV roads.
Details and traps for regional roads
Some road prefixes are not unique, as you can see in the Road quiz : Spain.
Some prefixes are identical :
-Roads A may be highways, Andalucia, Aragon, Alicante or Alava (Pais Vasco).
-Roads B are likely around Barcelona, and roads C in Catalunya. But there are a few scattered all around the country.
-Roads CA are for Cantabria or Cadiz.
-CP, CV and VP are quite generic and can be found in Galicia, in Zaragoza, or in Cordoba.
-GI is for Girona or Guipuzcoa, which is the name of the province around San Sebastian.
Some prefixes are similar :
- HU Huesca, H/HF Huelva.
- M Madrid, MA Malaga, Ma Mallorca.
- P Palencia, PA pamplona.
- TE Teruel, TF Ténérife.
- V Valencia, VA Valladolid.
- TE Teruel, TF Ténérife.
- Z Zaragoza, ZA Zamora.
To be more precise
The 75 prefixes in the quiz cover the vast majority of roads. It doesnt include rarely used road prefixes, such as CHE that stands for Confederación Hidrografica del Ebro.
Languages
Spanish is the official national language, but there are regional languages.
Recognize some regional languages :
One option is to look at the street names :
-In spanish , street = calle.
-In catalan, street = carrer.
-En galician, street = rua (galician is close to portuguese).
-In basque, street = kalea.
Some other tips :
-Basque uses a lot of X and Z.
-In Galicia you may find "A","O" or "As" at the beginning of some location names : "A Coruna", "O Toxino", "As pontes de Garcia Rodriguez"...
Phone numbers/h3>
Landlines in Spain are 9 digits long, they start with 8 or 9 followed by a 2 digit area code.
You can learn the phone numbers with the Phone number quiz for Spain.