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.

map of the baleares islands

-Canarias islands

map of the Canarias islands

-small territories north of Morocco : Ceuta, Melilla, and some minor islands.

map of the spanish enclaves in Morocco

The autonomous communities

Spain is divided in 17 regions named comunidades autónomas, plus the 2 autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla.

carte des région d'Espagne

You can learn them with this quiz Seterra.

Biggest cities

Here's a map of the biggest cities in Spain :

map of spanish cities

You can learn them with the City quiz.

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 :

carte des région d'Espagne

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 :

map of provinces and capitals

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.

map of regional languages in Spain

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.