Riding in Spain: tolls, limits and the rules for bikes

Carry your licence, registration document and insurance certificate. EU licences are valid as they are; UK photocard licences don't need an International Driving Permit. UK-registered bikes need no green card, according to the Motor Insurers’ Bureau. Spain is one of the countries that wants a UK sticker on a UK vehicle whatever the number plate shows, so fit one.

Spain has no vignette. Tolls are charged only on the autopistas de peaje, the roads numbered AP, and many former toll stretches have become free in recent years. The autovías (A-roads) are free. The Spanish government keeps a list of the remaining toll sections; some charge higher rates in summer. Most tolls take cards at the booth.

A helmet is compulsory for rider and passenger. Summer heat in the interior is serious: carry water, and ride in vented kit rather than without it. If you break down on a fast road, get yourself and the bike well off the carriageway before anything else.

Road	Default limit
Autopistas and autovías	120 km/h
Ordinary roads outside towns	90 km/h
Towns	As signed

The DGT (the national traffic authority) runs fixed and average-speed cameras; the limits are enforced.

Riding between lanes of traffic is not allowed in Spain and can be fined. A newer rule gives motorcycles a narrow alternative: on stretches that are expressly signed for it, motorcycles may use the right-hand hard shoulder when traffic in the lanes has come to a complete stop, at no more than 30 km/h, giving way to cyclists and anything else that has to use the shoulder. It doesn't apply in slow or stop-start traffic, or anywhere that isn't signed. Check the DGT's guidance before you rely on it.

Spain's high mountain roads, in the Pyrenees, the Picos de Europa and the Sierra Nevada, can close or need chains after snow, mainly from late autumn to spring. Check the DGT's road information before a mountain day outside summer. Spanish villages are quiet places in the early afternoon; keep revs down through them.

Spanish towns above 50,000 people must run a low-emission zone (zona de bajas emisiones, ZBE), and many now do. Access is based on the DGT environmental label (0, ECO, C or B), and motorcycles are included. In Barcelona's zone, for example, older motorcycles below the Euro 2 standard are barred on weekdays. Each city sets its own rules for foreign-registered vehicles, and some ask you to register in advance. Check the city's ZBE page before you ride into a city centre, or park outside it.

Fuel stations are frequent on main roads and sparse in the empty interior, so fill up before a mountain loop. The north (Asturias, Cantabria, the Picos) is green because it rains; ride it from May to October. The south and the Mediterranean coast are good in spring and autumn and very hot in July and August.

Spain keeps a later timetable than the rest of Europe. Lunch runs well into the afternoon and dinner rarely starts before nine in the evening, and in small towns many shops and some fuel stations close for a long break in the middle of the day. Plan your fuel and food around that, and use the quiet early afternoon for riding: the roads are at their emptiest while everyone else eats.

In the north, the mountain roads of Asturias, Cantabria and León are some of the best in Europe and very lightly used outside August. They have their own hazards: cattle and horses graze unfenced on the high passes and stand in the road, gravel washes onto the inside of hairpins after rain, and low cloud can drop the visibility on a pass to a few metres in minutes. Ride them in the morning, when the cloud is often higher and the roads drier, and keep the afternoons for the valleys.

In the interior and the south, heat is the issue from late June to early September. Start early, stop in the shade through the hottest hours, and drink before you are thirsty. Vented kit with a wicking layer under it keeps you cooler than bare arms, and it keeps the skin on them if you slide.

The road network is newer than many visitors expect. Long stretches of the old national roads now run parallel to free autovías, so they are almost empty and make relaxed touring routes between the mountain areas.

You can ride down through France, two to three days from Calais to the Pyrenees, or take a direct ferry from England to northern Spain and save the ride. Check Brittany Ferries for the current routes and timetables.

• The Picos de Europa: La Hermida gorge, San Glorio and Los Beyos, with biker hotels in Spain.
• The Spanish Pyrenees: quiet valleys on the south side of the range.
• The Pyrenees and the Tourmalet: a two-country loop over the French side.