Parking in Spain

[wco81]

Going to Northern Spain in early to mid July.

Though I've booked mostly accommodations with parking arrangements, I may need to park for a couple of hours in Bilbao.

I checked Google Maps and I see pictures of yellow, green/white and blue lines on the city streets.

They're either parallel to the curb or slanted parking spaces.

Has anyone dealt with these different colors?

Yellow seems to be no parking, though I've seen pictures of cars parked or at least stopped within yellow lines.

Green seems to be for cars with resident permits of some kind.

Blue seems to be for metered parking so you have to have the receipt visible under the windshield.

 

[veronicafrance]

In Europe, yellow lines mean no parking (there may be brief exceptions for deliveries). Yes, blue means limited time/paid parking.

Even if you see locals parking on yellow lines, don't imitate them ! Retrieving a towed-away car is expensive and inconvenient, and they seem quite keen on this in Spain. When parking on the street, look around carefully for signs specifying how long you can park, and whether you need to pay.

 

[Dennis]

For more than you ever wanted to know about parking: https://www.justlanded.com/english/Spain/Articles/Travel-Leisure/Parking

 

[wco81]

Thanks guys.

 

[wco81]

So I found that at least in Northern Spain, you do NOT want to park in white spaces, especially along curbs. There will often be "R" or other letters and numbers and those denote residential spaces requiring permits.

Yellow lines are also no parking either, though I stopped at one with the flashers on to unload baggage.

Blue lines are paid but for a maximum of 2 hours.

Green lines are paid with a max of 5 hours.

At least the latter is the case in Bilbao.

Plenty of free parking around Llanes though they got filled by midday. But in San Sebastian, you had to pay to be in town.