Spain

On small roads, particularly those without a middle line, roadlines can be a very good clue to determine where in the country a location can be.

• In places where straight outer lines are prevalent you will very rarely find dashed outer lines.

• In places where dashed outer lines are the main style, finding straight outer lines is rare, but less so than for the reverse.

Some provinces have their own style of roadline, such as Araba where simple long dashed middle lines are the most common style, or Gipuzkoa, where you can see long outside dashes in roads with a middle line. 

Catalonia also frequently features atypical roadlines but there is not one prevalent design.

Most kilometre markers in Spain are either rectangular or square in shape. This can be a good clue to exclude half the country if you can see one in the distance.

There are also some unique designs.

• Andalusian markers are especially tall, featuring an extra stripe with the name of the governing body responsible for the road.

• Madrid markers are square and feature the regional flag at the top.

• Markers in Biscay are bigger than usual and feature a semi-circle shape at the top.

NOTE: National roads will always have a red rectangular marker.

Kilometre markers in Spain feature a coloured border. The standard colours, going from bigger to smaller roads, are orange, green, and yellow.

Some autonomous communities and provinces use different colours, or even unique designs altogether.

You can read more about the unique designs in this document.

Galician towns frequently use signs with a green or blue strip at the top featuring the name of the municipality.

NOTE: “Concello” is the Galician word for municipality, and exclusive to the region.

Most bus stops in Asturias have a red post with the CTA logo at the top.

NOTE: These may be confused with Madrid bus stops, which can also have a red post. The company in charge of Madrid public transport goes by EMT.

Trash containers in Asturias frequently have the logo of COGERSA, the logo’s shape is distinct and can be recognized from afar.

NOTE: Recycling bins can also feature this logo.

Yellow snow poles with one or two reflectors are unique to Asturias. They are usually found in the south of the region.

In Aragón, it is common to see this bollard design on regional roads.

It has a simple design, consisting of a short flat rectangular white stick with a grey reflector on both sides.

NOTE: There are similar bollards in other regions, but they appear much less frequently than in Aragón.

Many signs in Catalonia have round, corrugated signposts. This is especially common for direction signs. A similar design is also common in the Basque Country and the Balearic Islands. 

Note that municipalities may use signposts like this anywhere in the country, and that regular traffic signs retain the standard flat Spanish design.

NOTE: French signs have a very similar design.

In Catalonia and sometimes the Balearic Islands you will find huntings signs in Catalan, usually reading “Àrea privada de Caça”.

Within mainland Spain, this bollard is almost exclusive to the provinces of Lleida and Tarragona in Catalonia. 

It features a more square and orange reflector on the front, compared to the standard Spanish bollard design. There is a white reflector on the back, instead of the two dots of standard bollards.

Some toll highways like the AP-6 also use this design.

NOTE: This bollard can also be found on the eastern half of the Canary Islands.

The surrounding region of Madrid has round topped red bus stops, and green buses. Some bus stops are just a red post.

In the city centre, you can find urban blue buses.

In the region of Extremadura, it is common to see the normal Spanish bollards with green tops. This bollard variant is exclusive to this region.

In Castilla la Mancha you can find stone markers with the region’s coat of arms lining up fields. It can be recognized from afar by the blue coloured left side and the unpainted right side.

Poles with a steel mesh structure making rectangular shapes instead of the typical triangles can be found in the southern half of Spain, and are particularly common in Murcia and southern Alicante.

Signs from the local government of Andalusia are very recognizable because of the green stripe on the left side.

It is also very common to see small versions of these signs around nature reserves with green signposts.

Blue and yellow snow poles are unique to Andalusia.

There is a large part of north-west Spain where you will find almost exclusively slate roofs (recognisable by their almost black colour). This type of roofing can be seen sparingly all the way to the west coast of Galicia, but ends rather abruptly on the east.

Slate roofs can also be found in the Pyrenees near Andorra, and in the mountain ranges north east of Madrid.

Many houses in Galicia are built with big concrete blocks, sometimes textured to resemble natural stone.

Plain concrete blocks are also an extremely common material for walls and miscellaneous buildings like garages.

In Galicia, these unique granaries called “horreos gallegos”, or “cabazos”, are very common. Note that they can be made from various materials, but the shape remains the same.

In Asturias, “hórreos” are bigger, generally with a square design, and are built above four pillars, with or without walls. You will sometimes find a rectangular variation, usually built on top of six or eight pillars called “panera”.

If you find an “horreo” with a slate roof, you will be in western Asturias.

Large white houses with wooden frames are common in the Basque Country, the Basque part of Navarra, and Cantabria.

Traditional farm houses called “masías” are common in Catalonia, eastern Aragón and parts of the Valencian Community.

They are usually made of stone and stand isolated or as part of a small complex.

Within the centre and south of Spain, towns made completely out of white painted houses are very common in Andalucía and Extremadura. 

You can still see a fair amount of white painted houses in Castilla la Mancha but streets where every house is white will not be common.

In Asturias you can find a black car with no antenna and a visible brake light.

NOTE: This car can very rarely spill into neighbour regions like Galicia.

You can sometimes find a special Generation 3 antenna with a distinctive white top, similar to the one found in Gibraltar.

This antenna is found in the eastern half of Andalusia and in the provinces of Huesca and Lleida in the northeast of the country.

The Balearic islands have a recognizable, coastal Mediterranean look. Somewhat dry looking forests of Aleppo pines cover most of the hills, and small patches of agricultural land, mainly with fruit trees and olive trees, cover the flatter areas between towns.

Low rock walls are extremely common on the Balearic Islands.

NOTE: Another Mediterranean region with a similar amount of rock walls is the area around Bari in Italy. This region can sometimes look similar to the Balearic Islands.

The stereotypical Balearic house is painted completely white. You can find flat roofs, but tiled roofs with a small incline are the most common.

Within the Balearic Islands, grazing fields are almost exclusive to the island of Menorca.

The small island of Formentera frequently features low coastal shrubs. It is common to be able to see the mountains of Ibiza from Formentera’s north coast.

The north-west of Palma has a tall mountain range that can be seen from many places on the island. It is the only island in the Balearics with mountains this big.

The Canary Islands (or Canaries for short) are a Spanish archipelago off the west coast of Africa. Because they are so far away from mainland Spain, being able to consistently recognize them is important for your scores.

NOTE: Do not confuse their location with the nearby Portuguese island groups of the Azores and Madeira.

The Canaries have extremely diverse landscapes, including steep mountains, pine forests, volcanic soil, and extreme aridity. You can also encounter more normal landscapes that can look more like mainland Spain. 

NOTE: Because of its diversity, it is hard to pin down the average landscape in the Canaries. A more useful strategy is to focus on whether it looks unique and unlike anything that you would find in mainland Europe: if meta matches with Spain, but something is “off” in terms of vibe, consider the Canaries.

In some parts of the island of Lanzarote on the Canary Islands, a very dark, exposed volcanic soil can be seen. In places, this landscape superficially resembles the surface of the moon.

NOTE: The other Canary Islands can sometimes have similar landscapes as well, but it is by far the most common on Lanzarote.

The island of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands is characterised by a very arid landscape with little to no vegetation. Orange soil is very common, and within the Canary Islands archipelago essentially unique to this island.

This unique bollard design is extremely common in the province of Las Palmas (which includes the islands of Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote).

It features a more square and orange reflector on the front, compared to the standard Spanish bollard design. There is a white reflector on the back, instead of the two dots of standard bollards.

This bollard can also be found on mainland Spain, in the provinces of Lleida and Tarragona.

NOTE: The province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (which includes the islands of Tenerife, La Gomera, El Hierro and La Palma) only uses bollards on highways, with the standard Spanish design.

You can find these unique wine plantations with volcanic soil and rocks in the shape of a semicircle on the island of Lanzarote.

Off the north coast of Lanzarote, you will find the small island of La Graciosa. The island’s landscape is completely barren, and the entire coverage features overcast weather. There are two towns on the south coast of the island, with white flat-roofed houses like the east Canaries.

The two Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa, which are partially surrounded by Morocco, both have coverage. They often catch beginning players off-guard, so it is good to be aware of them and their location.

Ceuta features north African architecture, consisting of mainly flat roofed houses in warm colours, ranging from pale yellow to red.

Almost all of the Generation 4 coverage in Ceuta features a bright blue sky in sunny weather with occasional clouds.

You will find a mountainous, mediterranean landscape in Ceuta, featuring a mix of eucalyptus trees and pines.

Within Spain, black and white guardrails are unique to Ceuta.

Melilla also features similar North African architecture. The coverage in Melilla has a hazy look, with a significantly less saturated sky than Ceuta. Most of the coverage is cloudy or overcast.

Melilla has little rural coverage, mainly by the Morocco-Spain border.

The Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James in English), is a network of pilgrim's ways across Europe leading to the shrine of apostle James (Santiago in Spanish) in Santiago de Compostela.

These paths are frequently marked with a yellow scallop on a blue background. Markers can be found both in traffic signs and in waystones.

It is common to see pilgrims hiking or biking along these routes, particularly during the summer.

NOTE: Markers for it can be found all over Europe, going as far as Lithuania, but are much more common the closer you are to Santiago.

Coverage during early spring on dirt roads between green grassy fields, and leafless vineyards with red soil, is very common in the central-north part of Castilla la Mancha.

This type of coverage is particularly extensive in the northern part and exclusively in generation 3. Towards the south you will also find very similar looking coverage in generation 4.

Taxis in Barcelona are black with yellow doors, including the trunk door.

The Ebro delta (Deltebre in catalan) features an extremely flat landscape, where rice fields and water canals are very common.

There are significant mountains to the South, West, and North, and some of them can be seen from almost every location in the delta.

Between Almeria and Motril you can find many greenhouses with white roofs, in the lowland area close to the sea. They are especially common in El Ejido.

The city of Bilbao uses this unique street sign, with a very elaborately decorated frame. It is not found anywhere else in Spain.

In Doñana National Park, southwest of Seville, you will find this rare and unique car meta.