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Do I need to fill out any Covid documents if I’m travelling between two places in Spain?

Spain lifted its regional border closures in May, but does that mean national or international tourists don’t need to fill in any health forms or meet other Covid travel requirements if they’re travelling within the country?

Published: 21 July 2021 10:35 CEST
Do I need to fill in any Covid documentation if I’m travelling between two places in Spain?
Photo: Pau Barrena/AFP

All people travelling to Spain currently have to fill in a health control form on the Spain Travel Health website or app, regardless of their age, nationality and the travel requirements they are asked to meet (full vaccination, PCR test, proof of recovery or no requirement). 

But what about for travel within Spain? 

Does a person driving from Andalusia to the Basque Country have to present any documentation to regional border authorities this summer? 

How about if you fly from Madrid to Barcelona, do you need to fill in Spain’s health control form?

The answer to this is that it depends. 

For travel within mainland Spain and to the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, there is no need to fill in Spain’s official health control form, whether you’re flying, driving or travelling by bus or train. 

You no longer have to show any documentation justifying your trip and there are no controls at the border as was the case during Spain’s state of alarm, although some municipalities with very high infection rates may impose their own perimeter closures.

The company you’re travelling with may ask you to fill in their own individual health forms, but there are no restrictions on travel within mainland Spain linked to whether you’re fully vaccinated or have a negative PCR to show. 

The only slight exception to the rule in Spain’s península is Galicia, where regional authorities on Tuesday asked people travelling from Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, the Balearic Islands, Cantabria, Castilla y León, Catalonia, the Valencia region, Extremadura, Navarra, the Basque Country and La Rioja to provide them with their contact details and other information through the Galician health website or by calling 881 00 20 21.

Then there’s the case of Spain’s two archipelagos: the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands. 

Both these regions do have restrictions for people travelling from mainland Spain which you can read about in the link below. These regions require people to show proof of vaccination, testing or recovery. 

READ MORE: Do I need a Covid test to travel to another region in Spain this summer?

The Balearic Islands also have their own health control form which travellers have to complete before travel to the Mediterranean islands.

In the case of the Canaries, if you’re not fully vaccinated, you have to send the results of your tests to the following address [email protected] or get the lab to do it, but you don’t have to fill in a separate health control form.

It may still be handy to have Spain’s Digital Covid Certificate on your phone if you’ve been fully vaccinated, which you can find out about more below, as some regions have expressed interest in using this as a health pass to access bars, restaurants and other establishments. 

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TOURISM

How much more expensive will holidays in Spain be this summer?

Whether it be hotel prices rising or shortages in the aviation sector making flights more expensive, a summer vacation in Spain this year is likely to cost more than last year.

Published: 25 April 2024 09:13 CEST
How much more expensive will holidays in Spain be this summer?

With lingering inflation, drought conditions, rising rents and building social tension surrounding the impact of mass tourism on Spanish society, summer 2024 could be an eventful one in Spain for a number of reasons.

It will probably also be more expensive than it was in the past, especially if you’re staying in a hotel or tourist apartment.

This follows a bumper Easter period that saw high occupancy and price rises across the country, and if forecasts and industry experts are anything to go by, it’s a trend that will continue into the summer season.

READ ALSO: ‘The island can’t take it anymore’: Why Tenerife is rejecting mass tourism

Hotel prices March increased by 10 percent compared to the same period in 2023, and have now experienced 34 consecutive months of price increases.

The average hotel room in Spain during March cost €109.2 per night, according to Hotel Tourism Situation data published by Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE).

How much more expensive will flights to Spain be this summer?

Firstly, flights. Aviation industry experts suggest that a perfect storm of conditions could cause the price of flights to increase for summer 2024. A shortage of commercial planes, caused mainly by a combination of problems on Boeing’s production line and Airbus having difficulties with engine manufacturers, will likely drive up prices around the world.

These “are factors that don’t make it easy for prices to fall,” according to Pere Suau, professor of Economics and Business Studies at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, who admitted that “it is difficult to measure the extent to which” they will go up. The key, in Suau’s opinion, is to see how demand will be affected by price rises. “As of today prices are rising, but demand is tolerating it, demand continues to grow,” he adds.

Reports in the Spanish media suggest that prices on budget airlines like Ryanair could rise by around 10 percent.

READ ALSO: EasyJet opens Spanish base in Alicante with ten new routes

How much more expensive will hotels in Spain be this summer?

So, flights will likely be more expensive this year. But what about hotels?

It’s difficult to say exactly by how much hotel prices will have risen by summer, but most estimates put it at somewhere in the 8-12 percent range, depending on factors such as location, occupancy, type of accommodation (ie. is it luxury or budget) and length of stay.

However, despite that, most experts seem to think the price rises will be slightly less than the 2023-23 year-on-year increases, when average hotel room costs shot up by 16.5 percent, according to statistics from SRT and Cushman & Wakefield.

Albert Grau, partner at Cushman & Wakefield’s Hospitality department in Spain, told El Periódico de España that: ‘We expect there to continue to be growth in prices… although it will be more moderate, in single digits, compared to the large increase in the last year.”

Spanish news outlet La Sexta reports that hotel rooms in the summer will be on average 11 percent more than last year, according to figures from INE and Travelgate.

Forecasts by American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) put Barcelona, long a popular tourist destination, among European cities where a significant increase in hotel prices is expected, with a projected rise of 9 percent. Other Spanish cities, such as Bilbao and Valencia, are forecast to see price jumps of around 8.5 percent.

In Andalusia, hotel sector insiders in Andalusia are expecting a 7 percent increase overall this summer, according to Trinitario Bertore, director of Hotel Plaza Nueva in Granada, who spoke to La Sexta. Bertore said a night’s stay in a hotel in Andalusia can now cost up to €210, a 7 percent rise compared to last summer.

José Luis Contreras, managing director of Apartamentos Valencia Costera, said prices in tourist flats in Valencia will also rise by around 7 percent and even reach an eye-watering €350 per night in the high season.

Both Bertore and Contreras said that there’s no need to lower prices because demand is increasing, despite the per night rate increases.

It seems clear that accommodation will likely be a more expensive for summer 2024 in Spain than it was last year, though the year-on-year rise will slow slightly. Most forecasts put the average expected hotel price rises at roughly 10-11 percent overall.

By exactly how much will depend on several factors: where you’re staying, and whether it’s a traditional tourist spot such as parts of Andalusia, Alicante, Valencia or the Canary and Balearic Islands; whether it’s a hotel or apartment; the quality of the accommodation; how long you’re staying; how far in advance you book; when exactly in the summer season you’ll visit Spain.

Aviation industry uncertainty also means that flights will become more expensive, so both travel and accommodation are likely to be more expensive in Spain this summer.

Tourism makes up a significant portion of Spain’s GDP. Predicted tourism earnings for 2024 are expected to bring in €202.65 billion, an 8.6 percent increase on 2023, a record year.

However, growing anti-mass tourism sentiment has been bubbling in Spanish society for some time now, with protests in various cities around the country decrying the impact, among other things, of Spain’s tourism model on the local housing market.

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