How to Write a Spanish Address Correctly

A Spanish address starts with the street type and name, then the number, then the floor and door if it is a flat. The last line carries the codigo postal and the town, and often the province in brackets.

The standard order

1. Recipient name, or company name.
2. Street type, street name and number.
3. Floor and door, for flats.
4. Codigo postal and town, with the province in brackets if it helps.
5. Country, for mail from abroad.

Street types come first and are part of the name: Calle, Avenida, Paseo, Plaza, Camino, Carretera. The number follows after a comma, as in Calle Ejemplo, 12.

Floors and doors

Flats are identified by floor and door. The floor can be written as a number or as an ordinal, and the door as a letter, a number, or words such as izquierda, derecha or centro. A common form is Calle Ejemplo, 12, 3o B. Ground floor is bajo, and a mezzanine is entresuelo. Staircase information, escalera, appears when a building has several.

Without a number

Some properties on roads or in rural areas have no number. These are written with s/n, sin numero, after the street name. A kilometre point may be used on a road, such as km 5. In these cases, the name of the property, the urbanisation or the nearest locality helps a courier.

Language and spelling

Spain has several co-official languages, including Catalan, Basque and Galician, and street names may appear in these languages. A street may be Calle in Spanish, Carrer in Catalan, Kalea in Basque, or Rua in Galician. The name on the street sign is the most reliable form. Accented letters and the letter n with a tilde are used in addresses, and may be dropped in systems that cannot handle them.

A formatted example

Placeholder values only:

Lucia Ejemplo
Calle Ejemplo, 12, 3o B
12345 Ciudadejemplo (Provincia)
Espana

Using a UPCS code

A code such as ES-XXXX-XXXX (placeholder) can be saved with the address to show the exact entrance, especially for properties with s/n. It does not replace the lines above. See Spain postal code format explained and the Spain overview.