If you are driving a foreign registered car and living permanently in Spain (with residency) then legally you must import (register) your car within six months of being in Spain. EU legislation requires that a car be insured in its country of registration, so if you are now living in Spain with Spanish residency your car cannot legally be foreign registered.

You must make the appropriate changes – registration, license plates, insurance and drivers license (non-EU citizens).

An insurance company will require the car to be road legal and ask to see a vehicle inspection certificate (ITV – Inspección Tecnica de Vehiculos) and municipal road taxes must be paid. Importation for vehicles can be complicated and various documents are required to complete the process so it is best done with the assistance of a gestoria who will take care of all the paperwork for a small fee.

You must provide them with proof of vehicle ownership, a NIE or pasport number, current insurance and MOT (if a UK registered vehicle) so the transfer to Spanish registration can be done.

All car owners driving and living (resident, non- resident or visiting) in Spain must have car insurance (seguros). There are many companies that provide competitive pricing and many offer services and policies in English.

Spain, like many other countries has taken on the responsibility of keeping the roads safe for all drivers by making sure that all vehicles are road worthy. Depending on when your car was licensed, a periodic inspection by ITV is mandatory for all vehicles.

Once your vehicle has been inspected and passed, you are given a sticker and advised when to update the inspection. You must present this certificate to the gestoria as part of the registration process as well as proof of payment for municipal road taxes.

Car owners are required to pay an annual municipal tax for the upkeep and usage of the roads within the city or town where the car is registered. Proof of payment must kept in your car. The fees depend on where you are registered as living, but do not depend on the make of your car.

Both unlicensed drivers and most non-EU citizens are required to take a driving test (written and practical) in order to obtain the Spanish license required of all residents in this country. The test is complicated and expensive and in many towns you will have to do this in Spanish.

This can be a frustrating process and, unfortunately, necessary even if you already have a valid drivers license from your country.

Regarding use of your vehicle during a short stay. Anyone who is a non-resident may freely drive and use a foreign vehicle during their stay here, but the vehicle and driver must have a drivers license and car insurance. Spanish Law permits a foreign car to drive on Spanish roads as long as the car is road legal in its own country.

Importing a car from the United States can be expensive (roughly 4000 euros) and difficult. The Spanish Embassy in your country can inform you what you need to do to import your car.

The car may need modifications before entering Spain in order to meet European requirements. Once the vehicle arrives in Spain, it is obligatory to follow all of the above guidelines to make the car and driver legal.

The Mediterranean coast is very beautiful, as we all know, even if it is just a little bit built up now (understatement of the year there!).

However there are loads of gorgeous beauty spots all along it-or slightly inland-which with only a small amount of travelling make the most fantastic venue for a day out and picnic.

Let’s start with the Laguna de Fuente Piedra, home to thousands of flamingos. The Laguna nature reserve covers 1364 acres and is home to the baby flamingos while they grow for a few weeks each year before they fly to other parts of Spain.

The Laguna contains all the nutrients required for growth. After hatching the chicks, the adult birds spend all day away from their offspring only returning at night to feed them. Sounds about right to me! The Laguna is only a short drive from the Malaga area.

Moving along the coast a bit there is the beautiful Sierra de Las Nieves, a world heritage site, in the mountains behind Marbella. This, as the name implies, is often covered in snow during the winter and is home to some of the oldest species of pine trees in Europe – the Pinsapo. This pine tree really looks like it belongs to another age! Other ice-age relic vegetation flourishes as well.

Once you get into Cadiz Province the amount of buildings and urbanisations decreases (well, at least at the moment) and the beauty of the Atlantic can be appreciated. The beaches from Algeciras onwards are spectacular and are now part of the Parque Natural del Estrecho. Try the untouched stretches of sand on the Los Lances beach and you think you are in heaven but just go round the bay to the spectacular untouched beaches and sand dunes of Bolonia and you know you are!

Cows, pigs and horses wander on the beach and in winter you may be lucky enough to be the only humans on a seemingly endless spread of fine white sand. There are still a couple of beach restaurants open in winter so you can finish of the perfect morning with some freshly caught and fried Bolonia fish.

Moving inland from Tarifa you hit the magnificent Parque Natural de los Alcornocales which extends through Cadiz province into Malaga and joins up to the equally spectacular Sierra de Grazalema Park.

These areas are full of rivers, waterfalls, fantastic unique vegetation types (the Alcornocales park actually has valleys full of rhododendrons – and I thought you had to go to Richmond park to see those! – and of course animal life-birds of prey and cattle being the main stars!

The best way to visit these parks is to choose a village to visit and take a slow car journey breathing in the scenery on route.

Alternatively, catch the train from Algeciras to Ronda and get off at one of the immaculately kept stations on route to walk and eat. Jimera de Libar is fantastic-the station is identical to a 1950´s British station but the mountainous backdrop certainly isn’t!

Make sure you find out your train time back – there are only 3 or 4 a day in each direction!

On Sept 20th 2009, six friends will embark on an epic journey from Marbella to the Arctic Circle in two right-hand-drive SEAT Marbella cars.

With a 40bhp 900cc engine, and a ‘deckchair’ for a passenger seat, the 6700 mile challenge will be tough, but the six friends from Southampton, Nottingham and Pisa are confident their two twenty-year-old micro-cars will make it from Marbella to the Arctic circle in just 10 days.

They are doing this to raise awareness and money to help sufferers of the painful and incurable genetic skin-blistering disorder, Epidermolysis Bullosa, across the whole continent. In Spain and the UK, DebRA is the research charity which provides patient support and research into the disorder.

The SEAT Marbellas will be decorated with DebRA charity logos and butterflies. This is because sufferers of the disorder are often referred to as ‘butterfly children’ owing to the extreme fragility of their skin, comparable in strength to a butterfly’s wing.

The international adventurers have chosen Marbella to start the journey as they wanted to take their SEAT Marbellas ‘home’ to start the challenge. Marbella is also amongst the most Southerly towns in Europe, and is as far as you can get from the Arctic Circle and still be on the continent! Marbella is also the location of the DebRA charity headquarters in Spain.

Brida Heartford, the niece of one of the drivers, was born with Epidermolysis Bullosa and lived only 14 months before she died of malnutrition, caused by painful blisters in her digestive system. Brida’s great grandmother Dorrie, who has lived in Andalucía for 20 years, never met her before her short life was ended by this painful and distressing disorder.

It is hoped that Dorrie, now aged 89, will be amongst those at the starting line waving the cars off under the famous Marbella sign. More information about the SEAT Marbellas to the Arctic challenge can be found on the website http://arcticmarbellas.webs.com