The Food Delivery Wars
Glovo vs Uber Eats vs Just Eat, and the winner depends on:
- What city you're in
- What neighborhood
- What day of the week
- Planetary alignment
Glovo usually has the most restaurants. Also usually the most expensive. Also crashes the most. But you'll use it because it has that one restaurant you want.
Uber Eats has better promos. Fewer restaurants. Cleaner app.
Just Eat exists and I forget about it constantly.
Barcelona's Uber Situation
Half the Ubers here are technically illegal? The city fought Uber, Uber fought back, now there's a weird compromise where there are license limits and...
Point is: driver will call you, tell you to walk around the corner to meet them. Not to your actual pickup point. Around the corner. This is normal. This is fine. Don't ask questions.
Cabify is the "legal" option and costs more and takes longer and feels like you're being responsible but also you're paying €15 instead of €8 so are you though?
The Regional App Nightmare
Every autonomous region has their own transit app:
- Barcelona: TMB app
- Madrid: EMT Madrid
- Valencia: EMT València
- Seville: different app
- Bilbao: different app
You can't just have ONE app for Spain. That would be too easy. Too logical.
The apps all work fine but having to download a new one every city is offensive.
Renfe (Trains):
Renfe app for trains works... mostly. Sometimes. When it feels like it.
Buy tickets in advance online (not through the app, the website). The app is for checking schedules and then getting confused.
High-speed trains (AVE) are great. The booking experience is not.
What Actually Works:
Glovo for food (surrender to the monopoly) Cabify or Uber, depending on how legal you want to feel Wallapop for buying used stuff (like Craigslist but people actually show up) Bizum for payments between locals (you probably can't get it, same MBWAY problem as Portugal)
The Parking App Hell:
Every city has a different parking app. Sometimes multiple apps in the same city for different zones.
Barcelona: ApparkB, Parclick, others Madrid: SER, Parkimeter, others
You'll download the wrong one, pay for the wrong zone, get a ticket anyway.
My Current Setup:
- Glovo with notifications off (they spam)
- Both Uber and Cabify (check both, pick cheaper)
- TMB app for Barcelona metro
- Four different parking apps I used once
- Wallapop for finding furniture
- Google Maps because nothing else is reliable
Spain is amazing and frustrating and every region wants to be different. The apps work but there are too many of them. You'll adapt. Or you'll leave and never look back. Both are valid choices.