Practice Spanish out loud before you go to Spain
A phrasebook in your pocket is not the same as a sentence you can say while someone is waiting. Spain will not pause while you assemble the subjunctive. The useful work before a trip is speaking, badly, in the situations you'll actually hit.
This is not a packing list and it is not a curriculum. If you have zero Spanish, start with greetings and numbers somewhere structured, then come back. If you studied and freeze, the methods below are the ones that transfer.
Two free quests, no credit card. Runs in your browser.
Practice the day-one situations
You will need to greet, order, ask where something is, handle numbers, and say you didn't catch that. Write those five as prompts. Answer each out loud, in a full sentence, not a single noun. Repeat tomorrow.
Politeness matters in Spain more than people expect. Practice usted and tú enough that you can switch without a panic. You will get it wrong. Getting it wrong in your kitchen is cheaper than getting it wrong at a counter.
Shadow Spain, not textbook speed
Listen to Spanish from Spain: a Madrid vlog, a radio clip, a show you've already seen. Shadow a few lines a day. Peninsular Spanish has sounds your Latin American playlist may not have trained, especially c and z, and your ear needs them before the airport.
You are not trying to sound native by Friday. You are trying to stop being shocked by the pace. Shock is what kills the sentence you actually know.
Narrate the trip you haven't taken yet
Walk through your first day out loud in Spanish. I land. I need a coffee. I don't know which metro. It feels fake because it is fake. It still forces the verbs you'll need when it isn't.
When a word is missing, look it up, then say the whole beat again. Isolated vocabulary will not arrive at the ticket machine.
Walk the streets you'll visit
If you already have a base, you can practice on the actual streets. PathGlot, which I build, uses Google Street View in Madrid and Barcelona, with a live guide who stays in Spanish. Ordering, asking, looking around: the same jobs, without the jet lag.
It is not a tour operator and it will not teach you Spanish from zero. Two free quests, no credit card. Use it for the freeze, not for packing tips. If you want Catalan in Barcelona, know that your PathGlot practice with the guide stays in Spanish; the signage you'll see is still the city's.
Questions, answered
How much Spanish do I need before a trip?
Enough to greet, order, and ask for help, out loud. Reading a guide book is not that. Ten days of daily speaking practice will help more than ten extra chapters.
Will people in Spain switch to English?
Often, if you look lost and start in English. Starting in Spanish, even roughly, changes the conversation. That's why the practice has to be spoken, not highlighted in a PDF.
Is it free, and what does it cost after that?
You get two free quests and no credit card, in any language and city, and there is no clock on them. After that, plans start at $14.99 a month (or $10.00 a month billed annually), sized by how many quests you want each month. Explorer, the most popular plan, is $24.99 a month. You subscribe in the app when you're ready.
Try the street before the plane ticket
Land on Gran Vía or Passeig de Gràcia and talk. Two free quests, no credit card. Not for absolute beginners.
Two free quests, no credit card. Runs in your browser.