Viagra in Málaga: a guide for visitors and expats

Málaga and the Costa del Sol are home, for some or all of the year, to a large number of people from the UK, Ireland and the rest of Europe, and millions more pass through the airport every year. For many of them the question is a practical one: I've run out, or I'm about to, so what will a Spanish pharmacy accept?

The answer depends on where your prescription was written and whether it's on paper or electronic. This page goes through each case using Spanish law and official guidance, and explains how to get a prescription locally if the one from home won't do.

From the UK: the two things that catch people out

There's no over-the-counter option. In the UK you can buy Viagra Connect (sildenafil 50 mg) or Cialis Together (tadalafil 10 mg) after a short chat with a pharmacist. Spain has nothing equivalent. Every sildenafil, tadalafil, vardenafil and avanafil product registered here needs a prescription.

A UK prescription is no longer an EU prescription. Spain's rules on recognising foreign prescriptions (Royal Decree 81/2014, article 20) cover prescriptions issued in other EU member states. Since Brexit the UK isn't one. The UK government's advice for visitors still says a UK prescription can be used in Spain, and some pharmacists may accept one, but nothing in Spanish law obliges them to. If you depend on the tablets, bring enough for your stay and don't plan on topping up with an NHS prescription.

From Ireland or elsewhere in the EU

Paper prescriptions from another EU country have to be recognised, provided the medicine is authorised in Spain or across the EU (Viagra, Cialis and their generics are). The pharmacist can refuse only if there are genuine, justified doubts about whether it's authentic, what it says or whether it's legible. Spanish rules still apply: you may be given an equivalent generic, marked EFG on the box, and you pay the full price.

Electronic prescriptions travel through an EU service called MyHealth@EU (Mi Salud@UE in Spain). According to the Spanish Health Ministry's August 2026 update, Andalusia is connected to Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Portugal. Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and others are still in testing, so ask your doctor at home for a paper prescription before you travel.

Packing your tablets

Spain's medicines agency, AEMPS, lets travellers bring their own medication in an amount that fits the treatment, normally no more than three months' worth; larger amounts need a good reason. You can be asked for the prescription or a doctor's letter when you enter Spain and when you leave. ED tablets aren't controlled drugs, so the special permit that applies to strong painkillers or some sleeping pills doesn't apply.

Keep them in the original box with the leaflet, in your hand luggage. Posting them to yourself is a different matter: a parcel of prescription medicines can be held at customs. The same goes for orders from this site, which has no shop or pharmacy in Málaga or at the airport and sells nothing in person: parcels travel by post or courier (see delivery conditions), and nobody here checks prescriptions.

Getting a prescription in Málaga

If you live here. UK nationals usually get into the Spanish public system through work, an S1 form registered with the social security office (INSS), permanent residence after five years, or the pay-in scheme called the Convenio Especial, open once you've been on the town hall register (padrón) for a year. EU citizens who work here, or who bring an S1 from their own country, are covered in the same way. Once registered, you get a health card (tarjeta sanitaria) and a family doctor (médico de familia) at the health centre for your area, who can prescribe ED tablets and refer you to a urologist.

If you're visiting. An EHIC, or the UK's GHIC, covers care that becomes medically necessary during your stay. Otherwise, a private doctor in Spain can write a prescription that any Spanish pharmacy will fill.

Whichever route you take, budget for the full pharmacy price: no ED medicine is on the list of funded drugs in BIFIMED, the Health Ministry's database. Appointments in the public system go through Salud Responde, which also offers an interpreting service.

For specialist care, both Hospital Regional Universitario de Málaga and Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria have urology departments; the Virgen de la Victoria unit was certified by Andalusia's healthcare quality agency in 2025. You get there through a GP referral.

At night or on a public holiday you'll need a farmacia de guardia (duty pharmacy). The Málaga pharmacists' college has a pharmacy finder; tick the duty-pharmacy filter to see who is open tonight.

What the pharmacist can and can't do

A Spanish pharmacist can fill a valid Spanish or EU prescription, swap the brand for an equivalent generic, check it against your other medicines and sell you anything that doesn't need a prescription here. They can't sell you a prescription-only medicine without a prescription, can't supply strengths that aren't authorised in Spain (there is no 40 mg tadalafil, for example) and can't give you a discount because you hold an EHIC or GHIC.

Before you fly: common questions

What you'll find on this site

• Viagra Original: the same brand you know from home, sold here only as 100 mg, the highest dose. The product information says to start on 50 mg.
• Cialis Original: branded tadalafil, 20 mg only. If you take 5 mg daily at home, this isn't that product.
• Viagra Generic: sildenafil at three strengths, 25, 50 or 100 mg. The maker and packaging may differ from the EFG generics in a Málaga pharmacy.
• Kamagra: sildenafil from the Indian company Ajanta Pharma. It isn't authorised in Spain, and no EU prescription can cover it.

Other cities: heat, alcohol and blood pressure in Seville, premature ejaculation in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, ED after 60 in Alicante, choosing between the four ED tablets in Madrid.

Sources: Royal Decree 81/2014, article 20 (BOE); AEMPS guidance on medicines for travellers (updated 28 May 2026); Spanish Health Ministry (MyHealth@EU status, August 2026; BIFIMED); CIMA (AEMPS); UK government guidance on healthcare in Spain; Junta de Andalucía (Salud Responde, 112, Agencia de Calidad Sanitaria); Colegio Oficial de Farmacéuticos de Málaga. General information only; it can't stand in for a doctor who knows your history. In Spain, prescription-only medicines may not be sold online, and customs can hold a parcel that contains them. We do not check prescriptions: talk to your doctor before you order.