Alava lies at the entrance to the Iberian peninsula, on the southern tip of Europe. The Nacional 1 trunk road (European route E5) and the Madrid-Irún railway cut right across this territory, providing it with excellent overland communications with the Ebro valley, and thus Aragón and Catalonia, the Cantabrian coast and towards the interior, i.e. Madrid, Lisbon and northern Africa.

With its modern facilities, Vitoria-Gasteiz airport is one of southern Europe's main cargo ports for shipping goods to America and South Africa. The sea ports of Bilbao and Pasajes are just a short distance from Vitoria-Gasteiz.