Visitors to Madrid can find some practical information in the official Spain Tourism website. The contents are available in English, Spanish, German, French and Italian. There are also links to sites in Russian, Japanese, Chinese and Korean.
More specific information about Madrid, including tourism and practical advices, can be found in different web guides. We recommend these:
as well as a selection of links about specific subjects in this brief guide.
In addition to the hotels mentioned in the DC-2005 official website, there are a great number of different hotels in Madrid, with a wide range of prices. Some references can be found at esmadrid.com (in English, Spanish and other languages) and Descubre Madrid (in English and Spanish).
Euro is the official currency in Spain, shared with other European Union countries. Paying with a different currency is not usually possible.
You can find the Euro exchange rates in Fxtop (with English, Spanish and ten other languages). These values may be very slightly different to the final exchange rates.
Wherever you go, you can find an ATM in Madrid. There are many bank offices (Banco Santander, BBVA, Caja Madrid, La Caixa, etc.) when you can use any kind of card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Diners Club, etc.). You can also use credit or debit card in most shops (this is usually indicated at the entrance) and on public transport, but not in buses or taxis.
There are also currency exchange offices in many places in the center of Madrid, and also in airports and train stations.
There is a bank office and 2 ATMs (from Banco Santander and Cajamadrid, 2 of the most important Spanish banks) in the University campus, next to DC-2005 headquarters. Both are situated in Betancourt building (50 metres from Padre Soler building). More banks and ATMs are situated within 300 metres of the University campus.
Spanish is spoken in Madrid. English is only used in some shops and restaurants, although menus are shown in both languages in many places. English information is also available in the underground. Some department stores offer an English translation service for customers.
We have arranged a brief English-Spanish glossary. Moreover, you can use a larger English-Spanish dictionaries, including pronunciation in both languages.
In emergency cases everyone can be treated in public health services in Madrid and the whole of Spain. Nevertheless, most of the foreigner visitors will need to pay for medical attention, so you are advised to purchase health insurance. Only EU visitors and residents in Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Andorra, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Peru will not have to pay for health care in Spain, but only if they show the Health European System card (for EU visitors) or the corresponding certificate from your country of origin. More information on Health and emergencies.
For emergency calls (police, fire, medical emergency, etc.), you can phone 112. In the city of Madrid, you can also call 092.
There are more than 20 hospitals in the region of Madrid. In Leganes, there is the Severo Ochoa Hospital. If you need it, you can go there by the underground (the trip takes 15 minutes from the University).
You can obtain medications at pharmacies. They are all marked with a green cross. In many cases, you will need a doctor's prescription in order to obtain medications. If you come from a country in the European Union, or your country has health agreements with Spain, you will have the same prescription drug benefits as Spanish citizens.
There are some 24 hours pharmacies in Madrid. There are also other extra pharmacies (called "farmacias de guardia") in all districts of Madrid, at in many other towns. You can obtain a list of them (unfortunately, only in Spanish) at Canal de Farmacia.
Madrid's weather in September is normallly warm, with a maximum of 30 ºC (86º F) and a minimum of 15 ºC (59º F). Rain is possible, but is not very usual. You can find weather forecasts for the next ten days in Madrid at Weather.com, at the official Spain Tourism website and at Madrid Tourism Office website.
DST (Summer Time) is still used in Madrid in September, so the official time is GMT+2. For instance, at 12:00GMT, it will be 14:00 at Madrid. You can use Timeticker for discovering the difference between this time and your own place of origin.
Madrid has a great public transport network: buses, underground or railway from the city to the outskirts.
Underground is the cheapest and fastest way of moving in the centre of Madrid. Underground network is extended all around the city center and also to many other places in the outskirts. You can even travel by underground from Madrid to Leganés, host of the DC-2005.
However, regional railway (Cercanías Renfe) is the best way for arriving there from the center or Madrid. From Atocha station, you will only need 20 minutes to get to Leganes station (it's only 5 minutes more to walk from there to DCMI-2005). Railway is also useful for arriving to some interesting places around Madrid (see below "Some suggestions for the weekend").
A broad public bus network is also useful for travelling inside Madrid, and many private but cheap buses allow travel to Madrid's outskirts. You can use the Transport Information System to find more information.
There is also in Madrid a Tourist Pass (with information also in German and Italian) which allows a cheaper use of the whole public and private transport network. The Tourist Pass can be obtained for 1, 3, 5 or 7 days.
There are also taxis. (Official Madrid taxis are white cars with a red diagonal line on the door). The official fares are different at day, at night or at holidays and weekends. Only as a suggestion, a trip inside Madrid would cost between 2 and 8 euros; a taxi from city centre to DC-2005 would cost 12 euros, and a trip from Madrid airport to DC-2005 could cost around 25 euros.
Mobile phones: you can use your mobile phone in Spain by roaming, but only if you mobile phone is GSM 900/1800 compatible. Most of the time, you don't have to change anything on your phone, although you should be careful with the roaming rates. You will be able to use one or more different Spanish mobile operators (Movistar, Vodafone o Amena): it will depend on your mobile operator in your country.
You can find more information at GSM World and also at this pages:
Electricity: voltage is the same all over Spain, 220 V / 50 Hz alternating current. Sockets are round 2 pin style, in line with European directives. It is important to take special care with appliances from the United States, since domestic use electricity there is usually 110 V and many devices do not come with a voltage adaptor. See an image of the correct socket used in Spain.
Water: Madrid water boasts exceptional quality: the water originates in the mountain range in the north of the province, from where it is deposited in reservoirs and then directly channelled to consumer points. This means the tap water neither smells nor tastes of chlorine. You can drink it without any problem.
Internet: direct Internet connection is possible in some Madrid hotels (specially, in 3 or more stars hotels). There are also many cybercafes all around Madrid, and some Wi-Fi points.
Phone calls: If you wish to call abroad from Spain, dial 00 + country code + the phone number. You can place international calls from a public phone. Phone booths use coins or cards, which can be purchased at tobacconists' shops (called estancos). If you wish to make a phone call within Spain, just dial the number with no prefixes. The phone number always has 9 digits, whether it is a cell phone or a regular phone.
Between all its more than 20 museums, the best known in the world are the three included in the Paseo del Prado (also called "Paseo del Arte" or "Art Avenue"). The Reina Sofía National Museum is at the beginning, next to Atocha railway station. It is very famous because of its modern art collection which includes Picasso's Guernica. Only 250 metres away is the Prado Museum, with its wonderful collection from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, which includes most of the Velázquez, Goya and Murillo paintings. And, just at the other side of the street, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum is the host of Thyssen collection, one of the most important private art collections.
Picture by: Osvaldo Gago
The capital of Spain is also one of the world's cities with a high ratio of green places to total area. The main parks in the city are Retiro Park, just in the centre of Madrid, and Casa de Campo, at the west. The Botanic Garden, next to Prado Museum, is also very interesting, although there are more than 15 other lovely gardens in Madrid. You can obtain more information at Descubre Madrid website and esmadrid.com website
Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor and Plaza de Oriente, where you can visit Royal Palace, are three of the most charming Madrid squares. They are 10 minutes' walk from each other.
Other pleasant walks are the Austrias' Madrid, from the 16th and 17th centuries, and the Borbons' Madrid, from the 18th century: Paseo del Prado, Paseo de Recoletos and the streets around.
Another atypical tourist attractive is Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, host of Real Madrid soccer team. The whole stadium, and the Trophy Room, can be visited every day. More information at esmadrid.com Santiago Bernabéu web page.
2005 is also the year of Don Quixote's 400th anniversary, the most famous book written in Spanish. Many acts and celebrations are taking place during this year around this work and its famous author, Miguel de Cervantes.
There is an interesting and cheap option for visiting many of all these places: the Madrid Card (with information also in French, German and Italian). This card allow free access without any limit to more than 40 museums and offer discounts to many other attractions in Madrid. The card can be bought for a period of 24, 48 or 72 hours.
Visitors may notice that eating time is quite different in Spain. The usual time for lunch is from 13:30 to 16:00, and dinner from 20:30 to 24:00. Some restaurants, on the weekend, offer dinner even later.
Madrid has a great number of restaurants and bars, where visitors can taste many dishes from different Spanish cuisines and also from abroad. Everyone, whatever their budget, can find a good place for eating in Madrid.
You can obtain guides to restaurants in Madrid from Descubre Madrid or esmadrid.com.
Some typical dishes from Madrid are the cocido, spanish omelette (tortilla), onion soup, callos, snails and croquetas. There are also some sweets, like chocolate with churros and pestiños. More information on eating in Madrid.
Spanish wines, often of great quality, or glasses of cold draught beer, called cañas, are also very popular in Madrid.
Tapas are the other typical Spanish food. These are small dishes served with drinks at many bars. Sometimes, eating tapas is enough for a lunch or even a dinner. You can obtain more information at esmadrid.com or at Descubre Madrid, including some good places where you can eat them.
If you need more information about eating in Madrid, Softguides Madrid could be a good site.
Madrid has a great supply of leisure activities, during the day as well as at night. Many concerts and spectacles are performed here. You can choose among more than 50 cinemas (with 200 screens, showing spanish films, and foreign films either in spanish or in original version), some 20 different theatres and musical plays, and dance, ballet or other music shows. You can find an update agenda with all of this at "Leisure Madrid" section in Descubre Madrid website.
If you have children, you can try atractions like the Zoo-Aquarium, the Amusement Park (Parque de Atracciones); Faunia, the Nature Park; or Warner Bros Park and Xanadu, Snow Park. There are some other shows for kids, offered at specific moments. More information at esmadrid.com website.
The city is also the host of one of the biggest bullfighting rings, Plaza de las Ventas. More information at esmadrid.com website.
You can also enjoy Madrid nightlife at a superb number of beer bars, pubs and pavement cafes. More of them are open until the early hours of the morning. These are spread all around the city, although there are some main areas like Huertas-Plaza de Santa Ana (around the city centre city centre, with many different offers, between Paseo del Prado and Puerta del Sol), Malasaña (the "alternative" area of the city, with more affordable prices in some places), Chueca (particularly known as a gay area, although this isn't its only attraction), Alonso Martínez (with many different beer bars and pubs), Moncloa-Argüelles (an area populated with many university people) and Azca (a modern area very famous because of their pubs, their "salsa" atmosphere at Orense street, and Avenida del Brasil's discos, open until the early hours of the morning at Avenida del Brasil).
More information is available at Descubre Madrid website, at Madrid City Hall website, and also at Softguide Madrid website.
Flamenco lovers can find also some places where listening this popular Spanish music. A list of these, and some extra information are offered by esmadrid.com website.
All kinds of shopping are available in Madrid. Visitors should notice that a general tax, called IVA, is included in every sale. Purchasers should check that offers include this. Nevertheless, if buyers are not residents in UE, you can ask for the return of the tax, although with some conditions.
Many different shopping centres are present in Madrid, as you can see at Descubre Madrid website. One of the best known is the department store El Corte Inglés, which includes the IVA return in its services. Vips is also a chain of shops and restaurants, with long opening hours (until the early hours of the morning). You can also find some outlets of both these businesses, and many other shops, bars, and restaurants, at Parquesur shopping centre, accesible by underground from DC-2005 (the travel only lasts 20 minutes).
There are a number of traditional shopping areas in the city centre of Madrid, around Puerta del Sol, (when you can find some traditional shops from the beginning of the 20th century or even older), Preciados Street, Gran Vía (always full of people, day and night) and Princesa Street, among many others.
Other main shopping areas are Fuencarral Street, with many modern fashion shops; the Salamanca district, with many luxury shops; Chueca area, with its very modern shops; and Cuatro Caminos area, with every kind of different cheaper shops. Madrid food markets are also very famous.
There are different street markets. The greatest is the Rastro, which takes place on Sundays and official holidays. You can find many different and cheap products. In some places (specially in antiquity shops), it's usual that clients bargain. Rastro is placed at Ribera de Curtidores (near Toledo Street) and surroundings. You can arrive directly by underground.
More information about shopping in Madrid at Descubre Madrid, and at Softguide Madrid.
Having a free weekend could be a good opportunity for visiting some of the places around Madrid. Some of these places have been designated as World Heritage Properties by UNESCO. You can arrive to all of them by train or bus. You only need between 30 and 60 minutes from Madrid for arriving there (except for Ávila and Segovia).
The most known of these places are:
Leganés is a city of more than 180,000, around 15 km (10 miles) from Madrid, in the South. One of the Carlos III University campuses, which contains the Politechnic School, is situated there. DC-2005 will take place there.
The city has undegone a great development in the last 30 years, from an agricultural town to a modern city, populated by people from many different parts of Spain. There is substantial social and cultural activity, and the population is proud of its own identity.
Leganés is near other cities, like Getafe (where another Carlos III University campus is located, with Social Sciences and Humanities studies), Fuenlabrada, Alcorcón or Móstoles. Together they make an area with a population of more than a million people, joined by a good public and private transport network, and also well-connected to the centre and other areas of Madrid.
The University campus is one of the main attractions for the visitor, including the Sabatini building, a 17th century military site, and also the Library and Padre Soler building. There are other interesting places in the city. San Salvador's church, from the 17th century, with three Baroque altarpieces from famous Spanish sculptor José Benito Churriguera; the ancient Psychiatric Hospital facade, from the 18th century; the "La Cubierta" bullfighting ring, one of the few wholly covered bullfighting rings in Spain, used also for many music shows and concerts, and with a bars area around it; and Polvoranca park.
More information at official Leganés Town Hall site (only in Spanish).
