Living in Madrid

A guide written only for visitors misses most of what a city is. This section is for the other reader — what the districts are like to live in rather than walk through, how renting and the empadronamiento work, what a Madrid summer is like when you cannot leave. We are not residents either, so this is assembled from official and published sources and says plainly where the reader needs an authority rather than an article.

Living in Madrid

All Living in Madrid articles →

About what you read here. Access Madrid is an independent guide written from published, checkable sources — museum and transport operators’ own information, official city and tourism data, and the public record. We have not visited the places we write about, and we do not publish personal recommendations or invented “local favourites”. Where we point to something notable we say who says so.

Opening times, fares, closures and prices change, often at short notice. Everything here is a starting point, not a booking confirmation — always check the venue’s or operator’s own site before you build a day around it. We are not a travel agency and we give no advice on visas, insurance, health or safety requirements; for those, use your own government’s official guidance.