Madrid, explained
Madrid’s night buses are a network of routes called Búho (“owl”), run by the city bus operator EMT, that operate through the hours when the Metro is shut — roughly from just before midnight until the Metro reopens in the morning. They use the same fare system as daytime buses. What is the Búho network … Read more
EMT (Empresa Municipal de Transportes) is Madrid’s municipal bus operator, running daytime, night and airport-adjacent routes across the city on numbered lines shown on stop-mounted maps. It uses the same rechargeable card and zone-based fare system as the metro, coordinated by the regional transport authority, CRTM. What is EMT, and what does it run? EMT … Read more
The Madrid Metro airport supplement is a fixed extra charge added to any journey that begins or ends at one of the two airport stations on Line 8 — Aeropuerto T1-T2-T3 or Aeropuerto T4. It sits on top of the standard fare, is charged once per journey regardless of how many zones are crossed, and … Read more
Four ways exist: the Metro (Line 8, with a change onto the main network), the Cercanías regional train from Terminal 4, a 24-hour airport bus into the centre, and a taxi at a fixed flat fare. Each starts from a different terminal, so which one makes sense depends partly on where the flight lands. What … Read more
Cercanías is Madrid’s commuter rail network, operated by Renfe, the Spanish state railway company. It runs on mainline tracks rather than the underground tunnels used by the Metro, which means it moves faster over distance and reaches towns well outside the city that the Metro never touches. It is better than the Metro whenever the … Read more
The Multi card is the physical, rechargeable smart card used across Madrid’s public transport network. The Abono is not a separate card — it is one of several products that can be loaded onto the Multi card, specifically the unlimited-travel season pass. In short: Multi is the container, Abono is one thing you can put … Read more
The Madrid Metro fare system charges by zone, not by line or number of stops. Almost all journeys within the city fall into Zone A, covered by a single flat fare. Tickets are loaded onto a rechargeable card called the Tarjeta Multi, and travellers choose between single trips, a 10-journey bundle, or a season pass … Read more
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.