Cheap car park in Madrid: where to park in Madrid?

Who has never dreamed of offering a sunny break in the Spanish capital? For a stress-free stay, here are all the tips to discover Madrid by car and find easily a parking lot in Madrid.

With its 3.4 million inhabitants, Madrid is the most populous city in Spain. Close to the Guadarrama mountain range, the city has many advantages for it: a lively nightlife that delights all parties, astonishing art galleries, an elegant architecture, an essoring flamenco and jazz scene, a tasty and fragrant gastronomy and a population that masters the art of living in Spanish. Of course, Madrid will offer you beautiful memories.

But parking in the Spanish capital can quickly become a real limestone: with the few places available in the center, limited parking in time, parking out of price, you can lose a lot of time and money. Here are some tips and good plans to help you find cheap parking in Madrid.

Parking in Madrid: public parking

As in many cities, Madrid has a SER program – a regulated parking service – which allows to regulate and control parking in the Spanish capital. It offers two types of seats: the green area that allows residents to park quietly without a time limit in their neighbourhood and non-residents for a maximum of 2 hours, and the blue area that allows users to park their vehicle for 4 hours.

Rates vary depending on the area but also depending on your vehicle: you will have a 20% discount if you have a hybrid vehicle and a 20% increase if you have a petrol car prior to 1997 or a diesel before 2001. Count about €2.55 for 2 hours in blue area and €1.80 for 1 hour in green area.

Parking in Madrid for free

There are some good plans in Madrid and not the least: you can find some free places! However, you will have to get away from the city centre to find these rare beads. Fortunately, these areas are very well served by public transport to reach the centre of Madrid. The edges of the Rio Manzanares, close to the Casa de Campo, have a few free seats, just like the Chamartin area or the Ciudad Universitaria are areas known to accommodate a few free parking spaces.

In addition, you can park for free in Madrid outside the SER schedules: so you can park at night, weekend – Saturday from 3pm and Sunday – or every afternoon of the month of August.

Cheap car park in Madrid: covered parking

There are more than a hundred car parks in Madrid so difficult to know which are the good plans of the Spanish capital and those who will ruin you more than anything else. Fortunately, Wanderlix managed to negotiate some cheap car parks in Madrid.

Located in the city centre, 100 meters from Lavapiés Square, the parking Primavera offers the very attractive rate of 20€ per 24h, while you need more in the 30€ per day for parking in this area. Other cheap car park located 15 minutes walk from San Andrés Church and the Osuna Palace gardens, DM Latina offers very economic packages: €14.95 per day, €25.56 per two days and €38 per three days. If you want to park there for only a few hours, it is also possible: count 1,95€ per hour, 5€ per 3h and 7€ per 5h.

A stone’s throw from the Atocha train station, Garaje VIP Atocha is also very advantageous: 16€ per day, the weekend passes to 33€ and the night to 11€.

Parking in Madrid: underground parking

One of the good plans to easily find parking in Madrid is to be interested in underground parking. There are more than a hundred in the city. You can park your vehicle for a whole day for a cost of between 27 and 31€ every 24 hours. If you want to park in underground parking for a few hours, it is quite possible and the price will be estimated by fraction: count about €0.15 per minute if you stay from 31 to 120 minutes and €0.20 per minute if you stay from 121 to 720 minutes.

Main photo credit : Flickr – Felipe Gabaldón