Getting to Madrid and staying there for a post-camino visit

[Christian Hiriart]

Good info here, thanks guys.

I'm flying back home from Barajas after my Camino, I was wandering how to get from Santiago to Madrid. I was also wanting to stay in Madrid for a day or two as I'm interested in visiting El Prado and if time permits The Escorial, Valle de los Caidos. Any tips would be appreciated.

Chris

 

[peregrina2000]

Good info here, thanks guys.

I'm flying back home from Barajas after my Camino, I was wandering how to get from Santiago to Madrid. I was also wanting to stay in Madrid for a day or two as I'm interested in visiting El Prado and if time permits The Escorial, Valle de los Caidos. Any tips would be appreciated.

Chris

Hi, Christian,

I usually just fly into Madrid from Santiago early in the morning and make my connection without leaving the airport. But if I want to spend some time in Madrid after walking, I personally like the train option. I've taken the night train (tren hotel, it's called) which gets you to Madrid early in the morning. I then go leave my pack at my hotel and have the whole day ahead of me. You can get really good rates, my most recent trip on this train was probably in 2011 and I think I paid some ridiculous price like 27 € for a bunk in a compartment with three other people (and much to my delight, the bunk compartments are now sex-segregated unless you are a group and want to be together). There are cheap flights on airlines like Easy Jet, Ryan Air, etc. And of course there are buses. So you have a lot of choices.

I would stay in Madrid somewhere near Puerta del Sol so you can then hop on the Cercanías train to get back out to the airport quickly. That also gives you easy walking access to many of the main tourist sites in Madrid.

Buen camino, Laurie

 

[Anniesantiago]

I usually take the afternoon train from Santiago to Madrid. Lots of great inexpensive places to stay near Atocha station or Puerta del Sol, but I'd be on www.booking.com looking NOW because things are filling up. The Metro is really easy to work in Madrid, also, so getting around is a breeze.

 

[Anniesantiago]

Hi, Christian,

I usually just fly into Madrid from Santiago early in the morning and make my connection without leaving the airport. But if I want to spend some time in Madrid after walking, I personally like the train option. I've taken the night train (tren hotel, it's called) which gets you to Madrid early in the morning. I then go leave my pack at my hotel and have the whole day ahead of me. You can get really good rates, my most recent trip on this train was probably in 2011 and I think I paid some ridiculous price like 27 € for a bunk in a compartment with three other people (and much to my delight, the bunk compartments are now sex-segregated unless you are a group and want to be together). There are cheap flights on airlines like Easy Jet, Ryan Air, etc. And of course there are buses. So you have a lot of choices.

I would stay in Madrid somewhere near Puerta del Sol so you can then hop on the Cercanías train to get back out to the airport quickly. That also gives you easy walking access to many of the main tourist sites in Madrid.

Buen camino, Laurie

Laurie, how much do flights usually cost? I should try that sometime.

 

[whariwharangi]

See airport Santiago for service providers to Madrid
http://www.aena.es/csee/Satellite/Aeropuerto-Santiago/es/

Renfe provides train service from Santiago to Madrid
http://www.renfe.com/EN/viajeros/

adif Renfe Station Santiago
http://www.adif.es/es_ES/infraestructuras/estaciones/31400/informacion_000050.shtml

ALSA provides bus service from Santiago to Madrid
https://www.alsa.es/en/home

Santiago bus station
http://www.tussa.org/web/interior.php?txt=arbore_web5&lg=cas

 

[Albertagirl]

Do not trust Alsa to get you to the airport from Santiago if you take an overnight bus. In November, I bought a ticket from Santiago to Terminal 4 at the airport(I still have the ticket), but the trip terminated at the downtown bus depot, with Alsa not providing any transportation to the airport. It is not difficult to get to the airport from there, but you must allow an hour, as trains run every half an hour and take half an hour. Allow for extra time to get to the airport, wherever your ticket promises to take you.

 

[GreatDane]

Good info here, thanks guys.

I'm flying back home from Barajas after my Camino, I was wandering how to get from Santiago to Madrid. I was also wanting to stay in Madrid for a day or two as I'm interested in visiting El Prado and if time permits The Escorial, Valle de los Caidos. Any tips would be appreciated.

Chris

I stayed at Madrid Motion Hostel last time. http://www.motionhostels.com/en/hostel.html It's right between Gran Via and Sol metro stops. I booked it through Booking.com. The good stuff - location, cafe/bar downstairs was not bad, big breakfast with American style coffee, free 3 hr walking tour, comfy bunks, en suite bathrooms, elevator, lockable storage lockers, plus post check out luggage storage and you can choose how many people/bunks in your room. The bad stuff - it was kind of grimy (but you do get freshly laundered sheets at check-in and make your own bed), and the WiFi was non-existent even sitting next to the router. There is a McD's right across Gran Via if you need good WiFi.

 

[Seano]

Renting a car might be cheapest option Europcar sometimes do alternative drop off free. If you get special offer in Hotel
Regina , Its wonderful, and fitting reward for completing C.F.

Sean

 

[C clearly]

I stayed at Hostal Bruna, very near to El Prado.

 

[Maryimelda]

We did the Alsa morning bus which left SDC at around 9.30am (right on time) and I forget what time we got to Madrid but it was well and truly in time for dinner. Very comfortable bus with free wifi and toilet. It makes an hour long stop in Ponferrada to refuel and this gives you plenty of time to have a meal and stretch your legs in the bus station. We paid 29 Euro per ticket which we bought at the Alsa kiosk in the pilgrim's office in SDC. I'm not sure whether there will be an Alsa kiosk at the new pilgrim's office but my guess is that there would be.

 

[Anemone del Camino]

A Ryanair may cost you around 30€, or less, depending on when you book it. But they charge Nother 30€ or so to check your backpack and it will have to be checked if you have walking poles in it.

 

[whariwharangi]

Do not trust Alsa to get you to the airport from Santiago if you take an overnight bus. In November, I bought a ticket from Santiago to Terminal 4 at the airport(I still have the ticket), but the trip terminated at the downtown bus depot, with Alsa not providing any transportation to the airport. It is not difficult to get to the airport from there, but you must allow an hour, as trains run every half an hour and take half an hour. Allow for extra time to get to the airport, wherever your ticket promises to take you.

Check the ALSA schedule to find its itenerary. ALSA provides service from Santiago to various stations in Madrid which may include one or more of Intercambiador de Moncloa, Estacion Sur, and T4 Barajas. Most of the buses providing service from Santiago do not go to T4.

Getting stranded at the wrong place in Madrid would be easy enough for anyone who does not have familiarity with the system.

Madrid Metro connects Moncloa and Estacion Sur (via Mendez Alvaro station) to the Airport. The routing involves several transfers which are easy enough to do but it does take as much as an hour.

 

[Christian Hiriart]

Thanks everyone, appreciate the tips. Madrid has so much to see and do..

 

[Albertagirl]

Check the ALSA schedule to find its itenerary. ALSA provides service from Santiago to various stations in Madrid which may include one or more of Intercambiador de Moncloa, Estacion Sur, and T4 Barajas. Most of the buses providing service from Santiago do not go to T4.

Getting stranded at the wrong place in Madrid would be easy enough for anyone who does not have familiarity with the system.

Madrid Metro connects Moncloa and Estacion Sur (via Mendez Alvaro station) to the Airport. The routing involves several transfers which are easy enough to do but it does take as much as an hour.

I think it is important that people should be aware that Alsa is still selling tickets on on a daily schedule for the 9:30 pm overnight bus from Santiago to Madrid - Barajas T4, supposedly with no transfers. I bought such a ticket, for a particular day. But it did not go there. I could very easily have missed my flight back to Canada if I had not allowed hours of extra time, just in case. This is not a matter of my having got the schedule wrong, as is clear enough on my ticket, since it was a reserved seat for a specific day to terminal 4 at the airport.

 

[movinmaggie]

I took an Iberia flight Santiago/Madrid. There was one at 6am and another at 9:30am.

 

[whariwharangi]

I think it is important that people should be aware that Alsa is still selling tickets on on a daily schedule for the 9:30 pm overnight bus from Santiago to Madrid - Barajas T4, supposedly with no transfers. I bought such a ticket, for a particular day. But it did not go there. I could very easily have missed my flight back to Canada if I had not allowed hours of extra time, just in case. This is not a matter of my having got the schedule wrong, as is clear enough on my ticket, since it was a reserved seat for a specific day to terminal 4 at the airport.

Then you were ripped off ... thanks for the warning.

 

[Kiwi-family]

Remember the Prado has free entry from 6pm. The queues to get in are formidably long but move so quickly you are in within ten minutes once the doors open. We like going every evening we are in Madrid - we do other things during the day, then have a snack as we stand in line under the trees about 5:30, then dinner afterwards.

 

[Christian Hiriart]

Remember the Prado has free entry from 6pm. The queues to get in are formidably long but move so quickly you are in within ten minutes once the doors open. We like going every evening we are in Madrid - we do other things during the day, then have a snack as we stand in line under the trees about 5:30, then dinner afterwards.

Thanks, that is a good tip.... I was at the Prado almost 40 years ago, things have change some since and I really wanted to go back at some point... I was single then and care free, now with a wife I love, 3 kids and 4 grandkids so things have changed some...