Car Rental Madrid

A quick guide to Madrid

Madrid is a magnificent city in every sense. This vast, sprawling metropolis of four million souls, lying at the very centre of the country, is an alluring mix of grand, 19th-century Bourbon squares and wide sweeping boulevards, medieval buildings and narrow, twisting streets and alleyways. At its atmospheric heart is the Plaza Mayor, a huge square of Flemish-inspired architecture that makes the perfect place to sit back and take it all in while enjoying tapas and a café con leche.

Packing in the Prado

Madrid boasts three world-class art museums stuffed with outstanding collections, the envy of anywhere in the world. Take some time to visit the Prado to experience one of the world’s greatest displays of art, with classics at every turn, or venture towards the Reina Sofía, home to perhaps the most famous painting in Spanish history, Picasso’s moving and impressive Guernica. The third of the galleries, the Thyssen-Bornemisza, is a treasure trove of Impressionist and Expressionist masters as well as 20^th-century North American art, eagerly awaiting exploration.

Serene and green

Madrid’s many parks are great places to escape for a few hours into a tranquil setting. The most central and most popular of them is El Retiro, a delightful mix of formal gardens and wide open spaces. Hire a boat and row out onto the man-made lake in the shadow of the Alfonso XII monument. There’s also peace to be found at the Royal Botanical Gardens, with some 30,000 plant species ripe for discovery in this gorgeous place.

24-hour party people

History and culture are only part of Madrid’s appeal. As you get to grips with the place, you soon realize that it’s the lifestyle of the inhabitants – the madrileños – that is one of the capital’s main attractions, whether they’re hanging out in traditional cafés or summer terrazas, packing the lanes of Sunday’s El Rastro flea market or playing hard and very late in a thousand bars, clubs, discos and tascas. The Madrid social scene is one of the most vibrant in the country – the match of Barcelona, say – and one that it’s immensely fun to immerse yourself in.

Into Iberia

Hiring a car will allow you to visit some of Spain’s greatest towns and cities, many of which are within an hour’s drive of Madrid. Make sure you set aside time to visit Toledo, which preceded Madrid as the country’s capital. Immortalised by El Greco, who lived and worked there, the city is a living museum to the many cultures – Visigothic, Moorish, Jewish and Christian – which have shaped the destiny of Spain.

Segovia, with its stunning Roman aqueduct and irresistible Disneyesque castle, attracts many visitors too, while Felipe II’s vast palace of El Escorial is a monument to outsize all others. Also seek out Aranjuez, an oasis in the parched Castilian plain, famed for its lavish baroque palace and gardens, the beautiful walled city of Ávila, birthplace of St Teresa, and not forgetting Cervantes’ home town, Alcalá de Henares, which can boast a truly stunning 16th-century university. Car rental in Madrid makes visiting all of these places a real possibility.

Driving in and around Madrid

Driving in Madrid is easy and pleasant, made even easier if you acquaint yourself with the rules of the road before arriving. There are three types of main road: carreteras nacionales are toll-free national roads with a speed limit of 90 km/h; autovías are toll-free dual carriageways with a speed limit of 100 km/h and autopistas are toll motorways with a top speed of 120 km/h (these roads are prefixed with an ‘E’).

Driving is on the right-hand side and you should stick to the right-hand lane on motorways and dual carriageways unless overtaking. Though you have to pay to use toll roads, they are much quieter than toll-free roads. Look for signs saying ‘Peaje’ which indicates you’ll have to pay – our branch teams can tell you how.

The city has three ring roads, the M50 being the outermost, the M40 inside that and the M30 the innermost – they’re a great way to navigate the city without entering the very centre. When parking in the city, watch out for yellow zones that say ‘Prohibido Estacionar’ – you can’t park there. Instead, use green or blue pay-and-display zones or the numerous car parks and garages.

As befits the capital, Madrid is exceptionally well connected to the rest of the country, with major motorways leading to all corners of Spain. The E-5 runs south and then west to Seville, while you can leave it at Cordoba and head for Malaga and the southern coast on the A-45. For a sublime coastal trip, drive east on the E-901 for Valencia and from there the E-15 north to vibrant Barcelona.