2.92/5
1,862 reviews
Photo by Jorge Fernández Salas via Unsplash

Madrid

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good

great

walkable

nightlife

friendly

bit

bars

english

amazing

barcelona

beautiful

scene

life

plenty

art

work

parks

cities

Madrid is a vibrant, walkable city with excellent public transportation, making it easy to navigate without a car. The dining, bar, and nightlife scenes are major highlights, with a wide range of options available across diverse neighborhoods. Architecture and cultural landmarks are plentiful, and museums like the Reina Sofia offer world-class art collections, often free in the evenings. The city is generally considered safe, and locals are friendly, though initial impressions may seem distant due to the more formal cultural norms.

Despite these strengths, several reviewers mention some downsides. Summer heat can be intense, especially during August, and air conditioning is not common. Discrimination and racism towards people of color, particularly Latino and Afro-Latino individuals, are recurring concerns, suggesting social challenges in terms of diversity and inclusion. The cost of living, while moderate for a major European capital, is higher than some expect. Cleanliness and maintenance vary notably by neighborhood, with investment seemingly skewed toward more affluent areas. Dining times can also be inconvenient, with dinner often beginning very late by non-Spanish standards.

In summary, Madrid offers rich urban and cultural experiences, but with some notable issues related to social inclusion, climate comfort, and cost that potential visitors or residents should consider.

AI-generated summary of reviews
17 hours ago

good:
- very walkable friendly city
- many good cafes, restoraunts, coffee shops with specialties coffee
- great architecture
- many parks

bad:
- amlost no AC anywhere
- 38c at night (august), not humid tho. it’s not thailand 38c
- aqi 82

11 months ago

It is more expensve than expected. Depending whete you live, streets can be dirty. It seems the government only uses the tax money to invest in the high en areas. Thwre are is a lot of inequality. People are very racist. I am Mexican, and the first thing people ask me here, is whete do I come from. I have never felt as discriminated as here and to be honest I dont think I have it as bad as other people.

2 years ago

Liked Madrid,but its a bit dangerous in the evening and way to expensive! people can be really nice when they meet you but after a while you realize all it's not what it seems. And Barcelona is exactly the same.

2 years ago

Madrid is ok. It’s a beautiful city full of wonderful shops and fancy/cool restaurants. I wasn’t blown away by the food. I’m a Person of color, and I felt like it lacked diversity in terms of events, shades of people and even an international scene. Many Latino Americans feel discriminated against—Dominicans, Venezuelans, especially if you’re Afro Latino. Spain has a long way to go. I was actually surprised by the lack of diversity especially when you look at France, Germany, Portugal, UK, etc…. I found Madrid to be a bit dry. It has an interesting history though.

2 years ago

Just returned after 1mo in Madrid. From a Male 35 year old perspective, I loved it. Endless night life, techno clubs, dive bars, live music, open jam sessions if that's your thing. If you're feeling lonely hit up Meetup and you'll find plenty of international meetups/pub crawls. Retiro park is green and huge when you need a break from the city. It's dense with tons of people from all walks of life. Multi-cultural population, students, professionals, travelers, English is spoken well my most locals. Not the cheapest EU city but for it's size and broad range of offerings including incredible art museums, amazing markets with great tapas, it's a bang for you buck. The people are warm and friendly. Use common sense when navigating the city and you'll find it's safe, too.

3 years ago

Awesome city.
Limitless good restaurants and bars. Easy to use transit, but you barely need it because the city is so walkable. Beautiful streets. Overflowing with genuine Spanish culture. Not cheap but affordable for how large of a city it is.
Wish it was a bit greener, but overall Madrid is a great spot to spend significant time in.

3 years ago

Just blindingly good. Best european city by miles. Cheap tube €26 for 5 days unlimited use! City centre is all walkable though. 4 or 5 distinct barrios with mega nightlife- does anyone actually work?!! Architecture fabulous on every street. Museum reno sofia; the best collection of 20c art, free entry after 7pm! The locals are friendly too. Could easily move here.

3 years ago

Favorite city in the entire world and honestly people who prefer Barcelona to it just simply did not do Madrid right. This city has everything you could possibly want in a city (besides a beach of course). So safe, amazing transportation all over the city and country, amazing location to travel easily and cheaply to the rest of Europe. Restaurant and nightlife scenes are unparalleled as someone else said in another comment. Did you know Madrid has more bars per capita than anywhere in the world? Each neighborhood has it's own beautiful personality from posh/high fashion to youthful and grungy to charming Spanish barrio vibes, there's everything.

4 years ago

Initially I didn't like Madrid. People don't speak english well and people seem very dry. After spending a month there, my opinion changed. People in Madrid are more formal and it reminds me of the wrong impression people get of Parisians. The dining scene is very developed with a ton of options. The only complaint I have had over the years with Madrid is how late people eat. It's truly absurd and I hope COVID might help to change that for good. Centro is a great area to stay and everything is walkable. Taxis are abundant and Google Translate will be necessary.

4 years ago

The bar & restaurant scene in Madrid is unparalleled, next level. I can't imagine what this place must have been like without COVID.

4 years ago

I really enjoyed staying in Madrid. Reasonable coast of life, plenty of things to see/do and deliiiiicious food.

6 years ago

What an amazing city! I've been working remotely here for a month, it's probably the most fun I've ever had in a month!

Beautiful parks, great nightlife, friendly people, walkable city, plenty of activities / events going on, interesting nearby cities to visit, speaking Spanish not really required etc.

I've been working from a WeWork and living out of hostels. The WeWorks here are pretty standard, good work environment at a reasonable price (250 euros / month for hot desking).

The hostels have been great, stayed in 5 so far, the best were Sungate and Hostel One, definitely check those out if visiting. Very easy to meet people at these hostels.

The nightlife is second to none. Even compared to London where I'm usually based, the nightlife here is wild. The only issue I found is that everything happens much later than the U.K. People have dinner around 9pm, go out 11:30pm and back in the not so early hours of the morning. This can make waking up at 8am for work a little difficult!

I've visited a couple of nearby cities, my favourite was Toledo, a 30 minute bus ride away. Definitely worth checking out.

Plenty of stuff to do in Madrid - outdoor swimming pools, parks, free outdoor gyms, rooftop bars, museums, art galleries, etc. I've been here a month and still have loads of stuff I want to do.

The temperature has been a bit rough. Regularly late 30's means I'm constantly looking for shade when walking about. I've barely got a tan because I'm in the shade so often. The temperature in the evenings is pleasant, around 9pm. I've been here since the beginning of July, so nearly peak heat season.

I'm learning some Spanish but definitely a beginner. Most people from Madrid speak decent English, I've come into difficulty when trying to talk to people from South America, usually their English isn't so strong.

Overall I highly recommend visiting Madrid. I much prefer it to Barcelona as a place to live. I'm surprised it's not rated higher on NomadList! It beats Amsterdam, Stockholm and San Francisco, all places I've worked from over the last couple years.

6 years ago

Been in January 2018 in Madrid and it was somehow ok. Enjoyed the parks + some pedestrian sides of it, but ..the rest was not so astonishing like other cities known for their inner beauty.

6 years ago

✅ Very walkable

✅ Great public transit

✅ Excellent food and nightlife scene

✅ Friendly people

✅ Beautiful architecture

✅ Cultural attractions and museums

✅ Very safe

✅ Fast internet

✅ Warm now

✅ Good air quality usually

✅ Many Nomads.com members here all year round

✅ Easy to make friends

✅ Very easy to do business

✅ High quality of education

✅ Great hospitals

✅ Roads are very safe

✅ Great freedom of speech

✅ Democratic

✅ Very safe for women

✅ Family friendly

✅ Very friendly to LGBTQ+

✅ (Medical) marijuana MAY be legal, unenforced or decriminalized (always double check this)

❌ Discrimination against minorities

❌ Very hot in summer

❌ More expensive than expected

❌ Late dining hours

❌ Uneven cleanliness across neighborhoods

❌ Extremely expensive

❌ Not much to do

❌ Gets cold in the winter

❌ Very dry air now

❌ Nomads.com members didn't like going here

❌ Feels crowded

❌ People don't speak English well

❌ Many people smoke tobacco

❌ High alcohol consumption

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Feels (median)

5°C / 41°F cold

13°C / 55°F cool

12°C / 54°F cool

15°C / 59°F cool

24°C / 75°F warm

27°C / 81°F warm

30°C / 86°F warm

23°C / 73°F mild

21°C / 70°F mild

12°C / 54°F cool

Real (median)

6°C / 42°F
very cold

13°C / 55°F
cool

12°C / 54°F
cool

15°C / 59°F
cool

24°C / 74°F
warm

26°C / 79°F
warm

27°C / 81°F
warm

31°C / 87°F
hot

23°C / 73°F
mild

21°C / 69°F
mild

12°C / 53°F
cool

Humidity

damp
71%

nice
70%

nice
53%

nice
67%

nice
51%

nice
47%

nice
35%

nice
34%

nice
54%

nice
56%

nice
62%

nice
68%

Most common

☀️ Clear

☔️ Rain

☀️ Clear

☔️ Rain

Rain

dry
41mm

dry
34mm

dry
5mm

rainy
57mm

dry
16mm

dry
17mm

dry
1mm

dry
4mm

dry
11mm

dry
43mm

dry
32mm

dry
25mm

Cloud

pockets
36%

pockets
41%

pockets
26%

pockets
47%

pockets
38%

pockets
30%

pockets
20%

pockets
35%

pockets
32%

pockets
23%

pockets
36%

Air quality

okay
59 US AQI

okay
55 US AQI

clean
46 US AQI

clean
39 US AQI

clean
43 US AQI

okay
54 US AQI

okay
57 US AQI

okay
61 US AQI

okay
57 US AQI

okay
50 US AQI

clean
47 US AQI

okay
63 US AQI

Sun

safe
2 UVI

seek shade
3 UVI

seek shade
5 UVI

avoid sun
6 UVI

avoid sun
9 UVI

avoid sun
8 UVI

seek shade
5 UVI

seek shade
4 UVI

seek shade
3 UVI

safe
2 UVI

Remote workers

2,863 people

2,565 people

3,188 people

3,024 people

3,318 people

2,696 people

2,104 people

2,930 people

3,105 people

3,188 people

3,457 people

2,432 people

Green is good. Red is bad. Values shown are the medians of all daily highs in a month based on past few years, not necessarily current numbers. Remote worker count is estimated based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members.

If you'd like to filter destinations based on their climate, try Nomads.com's Climate Finder

Based on Madrid's cost of living, here's selected remote jobs that would cover your costs:

	Site Reliability Engineer @ Tinybird
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	Senior AI Engineer Python & LLM Eng... @ Lemon.io
	Senior Software Engineer @ Magnet Forensics
	Software Engineering Team Lead @ bloXroute Labs
	Senior Staff Engineer Infrastructur... @ Pryon
	Senior Backend Engineer @ MoonPay
	Senior UI Engineer Senior Frontend ... @ Toku
	Blockchain Engineer @ MoonPay
	Senior Backend Software Engineer @ Bitwise Asset Management
	Senior Application Security Enginee... @ Loop

Help pick the best photos for Madrid and improve this page's look by tappingclicking on them and the site saves your feedback Vote photos

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$6,250 / mo

20 Mbps

Spain

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 🧐 Pricey

📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast

👍 Liked good

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

🌦 Feels 35° 95° 32° 90° 🥵 AQI 63 😷

✈️24min

$3,613 / mo

33 Mbps

Porto

Portugal

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 😳 Extremely expensive

📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast

👍 Liked mediocre

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

☀️ Feels 33° 91° 31° 87° 🥵

✈️2h

$5,544 / mo

🌇 Also went here612 people

Amsterdam

Netherlands

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 😳 Extremely expensive

📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast

👍 Liked mediocre

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

🌥 Feels 21° 70° 21° 69° AQI 23

✈️2h

$6,250 / mo

🌇 Also went here744 people

Prague

Czechia

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 🧐 Pricey

📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast

👍 Liked good

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

☀️ Feels 21° 70° 20° 68° AQI 64 😷

✈️2h

$3,249 / mo

🌇 Also went here567 people

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 🧐 Pricey

📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast

👍 Liked good

👮 Safety great

Tap to open

🌥 Feels 33° 91° 30° 86° 🥵 AQI 42

✈️14h

$3,152 / mo

🌇 Also went here451 people

4,600 remote workers in Madrid now, of which 20+ members checked in (some members are set to private)

Members who will be here soon

Members who have been here

Values shown are estimated visits by traveling remote workers based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members. Visits to a place are only counted once per year per user, even if they visit more in that year. Visits are also normalized by overall trips added per month on the site, so if site usage goes up or down it does not affect trends. Not all digital nomads are on Nomads.com, and not all Nomads.com members log their trips. So the data is only indicative.

The chart below shows visitors by nationality normalized for population size. This means we take all trips logged on Nomads.com, check which country of origin the user is from, then divide that total visit count by the country of origin's population. If we didn't, it'd just show the big countries like US, Brazil and India always on top. Instead, this shows which nationalities worldwide proportionally visit more or less, which is more useful.

⭐️ Total score	2.92/5 (Rank #63) 1862 reviews
❤️ Liked by members	👍25 liked it 👎3 disliked it
👍 Quality of life score	Good
👶 Family score	Okay
🎒 Community score	Good
💵 Cost	🧐 Very expensive: $4,453 / mo
📡 Internet	🙂 Good: 33Mbps (avg)
😝 Fun	Okay
⛅️ Temperature (now)	🥵 Too hot: 34°C94°F (feels 34°C93°F)
💦 Humidity (now)	🌵 Too dry: 29%
💨 Air quality (now)	😐 Moderate: 85 US AQI
💨 Air quality (annual)	🌱 Good: 56 US AQI
👌 Safety	Great
🤮 Food safety*	Great
👮‍♀️ Lack of crime*	Great
🤝 Lack of racism*	Bad
🎓 Education level*	High
⚡️ Power grid	Great
🌊 Vulnerability to climate change	Good
💰 Income level*	High: $2,225 / mo
🙊 English speaking*	Bad
😤 People density	🧘‍♀️ Low density: 5k ppl/km² (1 per 14x14m)
🚶 Walkability	Great
🚦 Traffic safety*	Okay
✈️ Airline scores*	Okay
🧳 Lost luggage*	Bad
🏥 Hospitals	Great
😄 Happiness*	Bad
🍸 Nightlife	Okay
📶 Free WiFi in city	Okay
🖥 Places to work from	Great
❄️ A/C or heating	Great
😁 Friendly to foreigners	Good
🗯 Freedom of speech*	Good
👩 Female friendly	Good
🌈 LGBTQ+ friendly	Great
🎅 Startup Score	Okay

🌍 Continent	Europe
🚩 Country	Spain
🗓️ Average trip length	6 days
📡 Internet speed (avg)	33 Mbps
⛅️ Weather (now)	☀️ 34°C 94°F + 🌵 Too dry (29%) = feels 34°C 93°F
💨 Air quality (now)	👎😷 85 US AQI = 🚬 / day
💨 Air quality (annual avg)	👎😷 57 US AQI
🔌 Power	230V 50Hz
🧔 Best neighborhood to stay	Usera
🚀 Upcoming neighborhood	Carabanchel
🚕 Best taxi app*	Uber
🚑 Travel medical insurance	Safetywing
🏧 Suggested ATM take out:	EUR 100 = USD 115
💸 Tipping	No
💳 Cashless	💳 Yes, cards OK almost everywhere
💻 Best coworking space	Utopic_US
💻 Best alt. coworking space	GarAJE Madrid
🚰 Tap water	👌 Yes, safe to drink
♻️ Return rate	👍14% of visitors return
📸 Visitors per year	5,581,000 visitors
📸 Tourists now	106,960 tourists
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Population	3,300,000 people
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 GDP per capita*	$26,695 / year
😤 Population density	🤨 busy: 14x14m (196m²) per person
👫 Gender ratio (population)	👨 43% 👱‍♀️ 57%
👫 Gender ratio (young adults)	👨 53% 👱‍♀️ 47%
👫 Gender ratio (nomads)	👨 81% 👱‍♀️ 19%
🏞 Foreign land ownership allowed	Yes
⛪️ Religious government	Non-religious
💻 Online electronics shop	Amazon
🏠 Apartment listings	Idealista
✈️ Best short-haul air carrier	EasyJet
✈️ Best int'l air carrier	Iberia

💵 Cost of living for nomad	$4,453 / month
💵 Cost of living for expat	$2,644 / month
💵 Cost of living for family	$6,147 / month
💵 Cost of living for local	$1,756 / month
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$3,961 / month
🏡 Airbnb (median price)	$2,605 / month
🏠 1br studio rent in center	$1,610 / month
🏠 Median home price	$449,455
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$186 / night
🏠 Airbnb (median price)	$85 / night
🏢 Coworking hot desk	$466 / month
🍛 Dinner	$13
🥤 Coca-Cola (0.3L)	$2
🍺 Beer in cafe (0.5L)	$6
☕️ Coffee in cafe	$1
👩‍🏫 International school	$9,591 / year
📱 Mobile data (~10GB)	$5 / month
🚕 Taxi price (avg trip ~3km/2mi)	$5 / trip
💰 Estimated tax on $50,000	$11,365
💰 Estimated tax on $100,000	$33,727
💰 Estimated tax on $250,000	$110,442