Hello, My husband and I will be travelling to Europe in July. I spent about 6 weeks in Spain many years ago, so am vaguely familiar with it. However, in trying to navigate our initial leg in Madrid, I'm a little overwhelmed. Hopefully someone familiar with Madrid can help. 1) Our flight arrives from the US at 7:40 am on a Friday. Is it realistic to think we can make the 8:45 am train out of Chamartin to Salamanca? 2) Our flight out of Madrid leaves at 7:40am on a Sunday. How early do we need to arrive at the airport? The flight goes to Munich. 3) Also, we are unsure where to stay when we are headed out of Madrid. The Metro schedule says the earliest train heads out of any station at 6:05. Realistically, how far away from the airport can we stay? We only have a night or two and would like to explore Madrid a bit, yet avoid missing our flight Sunday morning. We are on a pretty tight budget, so we were hoping to go the Metro route. I am confused because the Metro route/schedule estimator says from Nuevos Ministerios it is a ~25 minute ride to Aeropuerto T1 T2 T3, but I keep reading everywhere that it's more like 10-15 minutes. Anyone know which is more accurate (on a Sunday morning)? Thanks!
Posted by
Oak Park, Illinois
4535 posts
I can answer 1 and 2: 1. Not enough time. It'll take at least an hour just to get out of the airport. Figure at least 2 hours and to be safe I'd schedule 3 hours for catching your train. 2. For intra-European flights, allow for 90 minutes. Some European airlines are very strict about the check-in times, so don't cut it any less than that.
Posted by
San Diego, CA
133 posts
In answer to #3, I recommend taking the EMT express bus to the airport. It runs around the clock from the Plaza Cibeles stop (from 11:30pm-6am bus leaves every 35 mins I think), costs 2€ and takes about 40 minutes.
http://www.emtmadrid.es/lineaAeropuerto/horarios.html So for your hotel you could stay in Madrid, you'd probably want to stay close to P.Cibeles which is a few blocks north of the Prado museum.
Posted by
OP
Midwest USA
69 posts
Thank you both for your help! Still deciding if we'd rather take the bus or train to Salamanca, but, I hadn't found anything about the Express Bus from Cibeles in my research -- it'll work perfectly! Thank you! :)
Posted by
Medical Lake, WA, USA
45 posts
I ALWAYS took the bus between Salamanca and Madrid. It leaves hourly from Estacion Sur. Avanzabus is the company. They have express buses if you are looking for speed, and cheaper regular buses if you are looking for cheap. The buses are almost never sold out, and with them leaving hourly, it's pretty flexible to buy at the station.
Posted by
OP
Midwest USA
69 posts
Thanks, Caitlin! I looked at bus and train schedules yesterday and it seems as though the bus is our best option. Plus it brings us in to Salamanca near where I lived during the summer when I studied there, so that'll be fun to walk by and revisit :) Even in July do you think it's a safe bet to buy tickets at the station? Also, to confirm, Estacion Sur is the one closest to the Mendez Alvaro metro stop?
Posted by
OP
Midwest USA
69 posts
Are there any good, yet fast, places to eat near the bus stop? Bakeries, sandwich shops, etc? It looks like the 10am bus would work IF everything is on time. So we're aiming for the 11am bus so we can grab a bite to eat before we get on the bus.