I am moving to Madrid in 8 months, and I have been looking at apartments online. I was wondering if anyone knew anything about which neighborhoods would be ideal and safe for a 25 year old single woman, either in Madrid or Pozuelo de Alarcon. Thanks for you help!

The best advice that anyone can give you would be to go and spend at least a week looking over the different areas then make your decision to rent in a certain area. If it looks like an area that you would live in the US then it will probably be okay in Spain. Same advice for the food and booze joints. Over all you should not have any problems, just beaware of your surroundings and make sure of what is going on around you when using an ATM. Stay safe and enjoy.

Well the outskirts are pretty boring and far away form the center. I wouldn't go living there. Far away, no metro and always rush hour by car.And after going out ****ing expesive by cab.

Outskirts are:
Alcala de Hernares, alcobenas, alcoron, aranjuez, arganda del rey, boadilla del monte, colmenar viejo, coslada, fuenlabrada, getafe, las rozas, leganes, majadahonda, mostoles, navalcarnero, parla pozuelo de alcaron, rivas-vacia Madrid, san fernardo de hernares, san sebastian de los reyes, torrejon de ardoz and tres cantos

You can look on interenet but also in the newspapers when you are here. Most of the time cheaper then throug an agancy. Don't worrie there is enough to rent. Madrid is big and with a lot of neigbourhoods. We are living between cuatro Caminos and Nuevos Ministerios. I love the neigbourhood with the big shopping street bravo Murillo and the food market Maravillas. The following neighbourhoods aint recomended:
Tetuan (very lowclass), Prosperidad (a lot of latino's), Colombia (lot of criminality).But afcourse it also depends wich part of the neighbourhood.

Opera, Bilbao, Sol, Retrio, Goya are nice areas but expesive becaus its centre. Choose a house with the metro on walking distance because with that you come everywhere.

If you are interested in a neigbourhood give me a email on maris@supertubbie.com then we can advise you if it's nice our not.

In November, I stayed in a condo owned by a older very nice Spanish lady on Arturo Soria near the #4 Metro Line. This is an upscale very safe neighborhood. The arrangements were made by International House, the Spanish language school I attended in Madrid. This lady lives alone and has five bedrooms, so she is always interested in renting one of them out whenever possible. If you are interested in getting her contact information, just send me a private email. (The lady does not speak any English.)

I don't agree with supertubbie about the outskirts being "Boring". I live in Majadahonda and work in Pozuelo and both are on train line that takes you right to downtown Madrid. I don't know what your budget is for housing but the further out from downtown you get......The cheaper your rent will be. I recommend Aravaca, Majadahonda or Boadilla area(some areas are a bit expensive but very modern, safe and close to Madrid)

Welll in everycase it depends what you like. Our house is around a 100 euro's more expesive then in the outskirts. But that money is easely saved back on not needing a car, les money on public travel and cheaper cabs. Me (origanly from Amsterdam) and my Husband (from Madrid) are city people. I love the live on the streets. I love it that at 24.00 the neighbouyrhood is still alive, all the shops are on walking distance and a lot of choice in diffrent shops, bars and restaurant all on walking distance. The best foodmarket of Madrid around the corner. That is something you won't get in the outskirts. Ok the houses are better set up and you can get a pool but you don't get the real Spanish original neighbourhood life and I can't live with out that. But iff you live in Majadahonda it's on the other side easy to get to Pozuelo then that you have to move by car from madrid centre to there. Madrid ciudad is 24 rushour a day.

My whole family in law lives in the outskirts and all the cousins (betwee 12 and 34) are complaining of missing the real Madrid live.

Well.........I can't argue that Supertubbeie. If the 24/7 action of a 6 million person city is what a person is looking for, then they need to find a place downtown. I am Married with kids and only enjoy the occasional "Night-out" in the Ciudad Centro of Madrid. For a practical house, Chalet or Piso for a family though I recommend the suburbs 15-30 minutes outside the city.

I agree that with children the outskirts are better. I think that iff you would let children play infront of my door the end up under a car, and I live in a back street but still spanish drive like idiots. But my husband doesn't agree on that because he grewup in prosperidad and he ejoyd it.Well I grew up in a bussy city to but I think somethings have chanced since I was small hahahahahhaha aaaaaaaagh I'm getting old :-)

It all depends on what you are used to. I have a small child and live right in the center and wouldn't have it any other way.

The main thing is to figure out what kind of school you want your children to go to (public, private, concertado, etc.).

If you want them to go to a particular public school, then it is imperative that you live as close as possible to the school in order to get a slot. Also, for public schools, some of the zones in the center are better, since in the "afueras" (particularly fast-growing suburbs like Las Rozas), the public schools haven't caught up with the population explosion and are quite understaffed and crowded.

thanks to everyone for your advice! i am taking a prep trip in march to look at apartments, and i plan to look at a lot of places. my company gives me the option of providing a car, but i think i may not want to deal with the parking difficulties. i will ask for more help when i get back from my prep trip, but any other advice would be great.

The newspaper called: Segundamano comes out a few times a week and haves a hole part with rental places (aquiler). This is the news paper to get when you are going to look for houses.

Hi Rebecca, the most safe part of Madrid is "Barrio de Salamanca", but is really expensive, that's the place where you can find all the famous "tiendas" like Armani, Hugo Boss, valentino, etc...
But , don`t worry at all, Madrid have 3 times less criminality than the most safe USA big town.
I only would avoid "Barrio de Lavapies".

Un saludo.

Thanks Pippo, I have been saying that for some time now. If you live, work, or travel in large US cities, then you are already dealing with far more potential for violent crime, than most any of the Western European cities, except Amsterdam.

I apologize to Supertubbie for mentioning this but the Interpol statistics are somewhat atypical for Amsterdam, lots of US style violence there.

When people talk about crime on this board, they usually are referring to pickpockets or sneak thieves or perhaps the hardluck con artist that asks for money. Street crime in the US takes a very different form. Remember that string of hapless German tourists that were murdered near the Miami Airport, just because they drove into the wrong area in a rental car? I frequently host exchange students and some of them have been victimized in nearby Columbus, OH. One young lady was pulled out of a car, thrown to the street, and the car was stolen. She was kicked repeatedly in the face to ensure that she did not resist. She was probably lucky that she was not shot. The offenders did show guns to her.

One of the nice things about Europe (for now) is that you can enjoy cities in the same fashion that our parents would have been able to enjoy US cities, without much fear of a violent attack.

Try taking a "paseo" in downtown Detroit some night and see how far you get. It is really disgraceful how unsafe many of our inner cities have become. I think the Spanish do a great job at making their cities safe and inviting.

"I apologize to Supertubbie for mentioning this but the Interpol statistics are somewhat atypical for Amsterdam, lots of US style violence there:

I don't completly get this (but that's I think because my english aint that good). Does this mean that interpol put crime in Amsterdam on the same level as you write about the US???

Afcourse it ain't a holy city and afcourse people get murdered in Amsterdam, yes there are junkies and all the other problems big cities have. And I musen't forget that there is a kind of fight on high criminel level and in the last year a lot of criminels got assesinated. But never normal victems in there. But situations of being pulled out of cars and getting robbed ore killed as a tourist aint normal issues. But because of the way that The Netherlands deal with the drugs issue it always get a bad mark from interpol. Understandeble when it's not you point of few.

I have a lot of foreign friends in Amsterdam, also from the US and I never heard the don't feel save. Ok they don't realy like Dutch people ore the Dutch additute hahahahhaha but that' something else.

Supertubbie: I'm not saying that Amsterdam is a bad place, just that it has violent crime levels that compare better to US big cities, than Madrid does. It is sort of an exception to the rule in Europe.

Interpol has a statistical report for major European cities, just like the FBI does here in the US. I got the data from this Interpol report.

The US is still way ahead of most of the world when it comes to having dangerous cities.

I would still visit Amsterdam, and plan to someday. Dank U !

Hahahaha well the funny hing is that my husband originaly from Madrid, finds Madrid wayout more dangerous then Amsterdam (he lived 2 years in Amsterdam and 7 years in San Fransisco). He got more robbed with real nives om his trowed in Madrid then in SF. I think it depends what you calculate under heavy crime or not. It's true that Amsterdam has a lot big HIGH level criminals but as normal citizien you don't have anything to do with that. Only the assesination in the last year. But wow In my point of few, so long they kill eachother it can't get better.

But the first time I got offered coke was in SF by a security guy in a bar (like 8 years ago). I was so shocked pfffffff. But harddrugs like coke nowdays kicks in everywhere. Also Madrid you see it more and more offen in the Nightlife. Every city has his bad thing and his good thing. And in SF I haven't feel scared at all I must say.

"Try taking a "paseo" in downtown Detroit some night and see how far you get. It is really disgraceful how unsafe many of our inner cities have become. I think the Spanish do a great job at making their cities safe and inviting. "

Mmmmmm have been in many big cities in Europa and I do't agree. Ok it ain't US that is for sure but lets keep it to Spain.

- Don't get lossed in Zona Franca in Barcalona that one is way out worse then the worsed neigbourhood in Amsterdam. I was so shocked when I was there.

And also Madrid has places you better don't get lossed. But ok I must say because of an addicted familie memeber I have seen the worse places in spain you can imagen. Place I never have seen in the netherlands at all.

I saw the signs on the autopista for the Zona Franca but I did not go there. Sounds like it is a good thing that I did not.

Only one murder in Amsterdam last year? The small city where I work in the US had more than that. Maybe Amsterdam is not so bad after all.

"GOED DAT'R POLITIE IS"

Well I think there have been more murders then one in a whole year. If you already coun't the idiot's that killes there wife of girlfriend out of relationship problems.

Princessbecca --

You might want to find out where your company has its offices in Madrid where you will be working. Many multinational firms have their offices in corporate parks outside Madrid City in surrounding satellite towns such as Pozuelo, Getafé, Alcobendas, San Sebastián de los Reyes, Las Rozas, Majadahonda, etc.

Knowing where your daily commute will be might help you in finding ideal housing for your situation. As most who live in Madrid know, the commute to work can take up to an hour, even if you live and work in the city.

Something you might want to keep in mind as you prep for your house hunting trip!