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.