Tips to Park in Madrid & Not die trying

It has been said time and again the best way to get around a big city is public transport.

The public transport services in Madrid work quite well, however, the best way to move around any place is to know the city and be able to move through it in your own car. All you need to know is how to drive wisely, where and how to park in Madrid and not die trying.

Yes, you will find crowded streets with motor and pedestrian traffic but it won’t stop you being able to get around them in your vehicle and to get to your destination as quickly as possible. We highly recommend you try to avoid the rush hours, for example, going to and leaving work and schools. You will find it an easy task to move through Madrid with your car with the tips we are going to show you.

First of all, you need to know how to identify the public parking areas in the city, if you do that, you will always find somewhere where you can leave the car once you have arrived at your destination. Being such a large city you will have at your disposal more than 2 or 3 parking areas for each neighbourhood, for that reason, it will be very easy to locate one of these places.

On the other hand, if you prefer to park on the street you only have to know how to differentiate between the green and blue areas of the Regulated Parking Service (SER) which dominates Madrid.

The “Green Area Parking” identifies the places where the residents of each area can park their vehicles without any time limitation, while you, as a non-resident, can use these car parks for a maximum time of 2 hours. After this time, you will have to move the car and you won’t be able to park it in the same neighbourhood until one hour has passed. The law helps us take other drivers into consideration.

The “Blue zones” allow parking in Madrid to any driver for a limited time of 4 hours. After this period, you will have to move the car and you will not be able to park it in the same area until one hour has elapsed. All SER parking spaces are subject to charge, but during the nights & Sundays you will not have to pay anything to leave your car in these places.

Finally, another option with which you can count on parking in Madrid is to install some of the mobile apps developed for drivers of the city to find parking easily (Aparca & Go, E-park or Wayzpark). They operate simply and efficiently: users register on the app the place where they have parked and, when they leave the free space its shown in the app so that another driver who searches for a parking space in the area can park his Vehicle as soon as possible.