Plenty has been written on these boards about everyone's favorite central neighborhood, but I'm curious about more suburban neighborhoods. I'll be a 29-year-old, English-teaching, JD-having, non-partying type female when I move to Madrid, so what kind of neighborhood might be good for me?

Or the other question I can ask is: What's your favorite neighborhood (to live in) in Madrid and why?

What's a JD?
I like very much my neighbourghood (Barrio del Pilar)
It has many shops, so you don't have to go out for shopping, big parks, cinemas, a theater, metro, buses, swimming pools, and a big council gym. The only bad thing is that I find a little bit crowded.
Another place I like is Dehesa de la Villa, it has a very big and beautiful park and it's very quiet, although it's not so good for shopping.
If you want to go out of Madrid I would have a look to the northern towns, Colmenar or Tres Cantos or Las Rozas.....

>JD-having

>What's a JD?

I was thinking along the lines of JD-drinking! But I don't want to cast a slur!!

And we like north east Madrid, Corralejos!
Pretty quiet,
Next to Parc Juan Carlos,
We can see the mountains,
We can see the smog over the city
Not too far to the metro
Not too far from the airport (So you don't get ripped off!! )

Piggy backing on what Miguelito said and moving a pinch closer to the city than Las Rozas while moving from the northwest to southwest region of the greater Madrid area, I like three general community areas that are located in my general vicinity:

• Majadahonda, (NOT pronounced, My momma had a Honda... )
  
• Boadilla del Monte & Villanueva de la Ca�ada & MY FAVORITE OF ALL...
  
• Villaviciosa de Od�n (Where I live... )
  

The advantage of all of these communities is that you can live in Madrid without the Crazy hustle and bustle of the big city that Madrid offers. What is the disadvantage? Well, the most important one is transportation. While buses run to Madrid from all three, you would live much more comfortably if you had a car.

Well, there's some insider info on my beloved Madrile�o neck of the woods. I hope it may be of some benefit. Good luck!

:cheers:

I live in a non central neighbourhood: Aluche, in the South West.

It's a lively neighbourhood, but not as crowded as Central areas. There's a shopping centre with a Carrefour in it -it�s always helpful to live near one Carrefour- and there are many supermarkets, shops, bars, a nice park with lovely terrazas, another bigger park (Tres Cruces) very near, too.

As regards public transport, there's the metro (l�nea 5 near casa de campo where you can take l�nea 10) and the cercan�as, two stops away from Atocha, and three from M�ndez �lvaro, and a few more to Alcorc�n in the other direction.

The Casa de campo with its zoo and Parque de Atracciones is also very much at hand.

Carabanchel, with the famous Vista Alegre pavillion -great concerts- is also very near here.

It's not a bad place I think, although I can not compare for I have never lived anywhere else in Madrid.

Saludooooooos :cheers:

Sorry 2 interupt but Aluche is not seen as a 'Barrio Bien'of madrid (no offence intended). If u want 2 live in the madrid but in a good neighbourhood an option would be Puerta de Hierro (there r a few more like this...but for some reason my head is leaving me alone on this one). or if not between pozuelo and boadilla there a some nice urbanizations(monte principe, monte alina, etc).

salu2,
serge

quote:

I'll be a 29-year-old, English-teaching, JD-having, non-partying type female when I move to Madrid, so what kind of neighborhood might be good for me?

Don�t know about you Laidback, but I interpreted JD as Jack Daniels. At least that�s what we always called it in Philadelphia.

Anyway, coming from a more pragmatic point of view, being a teacher myself, and having suffered through many a traffic jam, just thought I�d throw some "food for thought" out here...

If you are going to be teaching English, your classes will most likely be in an academy which could be located anywhere in the city or its immediate surroundings. OR you will be teaching corporate classes which generally means moving between companies between classes. The corporate classes here in Spain (at least Madrid) follow a similar pattern: twice a week an hour and a half each class. The typical times for corporate classes fall in the morning between 8-10, over lunch between 1-4 and then the "last hour of the day" between 6-8. If you have followed my post so far, that means generally 3 corporate classes a day with large gaps of time between.

The problem living in a suburb of the city is largely one of transportation for an English teacher.

Unless you will have your own car, getting to your classes will be a nightmare as public transit to the �burbs have two primary launching points: Plaza de Castilla for the classes along the North Corridor (San Sebastian de los Reyes, Alcobendas, Tres Cantos)and Moncloa for the corporate classes along the Northwest Corridor (Las Rozas, Majadahonda, Pozuelo). These two corridors are where the majority of the corporate classes are and there isn�t metro service. Just bus. There are other corporate park concentrations in the southwest and southern part of the city (Getafe, Leganes, Parla) but they aren�t the majority of the classes.

That said, I wouldn�t rule out the city as a place to live, but rather consider a tranquilo neighborhood near either of those two areas (Moncloa and Plaza de Castilla). The northern and northwestern suburbs are also rather pricey to live (housing).

The Barrio de Pilar where Miguelito lives and Puerto Hierro, it�s rich neighbor, are both nice areas with quiet spaces (parks) and have decent public transportation access (bus and metro) to either Moncloa or Plaza de Castilla.

Where Laidback mentioned, Canillejas, is also a nice area, but a bit far removed.

Good luck with your search!

EXCELLENT advice peeps!!!

JD = Jane Doe (identity complex) :jeje:

Ok, can I put a plug in for the PLAZA MAYOR or is that a central neighborhood

Saludos,
jer...

quote:

originally posted by miguelito:
[qb] What's a JD?
[/qb]

Well, my JD (juris doctor) makes me a lawyer, so maybe that's what she means.

Yeah, Jer, I know. I shouldn't say that too loudly....

Anne

Are you a Doctor of Jurisprudence?

I live in Puerta de Hierro and I really like it here. Yes, it�s a bit of a trek to the centro but it�s nothing for my New York mind. I�m used to travelling an hour on the subway to get anywhere so the 20 minutes on the bus to Moncloa is nothing to me. My neighborhood is very quiet, lots of families and has shopping close by. While the metro is a bit of a walk from my house, we do have it!

The only down side is the IRONY of the public transportation. It takes about 40 minutes to get from my apartment to Plaza de Cibeles. But if I leave Plaza de Cibeles at 3 AM and catch the night bus, I�m home in 20 minutes. UNFAIR. I vote that the N20 should run 24 hours a day!

But as a similar non-partying type female, I think Puerta de Hierro is a great place to live if you want peace and quiet in Madrid but still be within a walk of the bus/subway.

Melinda

quote:

What's a JD?

quote:

Well, my JD (juris doctor) makes me a lawyer, so maybe that's what she means.

That's right Que Pasa, I meant Juris Doctorate, not that I'm proud of it. I just wanted to distinguish myself from the 21-year-old looking to party for a few months--not that there's anything wrong with that, of course.

So it's not Jane Doe (good guess Jer; also, I should have guessed that you'd put in a plug for Plaza Mayor one more time... ). Chica and Laidback, it's not Jack Daniels, although I have nothing against whiskey, I just prefer vodka! :cheers:

Thanks for all the info on the different neighborhoods; Chica, I'll definitely give some thought to living more centrally in order to get to classes more easily.

I used to live in Las Rosas. I liked it and disliked it. The good parts about it are that it is very clean, it is new, my apartment was very nice and new, and I could walk to a bunch of places (including the outlet mall). It was also quiet.

The bad side of it was commuting. I'm from LA originally, so I am used to long commutes, but this was bad. I had NO car, and this made things difficult. The last bus ran at 11pm and the first bus didnt leave until near 7am. To get to work (I was at Plaza de Castilla) took almost an hour in the morning. And if by chance I was out later than 11pm, I could not catch a night bus. If you do not have a car and you want somewhat of a life, don't live here. I know you said you didn't party, but people in Madrid don't eat dinner until 11pm. And by chance you do go out, on the weekends the bus only ran every hour. If you wanted to come back at 3am (this is early for Madrid), you can't. Your only option was to take a taxi, which would be expensive.

Las Rosas is a nice place to raise your kids, and if you want to go into the center of city once and a while you can. It is an easy commute to Moncloa during the week. Takes about 20-30 minutes. But when you are in a hurry, or you miss the bus (comes every 20 min), it really sucks. One time I had a guy laugh at me for missing the bus. I didn't think it was too funny.

The new Metro Sur is now running in Getafe and Alcorcon. I also worked in Alcorcon, and this is also a quiet towm but with some life to it. Getafe has a lot of college students, but it is only a 10-15 minute bus ride to Atocha.

Also, the farther you live out of the city, the more expensive your transportation will be. I don't know if this is an issue.

Hola !
Well, here I go I live in Prosperidad neighborhood, inside the Chamartin district and I just love it !!! Public transport is perfect, from home (I live about 2 minutes walking from IBM building and Torres Blancas building), it�s about 5 minutes walking to 4 metro stations (Prosperidad, Avenida de America, Alfonso XIII and Cartagena), there are several bus lines too (43, 72, 73, 9, 1....), great shopping facilities, it�s more or less a quite area but inside the city, and you have everything you might need just "arround the corner" I was born there and I just bought a flat there, so this is the area I want to live in !! It�s not a "party district" but we still have lots of "terrazas" in summer time along Corazon de Maria street, and a few good "bars" if you want to have a drink and don�t feel like going to the center, like The Wild Thing, Pop&Roll, El Limonar etc. There�s a few little parks, and it�s a nice walk going to Parque Berlin, which is near too.
One disadvantage might be parking, if you own a car, renting a parking space is almost a must. But prices are more or less reasonable, for example, I pay about 90 € per month for a parking space in a monitored place.

I totally agree about Puerta de Hierro, it�s a great place to live in, but maybe a little bit expensive, and I could add Mirasierra to the list. Barrio del Pilar is nice too

Well, this is my enthusiast description of my "barrio" ! By the way, anyone living near me ?

>By the way, anyone living near me ?

Not us! but we do have friends that live on Canillas, so we get around that area quite a bit!
Never heard of the bars you mentioned, though.