Hey chicos!
My name is Meagan and i am coming to Madrid in January to study Spanish at Complutense for around 4 months. At the moment i am looking for an room in a shared apartment. I have read heaps of these threads looking for tips on areas and Madrid and i have found some very useful information (this website is fantastic!) but i need to ask a couple of other things.....

Firstly, people mention all these different barrios and areas but on all the maps i have seen of Madrid i can't locate them unless they mention a metro stop!!- does anyone know of a good online map that shows clearly the names of all the different suburbs/areas of Madrid or tips on decipher the different ways people call their neighbourhoods?

Secondly, I know this has probably been asked to death but i am going to ask anyway because i have no idea what the areas of Madrid are like! I am only familiar with the Moncloa-Arguelles area because i stayed there with my student friend last year (i found it pretty nice although she was living with some pretty unfriendly 35 year old ladies!) Can anyone recommend any barrios for me? I would like to be relatively close to the centre (but not on top of it!)with a mixture of young people/families, funky/cool village feel with nice cafes/arty shops and the more trees the better! I would like to pay from 260-340 euros. Although i love going out at night, its not a priority for me to live around clubs/student areas. Does anyone have any recommendations for areas to look into?
Muchos Gracias in advance!!

Meagan
from Melbourne, Australia

P.s If anyone has been to Melbourne- i love the areas of Brunswick/Fitzroy/Carlton/St Kilda/Elwood/Prahran.....
PPS- Willing to exchange for any advice on Australia?!?!

Hey Meagan, welcome to the board, glad ya decided to join.

The "which neighborhood? question" is a VERY broad one as there are SOOOOO many great areas here. Very hard to answer since it is so subjective. For example, I personally love to be right "on top of" the center.

From your description of what you like, I might guess "La Latina" or "Chueca" might be for you. Not many trees though

Glad ya did some SEARCHES on "neighborhoods" already and got some good info

For the Complutense, as you said, the "Arg�elles"/"Moncloa" area is perfect, not far from the campus, good student atmosphere and nice in general.

Yes, I have just what you are looking for. The "softdoc" folks have a good neighborhood map at www.softdoc.es/madrid_guide/maps/map_city_access.html You can click the neighborhood names on that page...

quote:

Alonso Mart�nez / Atocha / Chueca / Las Cortes / Gran V�a / Huertas / La Latina / Lavapi�s / Malasa�a / Moncloa - Arg�elles / Opera / Paseo del Prado / El Rastro /Salamanca / Sol

... or on the map itself to zoom & get more specific maps and see where they neighborhoods are.

Then you can see that they give map coordinates for each neighborhood. For example, if you click on "Malasa�a", you see a description page and "Malasa�a is found on the maps A1D4, E1H4 and E5H8." at the bottom. If you click the "A1D4", "E1H4" and "E5H8" they open the close-up maps.

There are also links to other maps there of suburbs and outlying areas.

Oh yeah, expect to pay closer to 300-375 euros for a room in a shared flat these days, Madrid is a getin' expaaaaaansive

Suerte and let us know how it goes.

Saludos,
jer...

ahhhhh lo siento Jer! :b: I realise my mistake, i am just clogging up the boards, wont do it again! You probably can sense my confusion about finding accomodation in Madrid from Aus. - here is my last post............

Hola everyone!
Need some opinions/advice here if possible....

Am i dreaming if i think i can get a small room in a shared apartment closish to the centre for around 300 euros (270-330 mas o menos)???

I don't want anything flash, just a small furnished room with a window in a suburb that doesnt take me longer than about 10 mins by Metro to get to Complutense universidad or Sol

I have been told on one hand that i REALLY am dreaming and that if i want anything closish to the centre i will have to pay 350 euros at least.....but other people have told me i will be ok!

I just don't want to rock up to Madrid expecting that i will be able to find an apartment (for 3-6 months) and spend all my days searching for the impossible!!! I have looked at segundamano and the in-madrid classifieds but i am still not so familar with the suburbs.

Appreciate any advice!

P.S Jer- thanks for the last advice- the websites were really good, but maybe you or someone else could tell me when they say "Capital: ...... (Arguelles etc) what do they mean?? Where can i find a map that explains suburbs in that way??

For around 300 euros you can get an interior room in a shared flat in the Moncloa / Arguelles or Quevedo areas for example. Interior rooms are either rooms with a window facing an interior patio or with no windows at all.
People charge an extra 50 euros to 100 euros for rooms with windows which have a view or are higher up and let in more natural light.
For better prices and to find something sharing with Spanish speaking, college age people you should go to the University (Metro: "Ciudad Universitario" on line 6) and walk around the campus looking at all of the housing offers on all of the billboards both inside and outside of each of the "Facultad" buildings.
From where you are if you made a list of neighborhoods using a combination of street and metro maps and then cross reference your list with the offers you see in the In Madrid and the Segundamano you could find a decent interior room in a shared flat that people would let you rent for 300 euros plus utilities without too much trouble.
The trick would be to get here before the masses return in early January for the new year or you will be competing directly with the people who are willing to stay until the end of June or for a whole year which is what property owners prefer.
Rocco.

Insider, depends a lot! I was in the market for an apartment a month ago.. and looked for a month so I've pretty much seen everything. (ended up getting a flat that a friend of a friend told me about). I've seen really shitty rooms for 400� and pretty reasonable ones for 250�. It depends a lot on your luck of finding them. Good place to look is on campus as well as there are tons of ads. Feb isn't that bad as the 6 month erasmus students are leaving, and there are a lot of apartments whos landlords just want erasmus and short term.