Airport

The Barajas airport can be found to the east of Madrid barely 10 kilometres from the capital by highway or 20 minutes in taxi from the Puerta del Sol (close to 2.000 pesetas) or via the shuttle bus from Plaza de Colón (400 pesetas). Madrid’s airport is well connected and easy to get to via a variety of means. Let’s take a look how…

• By car:

From the centre of the city and the M-30 highway, take the A-2 or NII (Barcelona highway) to get to the airport taking the airport exit at kilometre 12.

From the M-40, arrive taking exits 3 and 9 which connect with the A-10 and the N-100 respectively. This will take you to your desired terminal always keeping an eye out for signals posted on the sides of the road.

Before arriving at the airport, it is imperative that you know which terminal building you need to go, T1, T2, T3, because all arrivals and departures are organized as such. To find out, all you have to do is take a good look at your ticket.

Making it easier to reach the terminals from the highway, the Madrid/Barajas Airport has created special colour coded signs with a distinct colour corresponding to each terminal: orange for T1, green for T2, and red for T3.

Be awake for the information signs once you turn off to the airport, because they are rather helpful, but go by quickly. If you use the parking garages, there are flight monitors with arrival & departure information to keep you up to date.

• By Metro:

The entrance to the Metro in the airport is located alongside terminal T2 (through the connection tunnel to Parking P2, first floor). The station is called Aeropuerto on all Metro maps and you can get there from Mar de Cristal where the Line 8 begins.

If you are going in to the city, you’ll have to transfer at Mar de Cristal and take Line 4, from there it depends upon where your final destination is.

• By Bus:

The bus line runs from Plaza de Colón to the Airport (a blue bus, number 86) connecting the two in a quick and comfortable manner that go to all 3 terminals in the airport. These buses are equipped to take luggage to the airport.

They leave both terminuses between 04.45 and 02.00. The stops are T2, T1, Cargo Services, Canillejas, Arturo Soria, Avenida de América, María de Molina, Velázquez / Serrano and Plaza de Colón. The ticket costs 400 pesetas. More information: 91 406 88 10.

• By Taxi:

There are 3 taxi stops in the airport, all of which are well displayed: in the doors of arrival lounge for Terminal T2 (close to Terminal T3, first floor), the next one is close to the arrival lounge 5 (first floor) and the last one is in front of the door to T1 arrivals on the ground floor. In each taxi there is a chart on the window clearly displaying the tariffs for every trip: be careful to ask what they are charging you for, because the airport taxi drivers are well known as thieves!