Madrid

Just returned after 1mo in Madrid. From a Male 35 year old perspective, I loved it. Endless night life, techno clubs, dive bars, live music, open jam sessions if that's your thing. If you're feeling lonely hit up Meetup and you'll find plenty of international meetups/pub crawls. Retiro park is green and huge when you need a break from the city. It's dense with tons of people from all walks of life. Multi-cultural population, students, professionals, travelers, English is spoken well my most locals. Not the cheapest EU city but for it's size and broad range of offerings including incredible art museums, amazing markets with great tapas, it's a bang for you buck. The people are warm and friendly. Use common sense when navigating the city and you'll find it's safe, too.

Awesome city.
Limitless good restaurants and bars. Easy to use transit, but you barely need it because the city is so walkable. Beautiful streets. Overflowing with genuine Spanish culture. Not cheap but affordable for how large of a city it is.
Wish it was a bit greener, but overall Madrid is a great spot to spend significant time in.

Just blindingly good. Best european city by miles. Cheap tube €26 for 5 days unlimited use! City centre is all walkable though. 4 or 5 distinct barrios with mega nightlife- does anyone actually work?!! Architecture fabulous on every street. Museum reno sofia; the best collection of 20c art, free entry after 7pm! The locals are friendly too. Could easily move here.

Favorite city in the entire world and honestly people who prefer Barcelona to it just simply did not do Madrid right. This city has everything you could possibly want in a city (besides a beach of course). So safe, amazing transportation all over the city and country, amazing location to travel easily and cheaply to the rest of Europe. Restaurant and nightlife scenes are unparalleled as someone else said in another comment. Did you know Madrid has more bars per capita than anywhere in the world? Each neighborhood has it's own beautiful personality from posh/high fashion to youthful and grungy to charming Spanish barrio vibes, there's everything.

Initially I didn't like Madrid. People don't speak english well and people seem very dry. After spending a month there, my opinion changed. People in Madrid are more formal and it reminds me of the wrong impression people get of Parisians. The dining scene is very developed with a ton of options. The only complaint I have had over the years with Madrid is how late people eat. It's truly absurd and I hope COVID might help to change that for good. Centro is a great area to stay and everything is walkable. Taxis are abundant and Google Translate will be necessary.

The bar & restaurant scene in Madrid is unparalleled, next level. I can't imagine what this place must have been like without COVID.

I really enjoyed staying in Madrid. Reasonable coast of life, plenty of things to see/do and deliiiiicious food.

What an amazing city! I've been working remotely here for a month, it's probably the most fun I've ever had in a month!

Beautiful parks, great nightlife, friendly people, walkable city, plenty of activities / events going on, interesting nearby cities to visit, speaking Spanish not really required etc.

I've been working from a WeWork and living out of hostels. The WeWorks here are pretty standard, good work environment at a reasonable price (250 euros / month for hot desking).

The hostels have been great, stayed in 5 so far, the best were Sungate and Hostel One, definitely check those out if visiting. Very easy to meet people at these hostels.

The nightlife is second to none. Even compared to London where I'm usually based, the nightlife here is wild. The only issue I found is that everything happens much later than the U.K. People have dinner around 9pm, go out 11:30pm and back in the not so early hours of the morning. This can make waking up at 8am for work a little difficult!

I've visited a couple of nearby cities, my favourite was Toledo, a 30 minute bus ride away. Definitely worth checking out.

Plenty of stuff to do in Madrid - outdoor swimming pools, parks, free outdoor gyms, rooftop bars, museums, art galleries, etc. I've been here a month and still have loads of stuff I want to do.

The temperature has been a bit rough. Regularly late 30's means I'm constantly looking for shade when walking about. I've barely got a tan because I'm in the shade so often. The temperature in the evenings is pleasant, around 9pm. I've been here since the beginning of July, so nearly peak heat season.

I'm learning some Spanish but definitely a beginner. Most people from Madrid speak decent English, I've come into difficulty when trying to talk to people from South America, usually their English isn't so strong.

Overall I highly recommend visiting Madrid. I much prefer it to Barcelona as a place to live. I'm surprised it's not rated higher on NomadList! It beats Amsterdam, Stockholm and San Francisco, all places I've worked from over the last couple years.

Been in January 2018 in Madrid and it was somehow ok. Enjoyed the parks + some pedestrian sides of it, but ..the rest was not so astonishing like other cities known for their inner beauty.