# Madrid area



## khbergli (May 24, 2010)

Family with two children age 5 and 10 moving to Madrid in August.

We would love to live outside Madrid, in a cosy village. 
Maximum driving to Madrid Airport Barajas must be 45 min.

We have looked at some places like.
%Manzanares el Real
%Paracuellos de Jarama
%Galapagar

But we are some kind of stuck here.
The children came to England two years ago, not speaking any English at all, and today they are both fluent. They are both keen on going straight into Spanish school.
We would like to move to the right place straight away, so we don't have to move them again within Madrid area in a year. 
We don't know anyone living in the area so we have no recommendations.

The main important thing is safety and freedom for the kids, in a family friendly area. 

Looking for some recommendations here, and if you have some knowledge about the mention areas it would be great. 

Thank you!


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

khbergli said:


> Family with two children age 5 and 10 moving to Madrid in August.
> 
> We would love to live outside Madrid, in a cosy village.
> Maximum driving to Madrid Airport Barajas must be 45 min.
> ...


Yes, I know 2 of those places, in fact I've lived in one of them for 16 years!! I'll write smth tomorrow as I've got stuff to do now.
Where are you now, are you in this area??
How old are the children??
How come you're moving here??


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## khbergli (May 24, 2010)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Yes, I know 2 of those places, in fact I've lived in one of them for 16 years!! I'll write smth tomorrow as I've got stuff to do now.
> Where are you now, are you in this area??
> How old are the children??
> How come you're moving here??


Thanks, looking forward to your post tomorrow.
We are in London now, I have lived here for 4 years and the rest of the family for 2. 
The children are 5 and 10 years old. Both in local English school today.
They came two years ago, with no english knowledge what so ever. 
We are moving because of relocation of my job.

Neither of us speaks any spanish, but we can't wait to learn. 
And having experience from moving to england I know it's going to be tough times initially, but we learn quickly. Specially the kids. 
We have given oldest the option to go to english school, but he prefer a spanish..


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Hi, Well, I’ve lived in Galapagar for 16 years. We moved here 2 weeks before my daughter was born. In that time the town has grown from a population 13,772 to over 31,000!! We have been victims of the building frenzy that overtook Spain in general and there have been plans to expand the population as much again for many years, but that have not come to anything yet. There’s quite a large immigrant population made up mainly of South Americans and Moroccans, then Romanians, Polish etc, and then a few Brits , Americans etc
Galapagar municipio is big, 35kms and apart from the town includes many residential areas around (urbanizaciones) some of which are very big (El Guijo) and some of which are much smaller (la Rosaleda). I would recommend living out of the town centre which is very crowded, very hot in the summer and very near the fiestas in September.
The town is not really very special, but it’s OK. The pluses to Galapagar are that it’s near enough to Madrid to be able to go there with no big problem, but it’s far enough out for the house prices to drop. There’s a very good bus service and there’s a train too. The train is in La Navata. La Navata is part of Galapagar even though it has it’s own name. The houses there are more expensive ‘cos you’re nearer the train. There’s lots of nice countryside around (see photo). Even though Galapagar is quite big now, there’s still a village feeling to it especially if you live in an urbanizacion and if you use the local shops.
There are 4 state primary schools and 2 secondary schools and I can recommend where my daughter went/ goes – La Navata primary and La Cañada Secondary. There are also at least 4 private schools.
The weather can be pretty extreme compared to other parts of Spain. The first thing is that we are at 881m above sea level and that makes a difference. This winter has been very cold with snow on several occasions and temps well below freezing. In the summer it can be around 40 on and off for July and August, but it usually drops at night.
All for now. When you have made 5 posts you can PM me for more info!!
15 mins by bike from my house.
View attachment 2202


This gives you all the info about urbanizaciones in Galapagar - and loads of other info too
Urbanizaciones y núcleos urbanos de Galapagar


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## khbergli (May 24, 2010)

Thank you for your reply.. 

someone told me that areas south of Madrid is not as nice as areas north of Madrid??


Anyone know the area Paracuellos de Jarama??


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## khbergli (May 24, 2010)

Pesky Wesky:

Do you know the area down towards Valdemorillo area?
Colmenarejo, Pino Alto, Valdemorillo.....


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

khbergli said:


> Thank you for your reply..
> 
> someone told me that areas south of Madrid is not as nice as areas north of Madrid??
> 
> ...


If you search this forum using *Madrid *there are 2 threads at least that talk about living in or near Madrid, plus other useful info


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Colmenarejo is the next town on from Galapagar, so a little bit further from Madrid. The bus to Madrid is the same, it starts either in Valdemorillo or Colmenarejo so the service is the same. There isn't a train.
In some ways the towns are very similar; old towns with higgildly piggidily new building going on in and around on a big scale. However there are two big differences. One is that there's a university in Colmenarejo. That's not the same as being a university town in UK with lots of student influences, but it's there nontheless. Another is that the ayuntamiento seems to work much better in Colme.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

livinginthesun said:


> Hi Have a look at my website I designed it to help people like yourself I live in portugal but it has a spanish section as well maybe I can help you
> Regards Sam


Nothing about Madrid nor outlying towns here...


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