Welcome to the airport of Madrid Sur – on exiting the arrivals area you will find taxis, and a bus service to the nearest train station. You could be reading about this new airport in a few months time as Ryan Air or some other low cost company tries to convince you that you can get to Madrid really cheaply if you fly with them into Madrid Sur. However, be warned that the Madrid underground has yet to make it as far as Madrid’s second airport and I’m afraid there could be quite a long wait before it gets there. Indeed, you might even want to consider the alternative of staying inside the terminal and taking another flight to your destination. The problem is….well, it’s just not very close to Madrid. Taking advantage of a great new mapping feature pointed out by Ben at Notes From Spain, take a look at the map below to see just where you might be flying into.
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Zoom out a bit, then a bit more. Yes, that is Ciudad Real near to the airport, and Toledo a bit further to the north. But if you keep zooming out Madrid will eventually come into sight, just before you get to see the entire Iberian peninsula. The city is only 200 kilometres away from the airport – and no, there isn’t an extra zero on that distance.
The original name for this privately run airport was going to be Don Quijote, a name which undoubtedly fits the location, but which has obviously not been deemed attractive enough. The airport has the undoubted advantage of being inconvenient for getting almost everywhere, except for Ciudad Real itself; no matter how much they talk about the high speed train being nearby. There is a justifiable case for the name being Sevilla Norte, or how about Lisboa Este? Battle has been declared against the new name by Madrid’s regional government, and the man leading the battle is the deeply unpleasant Manuel Lamela, I almost hope he loses and it has to be said the early signs are not encouraging for him. Whatever you do, don’t leap into a taxi and ask to be taken to the city centre, you’ll make the taxi driver’s day but your holiday budget might disappear on day one.
View Larger Map
Zoom out a bit, then a bit more. Yes, that is Ciudad Real near to the airport, and Toledo a bit further to the north. But if you keep zooming out Madrid will eventually come into sight, just before you get to see the entire Iberian peninsula. The city is only 200 kilometres away from the airport – and no, there isn’t an extra zero on that distance.
The original name for this privately run airport was going to be Don Quijote, a name which undoubtedly fits the location, but which has obviously not been deemed attractive enough. The airport has the undoubted advantage of being inconvenient for getting almost everywhere, except for Ciudad Real itself; no matter how much they talk about the high speed train being nearby. There is a justifiable case for the name being Sevilla Norte, or how about Lisboa Este? Battle has been declared against the new name by Madrid’s regional government, and the man leading the battle is the deeply unpleasant Manuel Lamela, I almost hope he loses and it has to be said the early signs are not encouraging for him. Whatever you do, don’t leap into a taxi and ask to be taken to the city centre, you’ll make the taxi driver’s day but your holiday budget might disappear on day one.
10 comments:
Puertollano (from where my suegra originally hails) must be the best connected town in Europe! Not only did they get the AVE before anywhere east of Zaragoza, now they've got an international airport! It should be called Puertollano International.
Manchego factoid: Pedro Almodovar very much resembles nearly all old women you meet in the villages of Ciudad Real province.
It's not even clear yet whether the airport will be finished, there are still doubts about its profitability; it won't be a state owned airport, it's supposed to be a private one (don't even wanna know if that'll be worse).
Well, I'm not aware of how expensive are AVE tickets to Madrid these days, but I don't think an AVE station will convince many people to land 200 km. away from here...
Well yes, it's quite possible that the AVE ticket will cost more than what a low cost carrier might charge for the flight. I wonder if they'll have direct flights to Los Angeles so that Pedro and the gang can get to the Oscars every year without passing by Madrid?
They should just name the airport after Pedro...
Many airlines call the airport in Murcia "Alicante South". This one is not so far away as Don Quijote from Madrid, but if you want to go to Benidorm it's also quite expensive with a taxi.
Hey, I like your link with the News from Pezonia. I'm afraid your english readers won't have a clue of what it means, but it's fun.
Saludos!
I've taken a taxi from the real Alicante airport to Benidorm and that was expensive enough - I can imagine that from Murcia it's no joke.
On the link, I think it's time the world really knew what goes on in Pezonia, I think people are ready for la verdaz. Saludos.
I friend of mine once toldme that Valladolid's Airport (With even worese communications than Ciudad Real) is sometimes sold as "Madrid Norte".
Valladolid will soon be as good a contender as Ciudad Real, as they are getting the AVE too. The food is better if by any chance you arrive too late to catch the last train to Madrid. So that's north and south covered, what candidates do we have for Madrid East or West?
El Prat?
Just kidding...
People have been stoned to death for lighter jokes than that.
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