
Diario de Madrid · CC BY 4.0
Casa de Campo
Madrid's other park — five times the size of Central Park, and mostly scrubland and holm oaks.
Retiro is the famous one. Casa de Campo is the enormous one: around 1,700 hectares of former royal hunting ground on the western edge of the city, which makes it one of the largest urban parks in Europe and nothing like a formal garden.
Go for the scale and the quiet rather than for sights. There is a lake with rowing boats and restaurants along one side, a cable car in from Argüelles, and a great deal of nothing in between — which on a hot Madrid Sunday is exactly the point.
Before you go
- Getting there
- Metro Lago or Batán, or the Teleférico cable car from Argüelles
- Scale
- Very large. Pick the lake or one path rather than attempting a loop
- Summer
- Little shade on the open scrubland — go early
Published · updated · details checked
Researched from published sources rather than a personal visit. Check before you go.
Where it is
Also in Madrid
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A second-century BC Egyptian temple, given to Spain in 1968, with the best free sunset in the city.
ArgüellesTrips · Flea market
El Rastro
Sunday morning, a thousand stalls running downhill, and a city-wide agreement to be slow afterwards.
La Latina / Embajadores1/4


