Dog Friendly City Guide: Madrid, Spain

Madrid keeps late hours, eats outside whenever the weather allows and treats a terrace table as a birthright, which suits a dog very well. The city's restaurants decide for themselves whether dogs come in, and a growing number now say yes on their own pages, from Italian trattorias in Salamanca to a café in Prosperidad that bakes its cakes every morning. Between meals there is El Retiro, with its tree lined avenues and its own off-lead areas, the long riverside park of Madrid Río, and the gardens of the Templo de Debod for the sunset. This guide is built from our own venue data, the three hotels we have assessed in the city and places that state their welcome for dogs themselves, with every rule checked against the body that sets it.

Getting There With a Dog

Spain's agriculture ministry sets out the rules for bringing a dog into the country on its travelling with pets page. Coming from another European Union country, your dog needs a microchip, a rabies vaccination that is valid on the day you travel and recorded in its European pet passport, and that passport filled in. A dog can be vaccinated against rabies from twelve weeks old, the vaccination only counts once 21 days have passed, and Spain admits no dog younger than fifteen weeks that has not been validly vaccinated.

Arriving from outside the European Union, the United Kingdom included, the ministry asks for more. Your dog must come in through one of the authorised traveller entry points on the ministry's list, with an animal health certificate signed by an official vet in your own country and written at least in Spanish, a signed declaration and a certified copy of its identification and vaccination record. If your country is not on the European Union's list for rabies, your dog also needs a rabies blood test at an approved laboratory, taken at least 30 days after the first vaccination and showing a result of at least 0.5 IU/ml, so start that months ahead.

Once you are in the city, Madrid's tourism office, in its guide for visitors with dogs, notes that the national animal welfare law asks for dogs to be given access to transport, businesses and public spaces wherever they pose no risk to people or other animals, and that taxis and private hire cars may take a dog at the driver's discretion.

Where to Stay

We have assessed three dog friendly hotels in Madrid. The one to book is ME Madrid Reina Victoria, which holds an A rank and meets the Roch Dog Friendly Standard. Your dog can join you in the bar, the restaurant, the lounge and out on the terrace. A dog bed, bowls, poop bags and dog food come in the welcome pack, the staff will suggest routes for walks, and there is no weight limit, so a large dog is as welcome as a small one. A dog may be left in the room once housekeeping has been arranged around it.

Negresco Gran Via holds a D rank and meets the Roch Dog Friendly Standard. Most of its rooms take dogs, bowls are laid on, and your dog can sit with you on the terrace and in the lounge. Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Madrid holds an F rank. It is a grand five star house, and it suits an owner with a small, calm dog who is happy to bring everything the dog needs.

Eat and Drink

Start in Salamanca, the smart grid of streets north of El Retiro. El Perro y la Galleta takes its name from the dog, and its restaurants in Retiro, Castelló, Juan Bravo, Malasaña and Valdebebas serve an international menu and homemade desserts, every one of them with a biscuit in it. Its own page calls the restaurants dog friendly and says well behaved dogs are very welcome. The Retiro branch on Claudio Coello is a short walk from the park gates. A few streets away, Bel Mondo on Calle de Velázquez serves Neapolitan pizza and Italian cooking, and its own page answers the question plainly: dogs are welcome. Its sister trattoria Villa Capri, on Calle de Hortaleza in Salesas, gives the same answer, so a long Italian dinner is easy on either side of the Castellana.

In the old centre, Ana la Santa on the Plaza de Santa Ana is a good first stop, and our data lists it as welcoming dogs. Walk down into the Barrio de las Letras for Matute 12, the gastrobar of Grupo La Fábrica in one of the few modernist buildings in Madrid, once a record shop, with a large terrace on the square. On Calle de Alcalá, La Pecera is the café of the Círculo de Bellas Artes and our data lists it as dog friendly. Near the Plaza Mayor, Federal Café on the Plaza del Conde de Barajas does brunch and specialty coffee and is in our data as welcoming dogs.

Malasaña, the old bohemian quarter north of Gran Vía, is where Madrid goes out. El Circo de las Tapas on Corredera Baja de San Pablo is a tapas bar from the Bamboleo group, and further up the same street, on Corredera Alta, Töto makes its ice creams from scratch, flavour by flavour, without the ready made bases most parlours use, alongside homemade pastries. Both are in our data as welcoming dogs. For a sweet stop that thinks of the dog too, Bibì e Bibò makes Italian ice cream in its own workshop and sells Bibau, small frozen treats made for dogs from strawberry, banana, peanut butter and lactose free yoghurt, with no added sugar, in its shops.

Two neighbourhood places are worth the trip out. In Prosperidad, Maceta Café on Calle Pradillo bakes its cakes by hand every day and says on its own page that it is dog friendly, so you can come for breakfast or an afternoon merienda with your dog. South of the river near Acacias metro, La Taberna de mi Abuelo has served tapas, raciones, beer and gin and tonics since 1908, has a terrace with thirty seats, and lists itself as dogs friendly on its own page.

Walks and Parks

El Retiro is the park every Madrid dog knows. The city's tourism office says it has areas where dogs may run without a lead, open at set hours that change between winter and summer, and an agility area for exercising your dog. Its long tree lined avenues are the best walking in the centre, with the great lake and its rowing boats at the heart of it.

Madrid Río is the other great walk, a huge park running beside the Manzanares, crossed by the Arganzuela and Perrault bridges, and it is in our walk data as a dog walk. Follow it far enough and the Explanada del Puente del Rey brings you to one of the entrances of the Casa de Campo, the largest park in the city. For the end of the day, the tourism office suggests the gardens of the Templo de Debod, where you can spread a blanket on the grass with your dog and watch the sun go down.

A Day Out

Give a day to Salamanca and El Retiro. Start with breakfast at El Perro y la Galleta on Claudio Coello, cross into El Retiro for a long morning on the avenues and a loop of the lake, and keep to the off-lead areas at the hours the signs give. Have lunch at Bel Mondo on Velázquez, then rest through the heat of the afternoon. In the evening, take a taxi west to the Templo de Debod for the sunset, and finish with dinner in Malasaña, ice cream at Töto and a slow walk home. If you want space for a bigger dog to run, the tourism office points to Parque Europa in Torrejón de Ardoz, east of the city, where off-lead areas are divided by the size of the dog and fitted with obstacles and games.

Good to Know

Madrid's restaurants and cafés choose for themselves whether dogs may come in, and some welcome them on the terrace only, so ask at the door if you are not sure. At Matute 12, our data lists the terrace only. In the parks, the off-lead areas keep set hours. At ME Madrid Reina Victoria only a limited number of rooms take dogs, so book ahead, and the fee is 50 EUR a night with a 100 EUR damage deposit. At Negresco Gran Via, dogs stay out of the bar and the restaurant, may not be left alone in the room, must weigh no more than 44 lb, and the fee is 15 EUR a night. At Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Madrid, only some rooms take dogs, a dog may not be left alone in the room, and the fee is 100 EUR plus 10 per cent VAT for dogs up to 10 kg and 200 EUR plus VAT for heavier dogs.