Living and staying in Usera: the honest guide to the neighborhood

If you are looking for accommodation in Madrid and Usera appears, you are probably asking yourself the same question as almost everyone: what is the neighborhood really like? This is the guide that we would like to have read before visiting it.

Usera in a sentence

A working class neighborhood south of the center, next to the Manzanares River, which in the last two decades has become the largest Chinatown in Spain — and which preserves its traditional Madrid neighborhood life intact.

Getting around: better communicated than it seems on the map

Usera is not in the center, but it is well connected:

• Metro Usera (line 6): Madrid’s circular line. Connect with the entire system without leaving the ring: Nuevos Ministerios, Pacífico, Legazpi, Moncloa…
• Almendrales (line 3) to the east of the neighborhood, and Legazpi (lines 3 and 6) next to the Matadero.
• Cercanías: the Doce de Octubre station (C-5), on the southern edge of the district, leaves you in Atocha in a few minutes.
• Bus: dozens of urban lines cross the neighborhood in all directions.

In practice: central Madrid in 15–20 minutes door to door, without depending on the car.

Commerce and services: life is made here

Usera works like a complete city. Supermarkets of all kinds (including the largest Asian supermarkets in Madrid), pharmacies, food markets, gyms, bookstores, Chinese bazaars that sell everything… If you stay with a kitchen, shopping here is easy and cheap — we tell you in detail in this guide.

Madrid’s Chinatown

Nicolás Usera Street and its surroundings are home to the largest Chinese community in Spain. That means two things for you:

1. Serious Chinese food: regional restaurants (Sichuan, Cantonese, hotpot, lacquered duck) designed for the community itself, not for tourists. We have a guide to where to eat in Usera.
2. Fiestas: Chinese New Year is celebrated here in a big way, with a parade through the streets of the neighborhood.

Parks and the river

Usera borders to the north with Madrid Río, the large linear park of Manzanares: kilometers of promenades, children’s areas, terraces and the Matadero Madrid. From our accommodations you can walk.

And security?

The uncomfortable question, answered without posturing: Usera is a popular neighborhood, with density and mix, and as in all of Madrid, the common sense of any city is appropriate. That said, it is a neighborhood of families, shops open until late and streets with people at almost all hours. The guests who stay with us repeat the same thing: life is calmer than they expected.

Who is a good Usera base for?

• Families and groups: more square meters for less money than the center, and a park next door.
• Stays of several days or weeks: supermarkets, market, laundry, metro.
• Gastronomically curious: the best neighborhood in Madrid to eat real Chinese.
• Who already knows the center and wants to see another Madrid. If it fits you, here are our accommodations in Usera: an entire apartment with two bedrooms and three rooms in a shared apartment, all with availability synchronized in real time.