If you want to skate in Madrid over Christmas, you can choose between rinks run by the city, private ones and a free neighbourhood rink, open from late November to early January. The city-run pair, Matadero and Cibeles on Ice, charged €6.50 in the 2025-26 season for a 30-minute session with skates included, and the private ones went from €8 at Plaza de Colón to €17 plus fees at Madrid On Ice, a 4,200 m² indoor rink inside the Riyadh Air Metropolitano stadium. The one in Puente de Vallecas was free. The 2026-27 programme comes out in late November.
Where can you go ice skating in Madrid at Christmas? Madrid runs two city rinks, Matadero and Cibeles on Ice, at 6.50 euros for 30 minutes with skates, plus a free one in Puente de Vallecas. Plaza de España charges 9.50 euros and stays open to 11 January, and Madrid On Ice, inside the Riyadh Air Metropolitano, charges 17 euros. Gloves are compulsory at every rink.
Which Madrid ice rink suits your trip?
- With young children, go to Matadero or Cibeles. Skates are in the price and walkers for little ones cost €2.
- On a rainy day, choose Cibeles on Ice, under the glass roof of the old post office, or Madrid On Ice, indoors in the stadium. More covered plans are in Madrid on a rainy day.
- For a Christmas-market feel, Plaza de España: its 600 m² rink sits inside La Navideña, a market of 40 stalls with food stands. The rest of the city’s markets are in Christmas markets in Madrid.
- On a budget, the free rink in Puente de Vallecas, a neighbourhood rink in front of the Asamblea de Madrid-Entrevías commuter-train station. It closes from 2pm to 4pm.
- For serious skaters, Palacio de Hielo in Canillas has an Olympic-size rink open all year, with public sessions from 12.30pm to 9.30pm over the Christmas holidays.
What to bring, and what the rinks expect
Gloves catch most visitors out. Gloves are compulsory at every rink, written into each rink’s conditions, not a suggestion. Matadero and Cibeles sell them for €1.60, Plaza de España raises the ticket from €9.50 to €11.50 with gloves, and Palacio de Hielo charges €5. A pair of ordinary winter gloves from home is fine.
Skates come in the price at the city rinks, and the Matadero rink, at Plaza de Legazpi, 8, also lends helmets; at Palacio de Hielo you pay €13 with your own skates and €15 with hired ones, or €11 and €13 in morning sessions. Madrid On Ice sells a €6 companion ticket for anyone who wants to watch from the side, and a €3 class with Spanish Ice Sports Federation instructors from 11am to noon. At the city rinks the Council sets the price and sells tickets online and at the box office; you do not need any Spanish to buy them at the window.
How a session at a city rink works, step by step:
- Buy a 30-minute slot online or at the box office, at €6.50 in 2025-26.
- Bring gloves, or buy a pair at the rink for €1.60.
- Collect skates in your size; they are included in the ticket.
- Ask for a walker, €2, if a small child needs support on the ice.
When each rink opens over the holidays
Over the season Plaza de España opens for 48 days, Matadero for 29 once its four holiday closures come off, and Madrid On Ice for just 21. Hours are shorter on weekdays at the city rinks. In 2025-26, Matadero opened 4pm to 9pm on weekdays until 22 December, and 11am to 9.30pm at weekends, on public holidays and from 22 December to 6 January. Cibeles ran a slot every 30 minutes from 11.20am to a last one at 8.50pm.
The big dates are where they differ. Matadero shut on 24, 25 and 31 December and 1 January; Cibeles opened on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day from the 5.20pm slot. Plaza de España closed at 6pm on 24 and 31 December and on 5 January. What else is open on those days is in what’s open in Madrid on Christmas Day.
How to get to each rink
The five central rinks combine with other plans on foot: Cibeles sits on the Christmas lights walking route, Plaza de España is a short walk from the Plaza Mayor market and Matadero is next to Madrid Río park.
For the three further out, take the Metro: Estadio Metropolitano for Madrid On Ice, at Avenida de Luis Aragonés, 4, and Canillas on line 4 for Palacio de Hielo, at Calle de Silvano, 77. A single ticket costs €1.50 to €2.00 depending on the number of stations; from the airport, the Metro needs an extra supplement, and both are explained in the Madrid Metro ticket price.
Pick by the date of your trip and who is with you; the price follows from that.
Fitting a skate into a visitor’s day
Madrid eats late, with lunch from about 2pm and dinner from about 9pm, so an early-evening session slots in between the museums and dinner without cutting either short. If the forecast turns, Cibeles on Ice is the one under a glass roof. On Christmas Day, when most of the city is shut, it is also the rink to aim for, from the 5.20pm slot. And if your trip runs past 6 January, only Plaza de España and Madrid On Ice were still open in 2025-26.
Ice skating in Madrid, frequently asked questions
How much is ice skating in Madrid at Christmas?
In the 2025-26 season it ran from free to 17 euros. Matadero and Cibeles on Ice charged 6.50 euros for 30 minutes with skates, Colón 8 euros, Plaza de España 9.50 euros, Palacio de Hielo 15 euros with skate hire and Madrid On Ice 17 euros plus a booking fee.
Do I need gloves to ice skate in Madrid?
Yes. Every rink makes gloves compulsory. Matadero and Cibeles sell them for 1.60 euros, Plaza de España adds 2 euros to the ticket and Palacio de Hielo charges 5 euros, so bringing your own saves money.
Is there an indoor ice rink in Madrid?
Three. Cibeles on Ice is under the glass roof of the Palacio de Cibeles, Madrid On Ice is inside the Riyadh Air Metropolitano stadium, and Palacio de Hielo in Canillas is open all year.
Can you ice skate in Madrid on Christmas Day?
In 2025 Cibeles on Ice opened on 25 December and 1 January from the 5.20pm slot until 8.50pm. Matadero was closed on 24, 25 and 31 December and 1 January.
Bring gloves, book the city rinks, and save the stadium for a wet day.