A five-hour swim in Madrid costs 70 cents at 65 and €2.25 at 64. The age bands are steep, and the booking window is stranger still: it opens exactly 49 hours before the session.
Madrid’s summer pools are the open-air facilities each Centro Deportivo Municipal runs on fixed sessions between May and September. Madrid City Council sets the calendar, the fares and how the tickets are split. 80 % of the places are sold online only, released 49 hours ahead, and the season runs 15 May to 6 September across 25 open-air pools.
What does a summer pool in Madrid cost and how is it booked? An adult pays €2.25 a session and €4.50 for the full day; an over-65, €0.70 and €1.35. 80 % of tickets are sold online only, opening 49 hours ahead. The season runs 15 May to 6 September, across 25 open-air pools.
The hour when every pool empties
The three sessions do not overlap. The full day covers 10:00 to 21:00, the afternoon runs 16:00 to 21:00 and the morning 10:00 to 15:00.
Between 15:00 and 16:00 no session is under way at all. A morning ticket does not cover that hour, and it cannot be joined to the afternoon without buying the afternoon too. That is the practical difference from a natural bathing spot, where nothing has an exit time, described in Madrid’s rivers and reservoirs.
Because the full day is exactly double a single session in every band but one, buying it saves no money on the ticket. What it buys is the lost hour and the certainty of an afternoon place. The exception is the over-65 band, whose full day costs €1.35 rather than the €1.40 that two sessions would come to.
Five age bands and a factor of more than three
The fare depends entirely on the year of birth, and the spread between the cheapest paying band and the most expensive is more than threefold.
A session lasts five hours and the full day eleven, so the fares are easier to judge by the hour than by the ticket.
| Age band | One session | Per hour |
|---|---|---|
| Over 65 | €0.70 | €0.14 |
| Under 5 | free | free |
| 5 to 14 | €1.35 | €0.27 |
| 15 to 26 | €1.80 | €0.36 |
| 27 to 64 | €2.25 | €0.45 |
At the full-day rate the hourly cost falls further, to €0.41 for an adult and €0.12 for an over-65, because eleven hours cost only twice what five do.
The booking window opens 49 hours out
Where the tickets live decides whether there is space, more than the capacity does.
On the rules the Council publishes, 80 % of the daily tickets are sold online only, and that sale opens a maximum of 49 hours before the session time. The remaining 20 % are sold at the pool itself on the day, up to 30 minutes before entry. One person may buy at most 10 tickets a day.
That figure shapes the whole plan, and it produces three rules of thumb:
- A week’s notice is impossible. The sale simply does not exist until 49 hours out.
- The night before is too late for a morning session that has already sold out online.
- Turning up at the gate still works, but it competes for one ticket in five, up to 30 minutes before entry.
The 2026 season, and three pools that opened late
The season began, according to Madrid City Council, on 15 May, and runs to 6 September, across 25 open-air summer pools in the city.
Of those, 22 opened on 15 May and three — Santa Ana, Moscardó and Vallecas — joined in the first week of June, once building work finished. Several heated indoor recreational pools operate alongside them.
Two reductions apply all season on every fare above: 70 % for people in certified legal unemployment and 100 % for holders of the disability sports card.
15 May also ran as an open day, free for everyone and subject to capacity. It is a single date rather than a recurring window, so it does not behave like the free museum hours or the public holiday calendar in what opens on a public holiday.
New this season are free 30-minute express classes inside the facilities — aqua gym, aquafitness and mobility — plus CPR workshops. Which body sets each of these calendars is mapped in who sets Madrid’s opening hours.
Frequently asked questions about Madrid’s summer pools
How much is a municipal swimming pool in Madrid?
An adult aged 27 to 64 pays €2.25 for a morning or afternoon session and €4.50 for the full day. Over-65s pay €0.70 and €1.35, and children under 5 go in free at any session.
Do you have to book Madrid’s summer pools online?
For most places, yes. 80 % of the daily tickets are sold online only, opening 49 hours before the session. The other 20 % go on sale at the pool on the day, up to 30 minutes before entry.
What are the session times at Madrid’s municipal pools?
Three of them. Morning runs 10:00 to 15:00, afternoon 16:00 to 21:00, and the full day 10:00 to 21:00. Between 15:00 and 16:00 no session is running at all, so the pool empties.
When does the Madrid pool season run?
From 15 May to 6 September in 2026, across 25 open-air pools. Twenty-two opened on the first day, and Santa Ana, Moscardó and Vallecas joined in the first week of June after building work.
Twenty-five pools, three sessions, a 49-hour window and seventy cents at best.