Taxi Madrid to Patones de Arriba — The Slate Village

Transfer Details: Madrid → Patones de Arriba

Our taxi service from Madrid to Patones de Arriba is the most comfortable and fastest way to travel. No waiting at stations, no transfers between lines, no carrying luggage. Your driver picks you up at the agreed point and takes you directly to your destination in approximately 60 minutes.

With MadridTaxis you get guaranteed professional service: fixed price agreed before departure, experienced drivers who know the route, and an immaculate vehicle. Available 24 hours, 365 days a year.

Patones de Arriba is the black slate village that stars in half the rural getaway lists of the Madrid region — and also one of the most awkward places to reach without your own car. The taxi from Madrid, from €99, sorts out the 67 km in about an hour and leaves you beside the entrance to the old quarter, ready to wander without having driven a single metre.

What makes Patones de Arriba unique is its black architecture: houses built from slabs of slate that melt into the hillside, steep little lanes and an ensemble so well preserved it seems frozen in another century. The old quarter is essentially pedestrian, made to be explored slowly on foot, pausing at its restaurants and viewpoints. Arrive hungry: the village's mountain cooking is renowned well beyond the district. It is the kind of place where a couple of hours quietly turn into a whole day without you noticing.

The classic problem with this getaway is logistical: there is no direct public transport link from Madrid, and the usual alternative strings together changes and ends with an uphill walk from the lower village. For anyone without a car — or simply unwilling to spend the morning juggling connections — the taxi turns a minor odyssey into an hour's ride spent reading or watching the Sierra Norte landscape roll by.

The surroundings offer far more than the village itself. Close by are the Pontón de la Oliva, the nineteenth-century dam that marks the historic starting point of the Canal de Isabel II, and trails such as the Ruta de las Caleras, ideal for stretching your legs before sitting down to lunch. If you fancy earning that lunch, ask to be dropped in the lower village and walk up along the traditional path. And if you can get away midweek, you will have the streets almost to yourself: Patones on a Tuesday and Patones on a bank holiday are two different villages.

Which brings us to the point worth tying down before you leave: the return. In a village this small you will not hail a cab by raising your hand, so the smart move is to arrange the pick-up when you book the outward trip. You set a time, your driver appears at the agreed point, and you stop depending on mobile coverage or luck. The pre-arranged service adds €2.80 to the fare — quite possibly the best €2.80 of the whole excursion.