Santiago Bernabéu Bag Policy: What You Can Bring and Where to Leave the Rest

Real Madrid's access regulations and ticket pages give no bag size for football matches at the Santiago Bernabéu. They ban bulky items, prams and suitcases, and the stadium has no cloakroom, so bring a small, soft bag with only what you need in it. The one written bag size I could find for a football match, A4, comes from the notices visiting clubs send to their fans in the away end.

Anything that will not go in with you has to be left at your hotel or a storage spot before you walk up, and for an evening kick-off, how late that spot stays open matters more than how close it is.

Information checked on 12 October 2026.

Real Madrid bans bulky bags but its rules give no size

The club's access regulations are a one-page document in Spanish and English. The only line about bags prohibits "bulky items, children's prams and other objects that could obstruct evacuation". The ticket FAQ on realmadrid.com names suitcases too, along with golf umbrellas and umbrellas with wooden or metal tips. Neither gives a measurement, and neither mentions backpacks, for or against.

With no number to check against, whether a bag counts as bulky may be left to the staff at the gate. Visitors posting on Tripadvisor more than a year ago said small handbags and purses were allowed in, some after a quick look inside, which is no guarantee for your own bag. I would not take a rucksack packed for a weekend away to the turnstile.

The clear-bag rule with sizes in inches that turns up in searches was for the NFL game at the Bernabéu in 2025, not for football.

Away supporters are given a size: A4

Away tickets at the Bernabéu are sold only through the visiting club, and fans in that section get their instructions in their own club's matchday notice. Every notice I found that gives a bag size says A4 or smaller: Manchester City in 2020 and 2023, Marseille in September 2025 and Benfica in February 2026. Benfica's adds that there is nowhere at the away entrance to leave anything turned away. Real Madrid's own notice for visiting supporters, revised in January 2026, gives no bag size at all.

Stuttgart's notice in 2024 did not mention bag size, and the other details have shifted from one notice to the next, flag sizes and power banks among them. With the away allocation, pack to A4 and read your club's notice for that match. Atlético's league visit is provisionally listed for 4 April 2027, with the final date and kick-off time still to be confirmed, and the Santiago Bernabéu seating guide shows where the away end sits.

Elsewhere in the stadium A4 is not a rule, and Real Madrid's general regulations never use it. I still use it as my own yardstick and pack a bag that holds a sheet of A4 without bulging, because it is the only size I have found in writing for a football match at the Bernabéu.

Power banks, cameras and laptops: the general rules say nothing, so keep them small

Real Madrid's regulations and ticket FAQ say nothing about power banks, cameras, selfie sticks or laptops. The one camera rule I found is in that notice for visiting supporters: television cameras and professional microphones are not permitted unless the club authorises them. Lists online that also ban selfie sticks or large power banks at the Bernabéu are not backed by anything on the club's pages.

The away notices disagree. Manchester City told fans in 2020 that battery packs were not allowed, a later City notice banned only the heavier ones, and Marseille's in 2025 said a power bank had to be smaller than the phone.

With nothing written for general entry, I would take a power bank smaller than my phone and a compact camera without a long lens, and leave the laptop at the hotel.

Do not count on taking a bottle of water in

Royal Decree 203/2010, the national regulation on violence in sport, bans spectators from bringing in food or drink containers made of metal, glass, ceramic, wood or similar materials, anything over 500g or 500ml that could be thrown, and alcohol of any kind. Bottled drinks bought inside the ground have to be poured into plastic or paper cups. Real Madrid's regulations repeat the rules on containers, the 500ml/500g limit and alcohol.

In the law and in the club's English text, the 500ml/500g limit covers items that could be thrown, so it does not ban every heavier snack. The club's Spanish text joins the two conditions with "and/or", which can be read as a flat limit, and those are the rules Real Madrid publishes for its gates. I would keep food under 500g and in soft packaging. Glass and metal containers are banned whatever their size. The same law covers Atlético's ground, and the Metropolitano bag policy reads the 500ml/500g rule the same way.

A small plastic bottle of water is the open question. The national regulation is not clear-cut about bottles brought from outside: its preamble and one clause speak of banning bottled drinks being brought in, while its list of what spectators may not carry names only bottles bought inside the ground. Real Madrid's notice for visiting supporters bans drink containers over 500ml, plastic ones included, but does not say that smaller ones are allowed. The stadium's events website says you can bring a plastic bottle of up to 50cl with the cap removed, but that is an event FAQ, and I could not establish that its bottle allowance applies to Real Madrid football matches. Until the club says something for matches, I would not plan on it. Drink before you go in, or buy something inside.

There is no cloakroom, so check storage closing times before an evening match

Real Madrid states in both the regulations and the ticket FAQ that the Bernabéu has no cloakroom. The same notice for visiting supporters adds that the club is not responsible for looking after items refused at the gate. The events website mentions a cloakroom outside the stadium, with location and fee depending on the event, but nothing on the club's football pages says one opens for a match.

A suitcase, a pram or a large travel backpack therefore has to be dropped off first. Bounce lists storage spots a few minutes' walk from the stadium, from €3.50 per bag per day (checked 12 October 2026). On weekdays many of them close between 20:00 and 22:00, and at weekends several close earlier, some at 14:00 and some not opening on Sundays. A 21:00 kick-off finishes at around 22:50 or later once added time is played, and you still have to get out of the ground and walk to the shop. The away end can take longer: Real Madrid's notice for visiting supporters says they may be held for about 20 minutes after the match, a decision made by the police. Given the late final whistle, the time it takes to get out and walk to the shop, and that possible wait, I would not count on a spot that closes at 23:00 after an evening match, especially from the away end, where I would leave a suitcase at the hotel.

For general seats, one candidate is a convenience shop on Calle de Marceliano Santa María, just south of the stadium, which Bounce listed on 12 October as open every day into the late evening. Search for it on Bounce and check the pickup time it gives for your match date before you book. Booking through the luggage-storage links in this article may earn Cholismo Lab a small commission, at no extra cost to you. There is a little more on booking at the end of this guide.

The spot listed as "Santiago Bernabéu Calle de Pedro Teixeira" is the one with the stadium in its name, but it closes at 20:00 on weekdays and 14:00 on Saturdays and stays shut on Sundays, so it is no use for an evening match.

Real Madrid's tour FAQ treats luggage differently. It says you can do the tour with a suitcase or a baby carriage, though the route has many flights of stairs, and that there is nowhere to leave luggage there either. On matchday the tour is open until five and a half hours before kick-off, and once you are in, you cannot go out and come back.

You get one re-entry, and not before half-time

Real Madrid's access regulations allow one re-entry, on the same ticket, which must be scanned at the exit turnstile. Walk out without scanning it and you cannot get back in for that match. If you leave before or during the first half, you can only return from the half-time break, and once the access controls have been removed nobody is let back in.

If you bought online from Real Madrid, that ticket should be on your phone. For the Sevilla match on 18 October 2026, as for other recent home matches, the club's ticket page says that for online purchases only the ticket downloaded to the phone is valid, and Print at Home is not. Away allocations follow the visiting club's notice: Manchester City's fans were issued paper tickets in May 2023 and December 2025. Keep the ticket until you leave: club staff, police or private security can ask to see it, and anyone without one can be removed. Every child needs a ticket of their own, babies in arms included.

There is also a search on the way in, which Spanish law obliges spectators to accept, so pack with small items together and nothing you would have to explain. For general seats, the Santiago Bernabéu transport guide covers the walk from Nuevos Ministerios and suggests reaching the stadium area about an hour before kick-off. Away supporters are told something different: Real Madrid's notice asks them to be near the stadium at least two hours before kick-off, and the away fans guide covers the away entrance.

Arriving with luggage on matchday. If you are coming straight from the airport or a train, sort out the drop-off before you travel and check the pickup time for your match date against the time you will actually reach the shop: the final whistle after added time, the walk out of the ground and, in the away end, any wait before visiting fans are let out. Bounce shows its spots near the stadium from €3.50 per bag per day (checked 12 October 2026), and says each booking comes with €10,000 of protection and free cancellation.