MADRID · SPAIN
Old masters, late dinners, the cities beyond.
The Prado and the Royal Palace, tapas crawls and flamenco tablaos, the Bernabeu and the markets, then Toledo and Segovia an hour down the road. Every good day in Madrid, and every road out of it.
Only here
Three things you can only do in Madrid.
Museums and food tours fill every European capital. Standing in front of Las Meninas, walking out onto the Bernabeu turf and crawling the tapas bars until midnight belong to this one.
The old masters
The Prado
No gallery on earth tells the story of European painting like this one. Velazquez’s Las Meninas and Goya’s black paintings hang a few rooms apart, with Bosch, Titian and El Greco in between, the spoils of an empire that once ran from here to the Pacific. Give it a morning, or give it a week.
- 1 Madrid: Prado Museum Entry Ticket
- 2 Madrid: Small Group of Prado Museum Tour & Optional Tapas
- 3 Madrid: Prado Museum Guided Tour with Skip-the-Line Ticket
The home of Real Madrid
The Bernabeu
Fifteen European Cups and counting, won by the most decorated club in the game. The tour walks you out through the tunnel to the edge of the pitch, past the trophy room and the dressing rooms, under a roof that now folds shut over the whole bowl. Few places take their football this seriously.
- 1 Madrid: Tour Bernabéu Entry Ticket
- 2 Madrid: Atlético de Madrid Stadium Entry
- 3 Madrid: Guided Tour of Bernabéu Stadium
Dinner, standing up
The Madrid Tapeo
Madrid eats on its feet, moving bar to bar with a drink and a small plate at each. A wedge of tortilla here, gambas al ajillo there, jamon carved off the bone, and a last vermouth in La Latina or under the iron roof of the Mercado de San Miguel. The crawl is the meal, and the meal is the city.
- 1 Madrid: Small Group of Prado Museum Tour & Optional Tapas
- 2 Madrid: Tapas & Wine Tasting Tour with Local Guide
- 3 Madrid Tapas & Wine Tour with Rooftop Views and Local Guide
Start here
The one almost everyone books first.
More first days in Madrid begin here than anywhere else on the list.
Where most people start
Madrid's Most Popular Tours
The Prado and the Royal Palace, a flamenco night, the Bernabeu and a day out to Toledo. The days most travellers come to Madrid for.
Where to begin
The days a Madrid trip is built around.
The Prado, the Royal Palace, a tapas crawl, a flamenco show, and the old cities of Toledo and Segovia an hour out. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The day-trip question
Which day trip from Madrid?
Three walled cities sit within an hour or so of Madrid, each an easy day there and back. Which one you pick comes down to what you are after.
Tapas
The meal is the crawl from bar to bar.
Madrid eats standing up. A wedge of tortilla at one counter, gambas al ajillo at the next, croquetas and a glass of vermouth, jamon carved off the bone in La Latina and the Mercado de San Miguel. The best tables in the city have no tables at all.
Read the guide: the best tapas tours in Madrid →After dark
Madrid keeps the latest hours in Europe.
Dinner starts at ten and the night runs long. A flamenco tablao with the guitar an arm’s length away, a rooftop terrace over the Gran Via rooflines, a zarzuela at the opera house, and churros con chocolate at San Gines on the walk home at dawn.
See the evening experiences →The Royal Palace
The biggest royal palace in Western Europe.
More than three thousand rooms rise above the Manzanares where the old Moorish fortress once stood, still the official residence of the crown though no king has slept here in a century. Inside are the throne room, the royal armoury and the only complete Stradivarius quartet on earth. Walk the gardens at golden hour and the whole city seems to fall away below.
Royal Palace tours & tickets →The Paseo del Arte
Three of the world’s great galleries, one street.
A single boulevard strings together the Prado, the Reina Sofia and the Thyssen-Bornemisza, an art mile with few rivals anywhere. Picasso’s Guernica fills a wall in one, Velazquez and Goya hold court in the next, and five centuries of European painting wait in the third. A combined ticket links all three.
- 1 Madrid: Prado Museum Entry Ticket
- 2 Madrid: Reina Sofía Museum Entrance Ticket
- 3 Madrid: Small Group of Prado Museum Tour & Optional Tapas
Plan by distance
Pick how far you want to go today.
Madrid is a hub with the old cities ringed around it. Stay in the centre for the day, head an hour out to the royal sites, or give a whole day to Toledo, Segovia or Avila.
In the centre
Stay in the city.The Prado and the Reina Sofia, tapas in La Latina, a tablao after dark and churros at dawn on the way home. Days you never leave Madrid.
A morning out
Out to the royal sites.El Escorial, the granite monastery-palace of Philip II in the hills, or the riverside gardens of Aranjuez. An hour each way, back for a late lunch.
A full day there and back
Down to the old cities.Toledo on its hill above the Tagus, Segovia under its Roman aqueduct, or the walls of Avila. The big days that earn an early start.
On two wheels
See Madrid the way locals cross it.
The centre is flat, walkable and ringed by parkland. A guided ride loops the Retiro lakes, the rose garden and the Crystal Palace, then drops down the green banks of the Manzanares under the Royal Palace, covering in an afternoon what would take days on foot. Bikes, e-bikes and Segways, with the hills taken out.
Ride Madrid: bikes, e-bikes & Segways →By place
The city, and the roads out of it.
Central Madrid for the museums, the palace and the tapas. Then the walled cities that ring it: Toledo for the old capital, Segovia for the aqueduct, Avila for the walls, El Escorial for the royal monastery and Cuenca for the hanging houses.
By activity
Pick what kind of day you want.
Art if you came for the Prado and the Reina Sofia. Tapas if you came hungry. Flamenco for the night, the palace for the grandeur, skip-the-line for the queues, a bike to cover the lot.
Plan it
Three days that cover the essentials.
First time in Madrid? Here is how three days plays out without a wasted hour.
Just added