Book dinner for ten at night and you see Madrid at its best: the squares of La Latina and Malasaña are still full at midnight, a short walk from three of Europe's great art collections.
View on globeNinety seconds on Madrid
Three days covers the centre: one for the Prado and the other galleries on the Paseo del Prado, one for the Royal Palace, Plaza Mayor and La Latina, and one for the Retiro and the neighbourhoods. A fourth day allows Segovia or El Escorial, each reached in under an hour and a half.
On foot in the centre and by metro beyond it. Since June 2026 every metro station accepts a contactless bank card, phone or watch tapped at the gate for a single journey. The ten-journey ticket still needs the rechargeable public transport card sold at station machines. The metro runs from about six in the morning to half past one at night.
April to June and late September to October, with warm days and cool evenings. July and August are hot, often above 35 °C in the afternoon, and many local businesses close for part of August. Winters are cold, dry and often sunny. The San Isidro fiesta in mid May is the city's own celebration.
Spanish. English is widely spoken in hotels, at the major museums and in the busier restaurants around Sol, less so in neighbourhood bars and markets, where menus are often in Spanish only. A few words of Spanish are well received.
The euro. Cards are accepted almost everywhere, including in most bars and market stalls. Madrid charges no tourist tax on hotel stays. Tipping is modest: rounding up or leaving a few coins is normal.
Madrid-Barajas MAD, about 12 km north-east of the centre. Metro line 8 runs from every terminal to Nuevos Ministerios in about 20 minutes, with an airport supplement on the ticket. The C1 train leaves from Terminal 4 for Atocha and Chamartín, and the Exprés Aeropuerto bus runs around the clock, to Atocha by day and to Cibeles at night. Taxis charge a fixed fare to anywhere inside the M-30 ring road.
The Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen stand within a ten-minute walk of each other on the Paseo del Prado. Give each one a morning or an afternoon of its own, and do not try all three in a day. Book timed tickets online, and use the Prado's free last two hours only if you can face a long queue.
Stay in the Barrio de las Letras for the best all-round base, downhill to the museums and uphill to Sol. Malasaña and Chueca suit night owls, and their streets stay loud into the small hours at weekends. Salamanca is quiet and close to the Retiro, but a metro ride from the old town.
Make one of your days a Sunday. The Rastro flea market fills the streets of La Latina in the morning, and by early afternoon the bars of Cava Baja are packed for vermouth and tapas. In July and August, see the sights before noon, spend the hot afternoon inside a museum and go out again after dark.
Most smaller museums close on Monday and the Reina Sofía on Tuesday, so check before you plan a day around one. The Royal Palace can close at short notice for state events. Pickpockets work Sol, Gran Vía and the metro, so keep your phone off café tables.
Segovia and El Escorial each make an easy day trip. Fast trains from Chamartín reach Segovia in under half an hour, and El Escorial is about an hour away by C3 local train from Atocha or by bus from Moncloa. Toledo has a guide of its own.
Sloping streets between Puerta del Sol and the Prado, where quotations from Cervantes, Lope de Vega and Quevedo are set in brass into the pavement of Calle de las Huertas. Plaza de Santa Ana is the hub, ringed by old beer halls and terraces. The terraces stay busy late, so ask for a room off the square.
The oldest quarter of the city, a tangle of small squares and steep lanes south of the Plaza Mayor: Plaza de la Paja, Plaza de la Cebada and the domed San Francisco el Grande. On Sunday morning the Rastro flea market fills its lower streets.
North of Gran Vía, a grid of narrow streets known for vintage shops, record stores, street art and late bars, centred on the Plaza del Dos de Mayo. Calle del Espíritu Santo and Calle del Pez hold most of the small shops and cafés. Nights are loud at weekends, so light sleepers should book a room facing a courtyard.
A planned grid of wide streets and stately apartment blocks east of the Retiro, holding the city's designer shops on Calle de Serrano and Calle de Ortega y Gasset. It is quiet after dark and close to the park and the Archaeological Museum.
Madrid's cathedral faces the Royal Palace across a parade ground, and was finished only in 1993, so its neo-Gothic nave carries bright modern ceilings and stained glass. The neo-Romanesque crypt, entered from Calle Mayor, is the more atmospheric half. A ticketed museum climbs to the dome, with a terrace looking over the palace and Casa de Campo.
A Roman aqueduct of granite blocks held without mortar, striding across Segovia's main square in a double row of arches nearly 30 metres high. The town also holds a cathedral and the turreted Alcázar. Fast trains from Chamartín reach Segovia-Guiomar in under half an hour, with a city bus on to the aqueduct; buses from Moncloa stop a short walk from it.
An old power station on the Paseo del Prado, lifted off the ground by the Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron and topped with rusted iron. Beside it a vertical garden of some 15,000 plants covers a neighbouring wall. Inside, rotating exhibitions run from photography to design, and the building opens daily until evening.
The landscaped gardens below the west front of the Royal Palace, sloping down towards the river, with long lawns, fountains, peacocks and a view up to the palace. Entry is free, but the only gate is on Paseo de la Virgen del Puerto, a long walk round from the palace itself. The gardens close without much notice when the palace hosts a state event.
A vast granite monastery and palace at the foot of the Guadarrama mountains, with a basilica, a painted library and the royal pantheon where most Spanish kings are buried. C3 Cercanías trains from Atocha or Sol, and buses from Moncloa, reach San Lorenzo de El Escorial in about an hour. Entry is ticketed and it closes on Mondays.
The city's main park, a former royal garden beside the boulevard of museums, listed by UNESCO in 2021. Rowing boats circle a lake under a colonnaded monument, and the iron and glass Palacio de Cristal is closed for restoration until 2027. Sunday mornings are the busiest, with puppet shows, buskers and families along the lake.
A broad avenue cut through the old city, lined with early skyscrapers, cinemas turned musical theatres and chain stores. The domed Metrópolis building marks its eastern end at Calle de Alcalá. Several hotels along it open rooftop bars to non-guests, and the view west at sunset takes in the whole curve of the street.
The city's old slaughterhouse beside the river at Legazpi, its brick sheds now an arts centre with free exhibitions, theatres, a cinema and weekend markets. It sits on Madrid Río, so a walk or bike ride along the river links it with the centre. Weekend evenings are the liveliest, when the courtyards fill for concerts and markets.
The last of Madrid's iron market halls, put up in 1916 beside the Plaza Mayor and reopened in 2009 as a hall of counters selling oysters, croquettes, vermouth on tap and ham carved to order. It is a place to graze, plate by plate, and an expensive one. Weekend evenings are shoulder to shoulder. Mid-afternoon on a weekday is comfortable.
The mansion of a nineteenth century marquis, left exactly as he hung it, near Plaza de España. Paintings, armour, clocks and porcelain crowd every wall of the ballroom, the billiard room and the private apartments. El Greco's Saint Francis hangs in the chapel. Entry is ticketed, the museum closes on Mondays, and an hour covers it.
Spain's main collection of antiquities, in the same palace as the National Library on Calle de Serrano. The Lady of Elche, an Iberian stone bust, is the star, with Roman mosaics, Visigothic votive crowns and Islamic ivories from Córdoba around her. A replica of the Altamira cave paintings sits in the garden. Its rooms stay quiet even on days when the Prado queue reaches the street.
A great roundabout where Alcalá meets the Paseo del Prado, with the fountain of the goddess Cybele in her lion-drawn chariot at its centre. The white palace on its south-east corner, once the main Post Office, is now the city hall and a free cultural centre called CentroCentro. Its rooftop viewpoint is ticketed and gives a clear view down Alcalá.
An enclosed arcaded square finished in 1619, with over two hundred balconies from which the court watched bullfights, coronations and the trials of the Inquisition. Nine arched gateways lead in. The terrace cafés charge for the setting. The local habit is a fried squid sandwich from one of the bars just outside the arches, eaten standing. A Christmas market fills it in December.
A granite triumphal gate in the Plaza de la Independencia, at the north-west corner of the Retiro. It is floodlit at night, which is the best time to see it. The walk from Cibeles to the park gates passes it, a few minutes along Calle de Alcalá.
The semicircular square at the centre of the city, with the stone plaque of Kilometre Zero set in the pavement outside the old Post Office. On New Year's Eve crowds eat twelve grapes here to the strokes of its clock. It sits on the way between most of the centre's sights, and pickpockets work the crowd around the bear and strawberry tree statue.
After the old fortress burned on Christmas Eve 1734, the Bourbons replaced it in stone so it could not burn again, on a scale of over three thousand rooms. The royal family lives elsewhere and uses it for state occasions, when it closes without much notice. The throne room, a Tiepolo ceiling, a quartet of Stradivarius instruments and the armoury are on the visitor route.
A small neoclassical chapel by the river near Príncipe Pío, its dome painted by Goya with a miracle of Saint Anthony watched over by a crowd of ordinary Madrileños. Goya is buried below it. Entry is free, it closes on Mondays, and a mirror table helps with the ceiling. Every June the Saint Anthony fiesta fills the street outside.
Real Madrid's home ground on the Paseo de la Castellana, rebuilt with a retractable roof and a steel skin of curving ribbons. The stadium tour takes in the trophy room, the dressing rooms, the tunnel and a panoramic walk around the top, on timed tickets sold online. On match days the tour closes five and a half hours before kick-off, and the dressing rooms and benches are shut that day and the day before.
A small ancient Egyptian temple, rebuilt on a ridge west of Plaza de España, with a reflecting pool in front of it. The free interior takes a limited number at a time, closes on Mondays and can be booked on the city's website. Sunset over the pool and the woods of Casa de Campo draws a crowd.
A curving street in La Latina lined with old taverns and tapas bars, following the line of the medieval city wall. Locals move from bar to bar, a drink and a plate in each. It fills from late evening and on Sunday afternoons after the Rastro. Menus are often in Spanish only; pointing at the counter works.
A former royal hunting estate west of the river, five times the size of Central Park, with pine woods, a boating lake, the zoo and the Parque de Atracciones fairground. The lake is the easiest part to reach, a short walk from the Lago metro station. The far reaches are wild and empty, and the main paths are the safer choice after dark.
The heart of gay Madrid and a busy eating and drinking quarter, packed around the Plaza de Chueca east of Malasaña. The San Antón market hall has a roof terrace, and Calle de Fuencarral is lined with shops. Early July brings the city's Pride celebrations, one of the largest in Europe, when the streets stay full until dawn.
An arts club at the corner of Alcalá and Gran Vía, with exhibitions, a cinema and a grand café on the ground floor. Its rooftop terrace, under a bronze statue of Minerva, is ticketed and looks straight down Gran Vía and over the Metrópolis dome. Weekday evenings before sunset have the shortest lift queue.
A row of wooden bookstalls climbing the slope from Atocha to the south gate of the Retiro, selling second-hand books, old maps and prints. Most stalls open daily and are busiest on Sunday mornings. It makes a good route between the Reina Sofía and the park, with a bronze statue of the writer Pío Baroja at the top.
A convent of enclosed nuns two streets from Puerta del Sol, filled over the centuries with tapestries after Rubens, paintings and reliquaries given by royal daughters who lived there. A plain brick front hides it all. Visits are by guided tour only, in small groups, and sell out; tickets are sold online and it closes on Mondays.
The Sunday flea market that runs down the Ribera de Curtidores from Plaza de Cascorro, with clothes, antiques, old records and plenty of junk across several streets. It opens around nine and winds down by three. The antique shops are best early, and bags are best kept zipped in the crush.
A museum cut into the hillside beside the Royal Palace and the cathedral, showing the crown's paintings, tapestries, carriages and armour. Two long floors run from the Habsburgs to the twentieth century, with a third for temporary shows, and Velázquez, Caravaggio and Goya on the way. The window over the Campo del Moro gardens is worth the visit on its own.
A steep, mixed quarter below La Latina, home to Bangladeshi and Senegalese grocers, Indian restaurants, old corralas with shared balconies and small theatres. Two arts centres anchor it: La Casa Encendida and the free Tabacalera in a former tobacco factory. The Reina Sofía sits at its foot, so the museum and a cheap lunch fit into one morning.
A riverside park built over a buried ring road along the Manzanares, with cycle paths, play areas, fountains and new footbridges beside the old stone ones. It runs for several kilometres from Príncipe Pío south to Matadero. On hot afternoons the fountains at the Playa de Madrid fill with children, and the bike lanes make it an easy ride.
A modern market hall in Chueca with fresh food stalls on the ground floor, counters selling ready dishes on the first, and a roof terrace on top. It is a relaxed place for a light lunch or an early evening drink. Weekday afternoons are the easiest time to find a table on the terrace.
A former poorhouse on Calle de Fuencarral with a carved Baroque doorway, telling the story of the city in maps, paintings and fans. The highlight is a huge wooden scale model of Madrid in 1830, which shows streets that still stand. Entry is free, it closes on Mondays, and Malasaña starts at its door.
The Spanish royal collection, opened to the public in 1819, and unmatched for the painters the kings favoured: Velázquez, Goya, Titian, Rubens, Bosch. Las Meninas hangs at the centre of the main floor. Goya's Black Paintings, lifted from the walls of his own house, fill a dim room downstairs. Entry is free for the last two hours of each day, with queues to match.
A palace in Malasaña furnished as a well-off home of the 1830s: drawing rooms, a dining room, a boudoir, painted fans, pianos and portraits. The garden café behind it is one of the calmest corners in the neighbourhood. Entry is ticketed and it closes on Mondays, with Sunday mornings the busiest time inside.
A publisher's villa in a garden in the Salamanca district, holding his private collection over four floors: Goya portraits and witchcraft scenes, Bosch, El Greco, enamels, jewellery and swords. It sees a fraction of the Prado's visitors. It sits a short walk from Salamanca's shops and closes on Mondays, like most of the smaller museums.
An eighteenth century hospital converted to hold Spain's modern art, with glass lifts bolted to the front. Picasso's Guernica is the reason most visitors come. Painted in Paris in 1937, it stayed abroad at the artist's insistence until democracy returned, arriving in 1981. The surrounding rooms of sketches, photographs and civil war posters make sense of it. Dalí and Miró are well shown too.
A hilly park running north from the Temple of Debod, with shady paths, a stream and the Rosaleda, a rose garden that peaks in May and hosts an international rose competition. The views reach west over Casa de Campo to the Sierra de Guadarrama. Entry is free, and weekday mornings bring little more than dog walkers and runners.
The royal academy of art, a few steps from Puerta del Sol on Calle de Alcalá, with a gallery that holds thirteen paintings by Goya, his self-portrait among them. Zurbarán's white-robed monks, Rubens and Velázquez hang in the same rooms. It is quiet, ticketed, closes on Mondays and takes about an hour.
Walled botanical gardens laid out in terraces beside the Prado, with fruit trees, vegetable beds, herbs, a rose walk and glasshouses of tropical and desert plants. It is ticketed and much quieter than the Retiro. After a morning in the Prado, the shade under its plane trees is welcome.
A private collection assembled by a steel baron and his son, bought by the Spanish state in 1993 and hung in a palace facing the Prado. It covers what the other two museums lack: early Italian gold-ground panels, Dutch interiors, Impressionists, German Expressionism, Hopper and American pop. Start on the top floor and walk down through seven centuries in order.
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