Community of Madrid · Spain
Three of the world's great art collections on one boulevard, a city that eats at eleven, and the best day trips in Spain within forty minutes.
Photo: Carlos Delgado · CC BY-SA 3.0
Madrid became Spain's capital in 1561 by royal decision rather than by growing into the role, and it shows. It has no river worth the name, no cathedral of any consequence, and none of the layered antiquity of Seville or Toledo. What it has instead is what an empire's capital accumulates: the royal collection, which is now the Prado, and around it the densest concentration of first-rank painting anywhere in the world.
The Paseo del Prado runs about a kilometre and holds three separate museums that would each anchor a different city. The Prado has Velázquez, Goya, Bosch and Titian. The Reina Sofía has Guernica and 20th-century Spanish art. The Thyssen-Bornemisza fills the gaps between them with a private collection assembled over two generations. You can walk between all three in fifteen minutes.
The city around them is louder, later and less picturesque than Barcelona, and considerably more Spanish. Madrid eats dinner at 22:00, drinks until 03:00 and treats a Sunday morning at the Rastro flea market as a civic institution. It is also 650 metres up on a high plateau, which makes the summers ferocious and the winters cold — and puts Toledo, Segovia and Ávila all within forty minutes by train.
Why visit
Madrid is not a city of monuments and it does not photograph as well as its rivals. Its case is made in three museums, a hundred bars and the surrounding province.
Three world-class collections within ten minutes' walk. The Prado alone holds the largest collections of Velázquez, Goya and Bosch anywhere, including Las Meninas, the Black Paintings and The Garden of Earthly Delights. No other European city concentrates this much at this level.
Toledo is 33 minutes by AVE — a walled city on a granite outcrop above a river gorge where Christian, Jewish and Muslim quarters survive side by side. Segovia is 27 minutes, with a Roman aqueduct of 167 arches standing without mortar. Ávila and El Escorial are similarly close.
Madrid's food is not regional — it is everyone's, because everyone moved here. You can eat Galician octopus, Basque pintxos, Andalusian fried fish and Asturian cider in a ten-minute radius, at bar prices, standing up.
Dinner starts at 22:00 and bars run until 03:00 on weeknights. This is not a marketing claim; the metro runs until 01:30 and the streets of La Latina and Malasaña are fuller at midnight than at eight.
The Retiro, a former royal garden of 125 hectares with a boating lake and a glass palace, is UNESCO-listed alongside the Paseo del Prado. Casa de Campo is five times the size of Central Park.
Main attractions
Two museums is a full day and three is too many. Book the Prado and the Reina Sofía, and treat everything else as walking.
The former royal collection, and the finest single-country holding of paintings in existence. Velázquez's Las Meninas is displayed so you can approach it from the front as the painting intends. Goya's Black Paintings — made on the walls of his own house — occupy a room of their own, and Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights is here rather than in the Netherlands.
Tip Free entry for the last two hours daily, which is busy. Better to pay and go at opening; three hours in two wings beats five hours attempting everything.
Twentieth-century Spanish art in a converted hospital, built around Picasso's Guernica — displayed with the preparatory sketches and photographs that show how it was made. Strong Dalí and Miró holdings alongside it.
Tip Guernica is the reason most people come and the room is crowded. Go at opening or in the free evening window and see the sketch room first.
A private collection of about 1,600 works assembled over two generations and bought by Spain in 1993. It fills the gaps the other two leave — early Italian, Dutch, German Expressionism, Impressionism and American painting — and is much the calmest of the three.
Tip The best of the three if you have limited appetite for museums. Chronological top floor down is the intended route.
A fully enclosed arcaded square from 1619, once used for bullfights, royal proclamations and executions. The streets around it — Calle Mayor, Cava Baja, the Mercado de San Miguel — form the oldest part of the city.
Tip The square itself is priced for visitors. Walk two streets south into Cava Baja for the bars Madrid actually uses.
125 hectares of former royal garden, opened to the public in 1868 and now UNESCO-listed. The Crystal Palace, a glass and iron pavilion built for a Philippines exhibition in 1887, hosts contemporary art installations and is free.
Tip Sunday morning is when Madrid uses it properly — drummers, tai chi, rowing boats and families. Go then, not on a quiet weekday.
Europe's largest royal palace by floor area, with 3,418 rooms, of which you see about fifty. Built after the old Habsburg fortress burned down in 1734. The neighbouring cathedral was only finished in 1993 and is worth ten minutes at most.
Tip The Sabatini and Campo del Moro gardens beside it are free, quiet and better than the queue for the state rooms.
Thirty-three minutes by AVE. A walled city on a granite spur inside a bend of the Tagus, capital of Spain until 1561, where the cathedral, the synagogues and the mosque survive within a few hundred metres of one another. El Greco lived and painted here.
Tip Stay overnight if you can — the day-trippers leave at 18:00 and the town becomes extraordinary. Otherwise take the first train out.
Twenty-seven minutes by AVE, for a Roman aqueduct of 167 arches, 28 metres high, built without mortar around the first century and in use until 1973. The cathedral and the Alcázar castle complete the visit.
Tip Segovia is also where you eat cochinillo — suckling pig roasted whole and traditionally carved with a plate edge.
Things to do
Madrid rewards evenings more than mornings. Build the days around one museum and let the nights run long.
Cava Baja and the streets around it hold one of the densest concentrations of bars in Europe. One dish and one drink per bar, standing, then move. Sunday afternoon after the Rastro is the classic time.
Tip Unlike Granada, tapas here are ordered and paid for. Ask what the house speciality is — most bars have exactly one thing they do well.
A flea market that has run since the 1740s, filling the streets below La Latina every Sunday morning with several thousand stalls. Half junk, half interesting, and entirely a Madrid institution.
Tip It winds down around 15:00 and the crowd moves straight into the surrounding bars. That transition is the point.
Madrid's churrerías have historically stayed open around the clock, and eating churros dipped in thick chocolate at 06:00 on the way home is a recognised part of a night out rather than an eccentricity.
Tip Also perfectly respectable at 09:00 for breakfast. The chocolate should be thick enough to hold a churro upright.
Malasaña was the centre of the post-Franco Movida and is still where the city's music and bar culture concentrates. Lavapiés is the most mixed neighbourhood in Madrid, with the best cheap eating in the city.
Tip Both are within twenty minutes' walk of the centre and neither is on a standard itinerary.
Flamenco is Andalusian, but Madrid draws the best performers in Spain and its tablaos are consequently very good. Several have been running since the 1960s and are respected within the form.
Tip Choose a one-hour performance without dinner. The late show is usually the better one.
Thirty-something minutes each, and both are complete historic cities rather than single sights. Toledo for the layered religious history, Segovia for the aqueduct and the roast suckling pig.
Tip Do one properly rather than both in a day. Toledo in particular deserves from mid-afternoon into the evening.
Local food
Madrid has almost no cuisine of its own and eats everyone else's, which is what happens when a city quadruples in size through internal migration. The few Madrid dishes are winter food.
A chickpea, meat and vegetable stew served in three courses from one pot: first the broth as a soup, then the chickpeas and vegetables, then the meats. A winter dish, usually available only at lunch and often only on set days.
Where to try it Traditional restaurants in the centre, mostly October to April. Several serve it on Wednesdays only.
A bread roll filled with rings of fried squid, and nothing else — no sauce, no salad. Improbably, in a landlocked city 350 km from the sea, this is Madrid's signature snack.
Where to try it The bars around Plaza Mayor, which specialise in almost nothing else.
Tripe stewed with chorizo, morcilla and paprika until thick. Divisive, deeply traditional, and one of the few dishes that is from here.
Where to try it Old-school taverns in La Latina and Lavapiés, usually as a media ración.
Fried dough in a cup of chocolate thick enough to be eaten with a spoon. Eaten at breakfast, at merienda, and at dawn on the way home from a night out.
Where to try it Historic churrerías near Puerta del Sol, some of which have operated continuously for over a century.
Suckling pig and milk-fed lamb roasted in wood-fired ovens — Castilian rather than strictly Madrid, and the reason people drive to Segovia and the villages around the city for lunch.
Where to try it Segovia, Sepúlveda and the old asador restaurants of central Madrid.
House vermouth on tap, sweet and herbal, served on ice with an olive before Sunday lunch. The vermouth hour is a Madrid ritual that has come firmly back into fashion.
Where to try it Old taverns in La Latina, especially around Cava Baja from noon on Sundays.
Accommodation
Madrid's centre is compact and the metro is excellent, so the choice is mostly about how much noise you want. The historic core is loud until very late — that is either the appeal or the problem.
Transport
Madrid is the hub of the entire Spanish transport network. Every AVE line radiates from here and Barajas is the country's largest airport.
One of the best metro systems in Europe, and a centre small enough that you will walk most of it anyway.
When to go
Madrid sits on a high plateau with a continental climate, and the old saying — nine months of winter, three months of hell — is only a slight exaggeration. The shoulder seasons are excellent and the extremes are extreme.
Warm, dry and bright at 18–28°C, with terraces open and the Retiro at its best. May and early June are the peak of it, before the heat sets in properly.
Regularly 35–40°C with fierce dry heat. Madrileños leave in August, which empties the city and closes a noticeable share of restaurants. Hotel rates fall accordingly, and evenings on a terrace are lovely — but daytime sightseeing is punishing.
The heat breaks in mid-September and October is close to perfect: 15–25°C, clear skies, the city back at work and the museums manageable.
Cold and dry at 3–12°C, with occasional snow. Bright most days, cheap, and the season for cocido and roast lamb. The museums are at their quietest all year.
Worth planning around: August, when a significant number of the city's own restaurants and bars close for the month while their owners are at the coast. Check specific places are open rather than assuming.
Itinerary
One museum a day, one neighbourhood each evening, and one day trip. Deliberately paced so the late nights are survivable.
The big museum first, then the Habsburg city around Plaza Mayor.
A complete medieval city, thirty-three minutes away.
Guernica in the morning, green space in the afternoon.
Depends on the day of the week and your appetite.
Travel tips
Madrid-specific practicalities, mostly about timing and heat.
FAQ
Three to four. One for the Prado and the old centre, one for the Reina Sofía and the Retiro, and one or two for day trips to Toledo and Segovia. Madrid has fewer must-see monuments than Barcelona or Seville, but the museums and the surrounding province easily justify four days.
They are different propositions. Barcelona has Gaudí, a medieval quarter and a beach, and is the easier first visit. Madrid has three of the world's great art collections within a kilometre, better and cheaper food, far better day trips, and a much stronger sense of being a working Spanish city rather than a destination. Art and eating favour Madrid; architecture and coastline favour Barcelona.
It offers free entry for the last two hours of each day, and so do the Reina Sofía and Thyssen. Those windows are crowded, particularly for Las Meninas and Guernica. A paid morning ticket costs about €15 and buys a substantially better visit — worth it unless you are on a tight budget.
Toledo, 33 minutes by AVE — a walled city on a granite spur above the Tagus where the cathedral, the synagogues and the mosque survive within a few hundred metres of one another, and where El Greco worked. Segovia, 27 minutes, is the strong alternative for its Roman aqueduct and roast suckling pig. Do one properly rather than both in a day.
April to June and September to October. Madrid sits at 650 m on a high plateau with a continental climate: July and August regularly reach 35–40°C, and winter nights drop near freezing. October is arguably the single best month — clear, 15–25°C, and the city fully back at work after the summer.
Yes, and it is unusually busy late — the centre is fuller at midnight than at eight, which is itself a safety factor. Petty theft exists around Sol, Gran Vía and on the metro, and is far less organised than in Barcelona. Normal precautions with bags and back pockets are enough.
Not weeks ahead, but a day or two helps at the Prado and Reina Sofía in high season, and a timed ticket lets you skip the entry queue. The Royal Palace is the one that most often has a long walk-up line. Nothing in Madrid sells out the way the Alhambra or Sagrada Família does.
Keep exploring
Places that pair well with Madrid, whether you have a few spare days or are building a longer route.
Andalusia, Spain
The heart of southern Spain, where flamenco, tapas and Holy Week processions are living traditions rather than performances, wrapped around a medieval core of white walls and orange trees.
Don't miss The Real Alcázar — an Islamic palace rebuilt by Christian kings in the same style, and still a working royal residence.
Explore Destination — SevilleAndalusia, Spain
A compact Andalusian city on the Guadalquivir holding one of the most astonishing interiors in the world, plus flower-filled patios and Spain's best cold soup.
Don't miss The Mezquita's hypostyle hall — 856 columns under red-and-white double arches, with a cathedral built into the middle of it.
Explore Destination — CórdobaCatalonia, Spain
Catalonia's capital pairs a dense Gothic core with the most ambitious modernista architecture in Europe, and puts a city beach at the end of the metro line.
Don't miss The Sagrada Família's stained glass at the right hour — blue-green in the morning, red-gold by late afternoon.
Explore Destination — BarcelonaÎle-de-France, France
France's capital packs more world-class museums, monuments and neighbourhood restaurants into six square miles than anywhere else in Europe. It rewards walking more than ticking off a list.
Don't miss The Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay and Sainte-Chapelle — three of Europe's great collections within one Métro ride of each other.
Explore Destination — ParisRead next
Planning
Most first European trips go wrong in the same three ways: too many cities, too little time in each, and a route shaped by a cheap flight rather than by geography. Here is how to avoid all three.
Transport
European rail is excellent and confusing — six national operators, three completely different pricing models, and a rail pass that is either a bargain or a waste depending on where you are going. Here is how to work out which.
Seasons
Southern Europe has one obvious peak season and one much better one. This is the month-by-month case for going in spring or early autumn — plus the handful of things that only happen in July and August.
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