MADRID · SPAIN
Prado mornings, tapas afternoons, flamenco nights.
The great galleries and the Royal Palace, tapas crawls through La Latina, flamenco after dark, and the day trips out to Toledo, Segovia and the vineyards beyond the city.
Only here
Three Madrid institutions you can’t see anywhere else.
Plenty of capitals have a great gallery, a royal palace and a famous football ground. Only Madrid has the Prado, the Palacio Real and the Bernabeu, all within a morning of each other.
The Golden Triangle
The Prado
No other gallery holds Spain like the Prado does. Velazquez and his Meninas, Goya light and dark, Bosch, El Greco, Titian and Rubens, hung in the rooms a king built for them. Skip-the-line tickets and guided walks through the highlights, a short stroll from the Retiro.
- 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 crown
The Royal Palace
The largest working royal palace in Western Europe, and the Spanish crown still uses it for the grand occasions. More than three thousand rooms of frescoed ceilings, the Throne Room, the Royal Armoury and Stradivarius violins, above the gardens that drop to the river.
- 1 Madrid: Royal Palace Fast-Access Admission Ticket
- 2 Madrid: Royal Palace Expert Guided Tour with Skip-the-Line
- 3 Madrid Essential: Historic Center, Plaza Mayor & Royal Palace
The Galacticos
The Bernabeu
The home of Real Madrid is a pilgrimage whatever your colours. The new Santiago Bernabeu wraps a steel skin around the old bowl, and the tour walks you through the trophy room, the tunnel, the dressing room and out pitchside under the tiers.
- 1 Madrid: Tour Bernabéu Entry Ticket
- 2 Madrid: Atlético de Madrid Stadium Entry
- 3 Madrid: Guided Tour of Bernabéu Stadium
Start here
Start with the one the whole city books.
If you only do a single thing in Madrid, the odds are it is this. More visitors build a day around it than anything else in the city.
The classics
Madrid’s Most Popular Experiences
The Prado and the Royal Palace, the flamenco tablaos, the rooftop city tours and the day trips into Castile. The Madrid most people come for.
Where to begin
The Madrid a first trip is built around.
The Prado, the Royal Palace, a tapas crawl and a flamenco night, plus the two day trips into Castile everyone takes. The handful of things most visits are planned around, and the best way to do each.
Beyond the city
Which day trip from Madrid?
Some of Castile’s greatest cities sit within an hour of the capital, and most trips fit at least one in. Which one depends on the time you have and whether you came for cathedrals, castles or kings.
Vinos de Madrid
The vineyards begin where the city ends.
Madrid keeps its own wine country, the DO Vinos de Madrid, in the granite hills south and west of town. Old-vine garnacha and tempranillo, cellar visits an hour from Sol, and the day trips that reach further to Ribera del Duero and Rioja. Back in the city, the vermut comes on tap in every old taberna.
Read the guide: the best wine tours and tastings in Madrid →The capital
From a Moorish watchtower to the Spanish capital.
Madrid grew from a fortress above the Manzanares into the seat of an empire, and the centre still reads that way: Habsburg squares, Bourbon palaces and the wide boulevards laid out for a modern city, all under the clear Castilian light the old masters painted.
See the city tours →La Latina and beyond
The city eats late, and it eats well.
The Madrid evening runs on small plates and short walks: jamon and croquetas down the Cava Baja, the stalls of the Mercado de San Miguel, a vermut before lunch and cocido madrileno when the weather turns. Guided crawls and market tours do the ordering for you, or learn to cook paella yourself.
See the food and tapas tours →After dark
Flamenco, the way Madrid stages it.
The art was born in the south, but the capital pulls the best dancers, singers and guitarists onto its tablao stages. An intimate room, a bottle of wine and an hour of foot-stamping duende, late, the way the city likes it. Show only, or with dinner first.
- 1 Madrid: “Emociones” Live Flamenco Performance
- 2 Madrid: Live Flamenco Show with Food and Drinks Options
- 3 Madrid: La Cueva de Lola Flamenco Show Tickets with Drink
By experience
Pick how to spend the day.
A gallery if you came for the art. A walking tour if you want the old centre on foot. Flamenco for the night, tapas for the afternoon, a vineyard or the Bernabeu if you have the time.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time in the city? A long weekend that hits the essentials without a wasted hour.
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