Madrid

Madrid is the easiest major Spanish city to visit spontaneously. The three great museums sit within ten minutes of each other, all three have free evening hours, and almost nothing here requires booking weeks ahead — with one royal exception.

This page compares live ticket prices and availability for Madrid attractions across our booking partners.

When to visit Madrid

April to June and September to October are the best months. Warm, dry, and the terraces are open without the summer heat.

July and August are genuinely hot — routinely above 35°C — and Madrid empties as residents leave for the coast. Many small businesses close for August. The museums stay open and are blissfully cool.

November to March is cold at night, mild by day, and cheap. Madrid winters are dry and sunny more often than not.

Madrid sits at 650 metres, which makes evenings cooler than the coast year-round.

The Golden Triangle of museums

Three world-class museums, walking distance apart, and all three have free hours.

The Prado — Spanish masters, Velázquez, Goya, Bosch. Free the last two hours before closing every day. The free window is busy but works.

Reina Sofía — twentieth-century art, and home to Picasso’s Guernica. Free most evenings and Sunday afternoons. Closed Tuesdays.

Thyssen-Bornemisza — the broadest collection of the three, private origin, covering eight centuries. Free on Monday afternoons for the permanent collection.

A combined Paseo del Arte ticket covers all three at a discount and is valid over a year. Worth it if you’re doing all three properly rather than in free windows.

Royal Palace

The largest functioning royal palace in Western Europe by floor area, and the one Madrid attraction that genuinely needs planning.

It closes without notice for official ceremonies. Check the official calendar before booking anything around it.

The Royal Armoury is included and is one of the best collections of its kind anywhere.

Changing of the guard happens on Wednesdays and Saturdays at midday, with a larger ceremony on the first Wednesday of the month.

Free entry applies in the final hours for EU citizens, which creates long queues.

Retiro Park and the city

El Retiro is the city’s great park, free and open, with the Crystal Palace and the boating lake. Sunday afternoons here are one of the better free experiences in Madrid.

Plaza Mayor and the surrounding streets are where the old city concentrates. Mercado de San Miguel beside it is touristed and expensive but genuinely good.

Santiago Bernabéu, the Real Madrid stadium, runs tours that book out around fixtures. Match tickets themselves are a separate matter and go through the club.

Booking ahead vs walking up

Madrid is unusually forgiving compared with Barcelona or Rome. Most things can be booked the same week.

Day trips

Toledo is 33 minutes by high-speed train and the most rewarding day trip — a walled medieval city on a hill. Half a day minimum, a full day ideally.

Segovia takes under half an hour by train and has the Roman aqueduct and the castle that inspired Disney’s.

Both are easy independently by train and don’t need a tour.

Getting around

The metro is extensive, cheap and clean. A rechargeable card works across metro and buses.

The centre is walkable — Plaza Mayor to the Prado is fifteen minutes through the middle of the city.

Madrid eats late. Restaurants fill from 9pm and kitchens often don’t open before 8:30. Planning dinner for 7pm means eating alone in an empty room.

A first-timer’s three days

Day one — old Madrid. Plaza Mayor, Mercado de San Miguel, Royal Palace in the afternoon, tapas in La Latina in the evening.

Day two — the museums. Prado in the morning, lunch, Reina Sofía in the afternoon, Retiro Park at sunset.

Day three — Toledo or the city. Early train to Toledo for the day, or Thyssen in the morning and Malasaña and Chueca in the afternoon.