Guide

Madrid, Spain

A few days in Madrid

A capital that's lively and restful at once

Flight & transportHotelSightsMuseumsFood

Summer 2021, borders were beginning to reopen to tourists — a chance to discover a new European capital, Madrid. In the heart of Spain, a city both lively and restful, between architecture and parks.

✓ Visited in summer 2021

✎ The prices given are those of summer 2021: they have moved since, so check before booking.

Madrid

01Flight, transfer and getting around

Ryanair from Luxembourg: €90 per person, cabin bag and priority boarding included, for a 2h15 flight. Metro line 8 runs into the centre from the airport — you buy the card once, then top it up.

Rechargeable metro card (2021)€2

"Airport" supplement / person€3

10-journey ticket€12.70

✎ Travelling as a pair, share the same metro card at each gate — it's allowed, and it saves buying a second one. And explore the city on foot: you keep stumbling on things.

02Hotel

Booked ahead through Voyage Privé: the NH Collection Madrid Eurobuilding, in the Castellana district, a step from the Santiago Bernabéu stadium.

4 nights, breakfast included (2021)€262 / pers.

Nearest metro stationsCuzco · Colombia

03The must-sees

1. Plaza Mayor

Free

One of the most famous squares in Spain — once a place of bullfights, executions and public spectacle.

2. Palacio Real

Prices on the official site

Built between 1738 and 1764, after the fire that destroyed the old Alcázar on Christmas Eve 1734. With 3,400 rooms, it's the largest royal palace in Western Europe — bigger than Versailles or Buckingham. Close to the Royal Theatre and the Almudena cathedral.

3. Parque del Retiro

Free

Over 120 hectares, royal property until it became a public park in 1868 — the monument to Alfonso XII, rowing boats on the lake, and the Crystal Palace.

4. Cibeles Palace

Prices on the official site

The former Communications Palace, now the city hall — with CentroCentro and its panoramic terrace.

5. Royal Botanical Garden

€4 the garden · €6 with the Villanueva Pavilion (2021)

A step from the Retiro and the Cibeles Palace.

6. The Temple of Debod

Free

A genuine Egyptian temple from the 2nd century BC, dismantled stone by stone and rebuilt in Madrid. Best at sunrise or sunset, when it reflects in its pool.

7. Santiago Bernabéu stadium

€19 online (2021)

Opened in 1947, with over 80,000 seats. It was under construction when we visited, but the museum tracing the club's history is astonishing.

8. La Latina & Chueca

La Latina: narrow streets, alive day and night, the working heart of Madrid. Chueca: atmosphere and nightlife, the centre of Pride.

9. Círculo de Bellas Artes

Building free · €4 for the rooftop (2021)

A well-known multidisciplinary arts centre — be warned, the rooftop queue is long. The view over the Gran Vía from up there is the finest in the city.

10. Teatro Real

Ópera station · paid guided tours

Madrid's opera house, inaugurated in 1850 under Isabella II. Closed for decades over structural problems, it only reopened as an opera house in 1997. One side faces Plaza de Isabel II, the other Plaza de Oriente and the Royal Palace.

11. El Rastro

Sundays and public holidays, 9am-3pm

A famous flea market near La Latina station — its name comes from rastro de sangre, "trail of blood", left by the tanneries beside the old slaughterhouse.

✎ The Ópera metro station right outside holds a small free archaeological museum: building work uncovered the remains of a 17th-century fountain and an aqueduct, now visible behind glass from the platform.

✎ About the Temple of Debod. It was the temple, not the city, that faced flooding: the Aswan High Dam threatened dozens of monuments in Nubia. Egypt gave it to Spain in 1968, in thanks for Spanish help in saving the temples of Abu Simbel. It's one of the very few Egyptian temples on view outside Egypt.

✎ The Bernabéu has reopened. The building work we saw is finished: the stadium now has its steel shell, a retractable roof and a retractable pitch. The tour has been completely redesigned, and the price bears no resemblance to the €19 of 2021 — expect considerably more, and book online.

Palacio Real

Parque del Retiro

Cibeles Palace

Bernabéu stadium

Teatro Real

El Rastro

04The golden triangle of museums

You can't talk about Madrid without its three great museums, lined up along the Paseo del Prado. Together they form what's known as the golden triangle of art, and each opens its permanent collection free of charge at certain hours.

Museo del Prado

€15 · free Mon-Sat 6-8pm, Sun and holidays 5-7pm

One of the greatest painting collections on earth: Velázquez, Goya, Bosch, El Greco. Allow a whole morning if you love art, or use the free slot to see the essentials.

Museo Reina Sofía

Free Mon and Wed-Sat 7-9pm, Sun 12:30-2:30pm

20th-century art, and above all Picasso's Guernica, on the ground floor of the Sabatini building. The evening slot is the best time to stand in front of it without the crowd.

Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza

Permanent collection free all day Monday

The third point of the triangle, and the most approachable: eight centuries of European painting, from the Italian primitives to pop art.

✎ A coincidence, for a trip in summer 2021: on 25 July that year, the Paseo del Prado and Retiro Park were jointly inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, under the name "Landscape of Light". It's the first Madrid site on the list.

05Three places you walk past without thinking

Puerta del Sol

The true centre of the country: a slab in the pavement marks kilometre zero, the starting point of Spain's six national roads. It's also where the bear and the strawberry tree, the city's emblem, stands, and where Madrileños eat their twelve grapes on the twelfth stroke of midnight on 31 December.

Mercado de San Miguel

Beside the Plaza Mayor

A 1916 iron-and-glass market hall turned tapas market. Touristy and not cheap, but the building alone is worth a look.

Gran Vía

The avenue driven through the city in the early 20th century, lined with monumental buildings and theatres. Madrid's Broadway — walk it at night, when the signs light up.

06Where we ate

Pipa & Co

€€ · Paseo de la Habana, 105

Cosy-chic with plants everywhere, European cooking, vegetarian and gluten-free options.

Restaurante Rasputin

€€ · Calle de Yeseros, 2

Delicious Russian specialities, close to the Royal Palace.

Cinco Jotas

€€€ · C. del Padre Damián, 42

Near the Bernabéu — the house specialises in acorn-fed Iberian ham, which explains the price.

Viena Capellanes

€ · Calle de Ruiz de Alarcón, 9

Between the Retiro and the Royal Botanical Garden.

Nouba

€€ · Av. de Alberto Alcocer, 9

Near the Bernabéu, cosy setting, big terrace, all cuisines.

Café del Art

€ · La Latina district, near El Rastro

✎ A bonus: Chocolatería San Ginés, famous for its churros, a step from Puerta del Sol — Pasadizo de San Ginés, 5. It has been open 24 hours a day since 1894, and Madrileños mostly drop in at dawn, on their way home from a night out.

✎ Madrid eats late. Lunch is around 2pm, dinner rarely before 9pm — many kitchens don't even open before 8:30. Turning up at 7pm means sitting alone in an empty room.

Rasputin

Cinco Jotas

Viena Capellanes

Nouba

Café del Art

Chocolatería San Ginés

+Good to know

The summer heat

Madrid is the highest capital in Europe, at 650 metres, and summer is fierce: over 35°C by day in July and August, sometimes 40. Sightsee early and in the evening, and save the museums and the Retiro for the middle of the day.

The best time to go

Spring and autumn are far more pleasant. In August part of the city leaves and some businesses close.

Enjoy your stay!