Madrid
Madrid is a province with one great city in it, and that city is worth three or four days on its own: three major museums within a few hundred metres of each other, a working market culture, a nightlife that starts late and does not stop, and three royal day trips inside an hour, at El Escorial, Alcalá de Henares and Aranjuez. It is the most Spanish of the big cities, the one Spaniards move to, and the least romantic, which is much of its appeal. The trade is summer heat and a centre that is always busy.
How long this region actually takes
Three days covers the museums and the old town. Five adds the sierra and a day trip, which is where the city stops feeling like a capital and starts feeling like Spain.
Where to put your nights
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The questions that decide the trip
None. Madrid is the geographic centre of the country, about 350 kilometres from the nearest sea.
None — the nearest coast is Valencia or Alicante, around four hours by train. The city compensates with pools and the reservoirs of the sierra.
The Mercado de San Miguel is for looking; Antón Martín and San Fernando are for buying. Cocido madrileño, a squid sandwich, churros at dawn, and a restaurant scene that has moved well past its own clichés in the last decade.
The Royal Palace and the Habsburg quarter, the Prado and the Reina Sofía, the Civil War's scars in the sierra, and El Escorial, the monastery-palace fifty kilometres out that tells you what sixteenth-century Spain thought of itself.
Entirely unnecessary in the city, where the metro is one of the best in Europe, and trains reach El Escorial, Alcalá de Henares and Aranjuez. A car in central Madrid is a liability.
Only for the sierra: the passes of Guadarrama, La Pedriza, and the villages of the northern mountains.
March to June and September to November. October is the best month in the city; July and August are genuinely hot.
August, when the city is at 35 degrees and a good number of the restaurants you wanted are shut for the holiday. Also avoid the Prado at midday in high season — go at opening.
Five days in Madrid
Three days in the city, one for the Prado and the Retiro, one for the Royal Palace, La Latina and the Plaza Mayor, one for the Reina Sofía and the markets, then a day trip to El Escorial or Alcalá de Henares, and a last morning in Malasaña or Lavapiés before the train out. With a sixth day, add Aranjuez.
Where Madrid gets compared
Experiences worth booking ahead
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Everywhere in Madrid
- Cabalgata de Reyes (Madrid)
- Catedral de la Almudena
- Iglesia de San Antonio de los Alemanes
- Iglesia de San Jerónimo el Real
- Monasterio de El Escorial
- Museo del Prado
- Museo Sorolla
- Palacio Real de Aranjuez
- Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas
- Plaza Mayor de Madrid
- Puerta del Sol
- Reina Sofía Museum (Guernica)
- Royal Palace of Madrid
- Templo de Debod
- Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
- Universidad de Alcalá
The other regional guides
Turn Madrid into an actual itinerary
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