Madrid: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Madrid did not grow into a capital — it was appointed one. In 1561 Philip the Second moved the court here from Toledo, to a town of twelve thousand people with no river, no port and no economic reason. He chose it because it sits at the exact centre of the map, and because it had no past of its own to compete with the crown. Everything here was built after that decision. Two hours.
A short history of Madrid
In the 9th century Emir Muhammad I of Córdoba built a fortress called Mayrit on a hill above the River Manzanares. In 1085 Alfonso VI of Castile captured it, and for centuries Madrid remained a middling town. In 1561 Philip II moved the royal court here, and it has been the capital of Spain ever since. The Prado Museum opened in 1819. Between 1936 and 1939 the city was besieged by Franco's forces in the Civil War. On 11 March 2004 191 people were killed in bombings on commuter trains.
The ten best sights in Madrid
1Museo del PradoFree from six in the evening, and it is not enough time
2Reina SofíaGuernica is here. Free from seven, and closed Tuesdays
3Thyssen-BornemiszaA baron’s private collection, bought by Spain in 1993
4Palacio Real3,418 rooms, and the king does not live in it
5Almudena CathedralBegun in 1883, finished in 1993, and consecrated by a pope
6Templo de DebodAn Egyptian temple from 200 BC, given to Spain in 1968. Free
7Real Academia de Bellas ArtesThirteen Goyas, €8, and nobody is ever in it
8Museo SorollaThe painter’s own house and garden, left as it was
9Museo CerralboA marquis’s house with everything still in place
10Museo ArqueológicoThe Lady of Elche, and a copy of Altamira underground
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Madrid →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Madrid:
Free walking tours in Madrid
The Capital by Decree
Madrid did not grow into a capital — it was appointed one. In 1561 Philip the Second moved the court here from Toledo, to a town of twelve thousand people with no river, no port and no economic reason. He chose it because it sits at the exact centre of the map, and because it had no past of its own to compete with the crown. Everything here was built after that decision. Two hours.
- Puerta del Sol · A slab in the pavement marks kilometre zero: every road in Spain is numbered from this exact point, and the six national highways still radiate from it. The clock above has rung in the new year for the whole country since 1962 — twelve grapes, one on each chime.
- Plaza Mayor · Closed on all four sides with nine arched gateways, which is the point: it could be sealed. Bullfights, coronations, football and executions by the Inquisition all happened in it, and fifty thousand people could be shut inside to watch.
- Palacio Real · Three thousand four hundred and eighteen rooms, the largest royal palace in western Europe — and no royal has lived in it since 1931. The old wooden fortress burned on Christmas Eve 1734, and Philip the Fifth ordered the new one built entirely of stone and brick so it could never burn again.
- Sabatini Gardens · These were the royal stables until 1933, when the new republic tore them down and gave the ground to the public. The garden faces west, which makes it the place Madrid comes to watch the sun go down behind the mountains.
- Teatro Real · It stands on a square that was a lake, and the ground never forgave it: the building sank, cracked and was closed for thirty-five years from 1925. When it finally reopened in 1997 its stage machinery went eighteen metres down into the old lakebed.
- Gran Vía · Three hundred and twelve buildings were demolished and fourteen streets vanished entirely to cut this one through, between 1910 and 1931. It was Madrid’s answer to Broadway, and during the civil war the shelling was so accurate that people called it Howitzer Avenue.
The Golden Triangle
Three museums in one kilometre, holding between them one of the strongest collections on earth — because it is the private collection of a royal family that married well for four hundred years, not a state’s purchases. And at the end of the kilometre hangs the one painting in the world with its own guards. Two and a half hours.
- Museo del Prado · Las Meninas is not a portrait of the princess — the king and queen are the subject, and they are only in the mirror at the back. Velázquez painted himself at the easel, looking out at them, and so at you, which makes the viewer stand exactly where the king stood.
- CaixaForum · An old power station lifted off the ground so the building appears to float, with a vertical garden of fifteen thousand plants on the wall beside it. Entry is three euros and most people walk past without looking up.
- Reina Sofía · Guernica was painted in five weeks in 1937 and then kept in New York for forty-two years, because Picasso refused to let it come to Spain while Franco lived. It arrived in 1981 and hung behind bulletproof glass with armed guards until 1995.
- Thyssen-Bornemisza · A steel baron’s family collected what the Prado has none of — Dutch, German, Impressionist, American. Eight countries bid for it in the 1980s, and Spain won partly because the baron’s wife was Spanish and wanted it here.
- Retiro Park · Royal grounds until 1868, and the only part of the old palace still standing is the ballroom, which is now a museum hall. Rowing boats have been for hire on the lake since 1900, and they are rowed badly by everyone.
- Atocha · When the station was rebuilt the old iron hall was kept and filled with four thousand tropical plants and a pond with turtles in it — people leave them there, and nobody takes them away. The 2004 bombing memorial stands outside.
The Quarters That Drink
In Madrid you do not sit down to a meal — you stand, eat one thing and move to the next place. It is called a tapeo, and it is a method rather than a snack: a round of five bars is dinner. In these three quarters the whole round is walkable, and each has one bar that sells one thing only. Two hours, and not before nine.
- La Latina · The oldest part of Madrid, built on the Moorish town the Christians took in 1085, which is why the streets bend. On Sunday after the flea market the whole quarter stands outside with a drink, and the street is the bar.
- Calle Cava Baja · The name means lower ditch — it was the moat outside the medieval wall, filled in and built on. Three hundred metres long, about thirty bars, and the rule is one drink and one dish in each, then out.
- El Rastro · The name means the trail — of blood, from the slaughterhouse that stood at the top of the hill and dragged hides down to the tanneries below. It has run every Sunday since the sixteenth century, and it stops at three.
- Lavapiés · The medieval Jewish quarter, and the name is said to come from the fountain where feet were washed before entering the synagogue. It is now the most mixed district in Spain — a hundred and twenty nationalities in half a square kilometre.
- Barrio de las Letras · Cervantes, Lope de Vega and Quevedo all lived within these few streets, and their lines are set into the pavement in brass. Cervantes is buried in the convent on Calle Lope de Vega — his bones were found there in 2015, mixed with others.
- Malasaña · When Franco died in 1975 everything that had been forbidden for forty years came out at once, and it came out here: the Movida. Almodóvar started in these bars. The square is named after a fifteen-year-old girl shot by French troops in 1808.
Getting to Madrid and getting around
- Barajas Airport · Metro line 8 is €5 to the centre, 30 minutes
- Atocha · A tropical garden inside the old station hall
- Chamartín · Trains north, and the night train to Lisbon left from here
Cheap eats in Madrid
Eight counters where Madrid eats standing. A chocolate shop open since 1894 that has never closed its doors, not for one night, a bar that sells one cod fritter and nothing else since 1860, and a tavern with the oldest shopfront in the city. In Madrid a round of five bars is dinner, and it does not start before nine.
- Chocolatería San Ginés · €5, open all night, every night
- Casa Labra · €1.70 each, and you eat it outside
- Casa Revuelta · The owner debones the cod himself every morning. €3.50
- Taberna Antonio Sánchez · Closed Sunday evening. Vermouth from the barrel
- Bodega de la Ardosa · 1892, six people fit inside, and the tortilla is the thing
- El Tigre · A drink comes with a plate of free food. It is why it is full
- Casa Toni · Offal, standing, and nobody in there is a tourist
- Mercado de Vallehermoso · A real neighbourhood market with ten kitchens in it
Museums in Madrid
- Museo del Prado · €15, free from six, and closed at eight
- Reina Sofía · €12, free from seven, and closed on Tuesdays
- Thyssen-Bornemisza · €13, and it fills the gaps the other two leave
- Real Academia de Bellas Artes · €8, and almost nobody knows it is there
- Museo Sorolla · €3, his own house, and the garden he designed
- Museo Arqueológico · €3, and a full-size copy of Altamira in the basement
- San Antonio de la Florida · Free. Goya painted the dome and is buried under it
Parks and gardens in Madrid
- Retiro Park · Free, and the glass palace inside it is free too
- Templo de Debod · Free, and it is where Madrid watches the sunset
- Madrid Río · A motorway buried in tunnels, and a park laid on top
- Casa de Campo · Royal hunting ground until 1931. Five times Central Park
- Real Jardín Botánico · €6, next door to the Prado, and silent
- Parque del Oeste · Thirty thousand roses in May, and the temple at its edge
Things to do in Madrid with kids
- Museo de Ciencias Naturales · €7, and a full elephant and a giant sloth in one hall
- Zoo Aquarium · Pandas, and a cable car runs to the gate
- Parque de Atracciones · In Casa de Campo, and cheaper than the big parks
- Faunia · Eight climates under glass, including a snow room
- Estanque del Retiro · €6 for a rowing boat for forty-five minutes
- Matadero · Free, and most of the programme is made for children
Live music in Madrid
- Café Central · €15-20 at the door, every night of the year
- Sala El Sol · Open since 1979, and the Movida happened in it
- Joy Eslava · A theatre from 1872, open every night since 1981
- Auditorio Nacional · Tickets from €10, and the acoustics are the reason
- Teatro Real · Restricted-view seats are €12 and the sound is the same
- Teatro Kapital · Seven floors, seven kinds of music, one building
Nightlife in Madrid
- La Latina · Sunday from two in the afternoon, and the street is the bar
- Malasaña · Where the Movida happened, and it still behaves that way
- Chueca · Open late, mixed, and the Pride week is the largest in Europe
- Plaza de Santa Ana · Terraces on all four sides, and a hotel bar above them
- Plaza Dos de Mayo · The square Malasaña drinks in, and it is free to sit
- Círculo de Bellas Artes · €5 to the roof, and it is open until one in the morning
Frequently asked questions about Madrid
What is there to see in Madrid?
The top sights in Madrid are Museo del Prado, Reina Sofía and Thyssen-Bornemisza. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Madrid?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Madrid without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Madrid?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Madrid, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The Capital by Decree.
How do you get to Madrid and get around?
The main ways are Barajas Airport, Atocha and Chamartín. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Madrid, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Madrid that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Madrid for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.