Madrid
Three museums on one boulevard, and a day that runs until midnight
- When to go
- September 20° · 8 rainy days
- Per day
- €€€€price 4 of 5
- How many days
- 3–4days
- For you
- 6 questions →
- Nearest airport
- 14 km Madrid
- Right now
Madrid takes three or four days: two for the three museums on the Paseo del Prado, arranged around their free hours and closing days, one for the old town and the palace, and a fourth for Toledo, 33 minutes away by fast train. There's no sea and no single icon; there's a rhythm in which lunch runs from two to four and dinner starts after nine.
The Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen-Bornemisza stand on the same boulevard but don't keep the same days: the Prado opens on Mondays, the Reina Sofía closes on Tuesdays, and the Thyssen is free on Mondays from 12 to 4pm for the permanent collection only. So Monday and Tuesday aren't spent on the same museum.
The city's rhythm arranges the day for you: the Prado's free slot runs until closing, and Madrid dines between nine and half past ten. Museum, then dinner, isn't a rush in Madrid but the natural order.
Guides for Madrid
Shorter, practical pages for one concrete question each — how many days, how much money, where to sleep, where to escape the city.
Madrid in 3 days
→The Prado, old Madrid and the Retiro in three days — with the museums in the evening, when they are free and empty.
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What to see in Madrid
The Prado Museum
Velázquez, Goya and Bosch under one roof; entry is €15, free Monday to Saturday 6–8pm and on Sundays 5–7pm. The queue forms before the slot opens but moves — two hours is right for three painters, not for the whole museum.
The Reina Sofía
Modern art built around Picasso's Guernica of 1937. Entry is €12, and in the evening it's free with a slot booked on the museum's site. Worth coming for one painting.
The Thyssen-Bornemisza
A private collection covering what the Prado and the Reina Sofía don't — from early Italians to the Impressionists and twentieth-century American painting. For anyone with time for one museum who wants a cross-section of seven centuries of painting.
The Retiro and the Paseo del Prado
The 125-hectare park and the museum boulevard were inscribed together on UNESCO's list in 2021 as a landscape of arts and sciences. The glass Palacio de Cristal of 1887 is free; the park is a break between two museums, not a day of its own.
The Royal Palace
The largest palace in Western Europe — over 135,000 m² and 3,418 rooms; the official residence for state ceremonies, while the king lives at the Zarzuela. Entry is €18; the free hours Monday to Thursday are for EU citizens only.
- T
Toledo
The old city on a rock above the Tagus, 33 minutes by Avant train from Atocha, with departures every hour to hour and a half. The fourth day; with three, it's Toledo or a second museum day.
Two things you probably did not know
Sobrino de Botin has been open since 1725 and the Guinness book lists it as the oldest restaurant in the world in continuous operation. The wood oven in which it roasts suckling pig has not been let go out since it opened.
Madrid is the highest capital in the European Union, at around 650 metres above sea level. That is where its dry, sharp weather comes from, which locals sum up as nine months of winter and three of hell.
Ready for Madrid?
Within reach from here
Places sorted by straight-line distance from Madrid — day trips or weekends.
Spain
→A country where dinner is at ten and the city wakes up as everywhere else turns the lights off
Portugal
→A country that spent centuries looking at the ocean instead of the Europe behind it
France
→From Paris the TGV reaches Lyon, Bordeaux and Strasbourg in about two hours — France is chosen by direction, not by city
All 277 places we write about sit on one page — narrow them down by continent, country, price or what you are travelling for.
Within reach from here: Cuenca, Albarracín and Valencia
See how much of that actually suits you — or pin Madrid if you have been.
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