Travel 101
Your Guide to Madrid
The Spanish capital is riding high. Perched 2,000 feet above sea level, the landlocked city was sometimes treated as a stopping point for travelers heading to coastal cities such as Barcelona or Marbella. No longer. Madrid is one of the most visited cities in Europe, and has slipped past Miami as the unofficial offshore capital of Latin America, luring expats from Spain’s former colonies.
This guide provides what you need to know to plan your inaugural trip — and future visits — to Madrid, helping you sample the best of this art-dense, culinarily rich and friendly city. There are the essential charms like the Prado and Reina Sofía museums or Plaza Mayor, plus new directions worth exploring — think Mexican cuisine or a burgeoning barrio of artist’s studios. Madrid evolved as a nexus of neighborhoods drifting into one another, giving it a distinctive offbeat beauty and a hodgepodge of architecture that hints at the personality of each barrio.
More Travel 101
From must-have experiences to the most frequently asked questions, our guides to Rome, Paris, London and Tokyo will prepare you, whether it’s a first journey or a return visit.
What to Do
The Essentials
Parks, monuments, museums and social traditions amply convey the city’s richness and charm.
Museo del Prado
Time for just one museum? Make it the Museo del Prado and go straight into the museum collection galleries. Though the Prado’s treasures belonged to Spanish kings and queens, it’s often been called “the painter’s museum” as artists including Rubens, Manet, Sargent and Francis Bacon all traveled to Madrid specifically to admire (and copy) the paintings on its walls. It doesn’t require a whole day, but you should visit for at least an hour to get a sense of its masterpieces.
Tip: Buy tickets online in advance. Go at lunchtime (2 p.m.) or at 7 p.m. for the last hour when entry is free.
“Tapear” through the city
“Tapear” means to eat tapas — small plates of food for sharing — from marinated olives or slices of cured ham to tomato salads or shrimp tails simmered in garlicky oil. Spaniards go with the flow when socializing, ordering as a group and then sharing it all, over drinks and loud conversation. Certain streets — Cava Baja in La Latina or Ponzano in Chamberí — are lined with restaurants, so you can go door to door, sampling along the way.
Tip: Do a tapas crawl with a local expert far from the tourist hubs.
Royal legacy
The Patrimonio Nacional is the steward of the palaces, convents, art collections, carriages, gardens and other former holdings of the Spanish royal family. Built on the spot where Madrid was founded, the Royal Palace and Royal Collections Gallery are certainly the most accessible treasure troves of royal art and history. But five more palaces await within about an hour of the city.
Tip: Book a ticket for a combined entry to the palace and museum online to avoid lines, and visit in late afternoon for royally fabulous sunset views.
Parque de El Retiro
One could spend an entire day in Retiro Park, a vast and verdant refuge in the heart of the city that combines the manicured elegance of a royal garden (which it once was) with vast swaths of tree-shaded paths for strolling. There are cafes, fountains, restaurants, playgrounds, rowboats, rose gardens and even a statue of the Fallen Angel, a source of great local pride.
Tip: Get your steps in by walking or jogging the Retiro perimeter — almost a perfect 5K course.
Historic City Center
Stroll the city’s historic center. In 1562, Spain’s King Philip II declared Madrid to be the capital of his vast empire. Discover some of its most evocative historic buildings — the Torre de Lujanes and Casa de Cisneros on Plaza de la Villa and the churches of San Isidro and San Miguel — amid the tangle of streets around Plaza Mayor.
Tip: Take a seat at El Anciano Rey de los Vinos for a vermouth, some olives and the view of the palace and cathedral.
Madrid Rio
In 2011, a new six-mile park known as Madrid Rio was born when the M30 highway was put underground. The sprawling park has something for everyone — huge slides, ziplines, playgrounds for kids of all ages, fountains that create an urban beach in summer, skate parks and jogging paths. Adjacent neighborhoods can be reached on foot across stunning pedestrian bridges old and new.
Tip: In the south, the park ends at Matadero, former slaughterhouses that have been turned into theaters, museums and a family entertainment center.
Top Attractions
From globally adored sports teams to world-class art museums, Madrid has something for everyone.
CentroCentro
Madrid’s City Hall presides over Plaza de Cibeles, the city’s spiritual center and most iconic intersection. In addition to the city government, the stunningly ornate 1919 building houses CentroCentro, an arts center with two rooftop terraces from which to admire city views, ideally with a gin and tonic in hand at Azotea Cibeles.
Tip: Similar views can be had at the nearby art center known as the Circulo de Bellas Artes.
Chocolate con churros
Lots of cafes offer churros, crispy sticks of fried dough, to be dipped in thick melted chocolate, but the most famous are from Chocolatería San Ginés, a local institution founded in 1894. Churros and chocolate are a staple of Spanish breakfasts, afternoon snacks and late-night hangover-avoidance efforts.
Tip: Don’t miss the neighboring Church of San Ginés looming over the passageway, Pasadizo de San Ginés, separating church and chocolatería.
Santiago Bernabéu Stadium
Home turf for the storied Real Madrid soccer team, the nearly 84,000-seat stadium has a new stainless-steel louvered facade and offers 90-minute tours of its state-of-the-art facilities, including the retractable grass field, the locker rooms, the expansive multimedia museum and the gleaming trophy display.
Tip: The face-lift included a Starbucks and a Mahou beer hall that feature views of the field (on non-match days) and a large food court called Bernabéu Market.
Templo de Debod
A gift from Egypt to Spain, this second-century B.C. temple was rescued from the flooding Nile basin in the 1960s and now crowns a hill in Madrid’s leafy Parque del Oueste. Get advance tickets online to see the interior chambers.
Tip: Madrileños come for gorgeous sunset views and then hit the terrace restaurants, like Kiosko Moret on Calle Pintor Rosales, for a vermouth and some tapas.
Museo Naval
Eight centuries of Spanish naval might are celebrated in high style at this vast gallery of impressive model ships and portraits of maritime lore. With highly evocative displays — dioramas of battle scenes, uniforms, cannons, torpedoes, even a captain’s cabin from a sailing ship — it’s a home run for families with kids.
Tip: Across the Paseo del Prado, the Bank of Spain offers tours showcasing its amazing architecture and art collection.
Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando
Spain’s official art academy is an under-sung hero of Madrid’s evolution as a world art capital. Paintings and sculptures by five centuries’ worth of Spanish masters line its sprawling neoclassical galleries.
El Rastro
Madrid’s centuries-old flea market draws a huge crowd. On Sunday mornings and official holidays, hundreds of temporary stalls — selling everything from used CDs to cow hides — line its plazas and run along the main drag, Calle Ribera de Curtidores. As the market winds down, area restaurants — including trendy cafes with sunny terraces and standing-room-only sandwich bars — heat up.
Tip: To avoid the Sunday throngs, shop the galleries on Saturday and weekday mornings until 2 p.m.
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza
Madrid is indisputably an art capital, but a lot of the art is Spanish. With masterpieces by Dutch, French, Italian, British and American artists from one of the greatest private collections of the 20th century, the Thyssen, as it’s known locally, balances the scales a bit.
Tip: Its museum shop is one of the best in Madrid, with lots of unique and clever products; it can be visited without paying museum admission.
Teatro Real
Opposite the Royal Palace, the Royal Theater hosts the city’s premier opera, ballet, flamenco and other art forms worth indulging in. And daytime behind-the-scenes tours pull back the curtain on the technological marvels of 21st-century stagecraft.
Tip: The cheapest tickets are in an area called El Paraiso (heaven) because the space is so high above the stage. Even so, devotees say the acoustics there are the best.
Museo Reina Sofía
Spain’s foremost national museum of modern and contemporary art is home to some of the 20th century’s greatest artistic movements, such as Cubism and Surrealism. The innovative museum’s most notable masterpiece is Picasso’s monumental painting “Guernica,” which graphically and movingly portrays the horrors of war.
Get on Local Time
Spanish mealtimes are notoriously late (2 to 4 p.m. for lunch; 9 to 11 p.m. for dinner) and bars and clubs can be desolate until after midnight. To enjoy the vibrancy and fun of the city, fight the urge to maintain your normal schedule. Satisfy hunger pangs with a traditional Spanish aperitivo — a pre-meal drink and some savory snacks. Then channel your inner Ernest Hemingway or Ava Gardner and stay out to the small hours. No need for early rising. Mornings start slow in Spain, with museums, shops and other sites usually open until 8 or 9 p.m.
Neighborhoods
From the granite and brick 17th-century palaces of “old Madrid” to the curlicue iron balconies and fanciful turrets of 19th-century apartment buildings, architecture reveals the character of many neighborhoods.
Barrio de Salamanca
Bustling day and night, Madrid’s most upscale central neighborhood is also a high-end shopping mecca centered on Calle Serrano and Calle Ortega y Gasset. It’s also home to luxury hotels and an ever-growing array of stylish international restaurants, bars and bakeries, many reflecting the influence of well-heeled Latin Americans establishing a foothold in this corner of the city. Tree-shaded sidewalks and its proximity to popular museums, as well as the Retiro and other parks, make it easy and safe to navigate with children and strollers.
Best for: Families, fashionistas, gastronomes
Where to stay:Hotel Bless ($$$)
Things to do:Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Museo Lázaro Galdiano, Shop at Lander Urquijo, Mica Maffei, WOW!
Where to eat and drink:La Bien Aparecida ($$), Jurucha (tapas pintxos, $), La Giralda ($$), Café de la March ($)
Almagro/Chamberí
This residential area is as chic and elegant as Salamanca but with a quieter vibe and less frenetic consumerist energy. Embassies, cultural foundations, art galleries, cool shops and artisan ateliers line the streets. There are playgrounds and outdoor dining around Plaza de Olavide, and small, kid-friendly museums with dinosaur fossils or fancy dresses are nearby.
Best for: Families, bons vivants, style mavens
Where to stay:Hotel Orfila ($$$)
Things to do:Fundación Cristina Masaveu Petersen ($), Museo Geominero (free), Ivory Press ($$)
Where to eat and drink:La Parra ($$), Fismuler ($$), Vaqueria Montañesa ($$), Hermanos Vinagre ($)
Malasaña/Conde Duque
This once-gritty neighborhood is now dense with cafes, bars, hair salons and vintage stores. A jumble of narrow streets converges on Plaza Dos de Mayo, which is lined with cafes, bars and restaurants with tons of outdoor seating, making it a popular hangout for hipsters and university students.
Best for: Artsy types and self-styled cool kids
Where to stay:7 Islas ($$), Hostel Bastardo ($)
Things to do:Centro Conde Duque ($), Palacio de Liria ($), Monasterio de las Comendadoras de Santiago ($), Parque del Oeste
Where to eat and drink:Café Comercial ($), Casa Fidel ($$), Chinchín ($), Santa María Coctelería ($)
Chamartín/Prosperidad
What this area lacks in quaint architectural charm it makes up for in the creative energy of its shops, restaurants and quirky Modernist churches. For a younger, edgier vibe, venture into the streets behind the Auditorio Nacional to explore the rapidly transforming adjacent neighborhood of Prosperidad.
Best for: Bons vivants, style mavens, gastronomes
Where to stay: NH Collection Madrid Eurobuilding ($$)
Things to do:Bernabéu Stadium ($$), Parque de Berlin, Residencia de Estudiantes (free)
Where to eat and drink: 99 Sushi Bar ($$), DiverXO ($$$), Samm for paella ($$), El Qüenco de Pepa ($)
Chueca/Salesas
Practically abandoned in the 1980s-90s, Chueca is now a fixture of Madrid’s design and restaurant scene, bursting with restaurants, art galleries, design collectives and shops. With its colorful facades and tree-lined streets, the area around tiny Plaza de las Salesas is often ranked among the chicest shopping areas in Europe for local design.
Best for: Art lovers, style mavens, gastronomes
Where to stay:Urso Hotel & Spa ($$)
Things to do:Museo del Romanticismo ($), Museo de la Ciudad de Madrid (free), Ecoalf ($$), Mad Is Mad ($)
Where to eat and drink:Aredna ($4), Frida ($$), Del Diego ($), Cervecería Santa Bárbara ($)
Barrio de Las Letras/Lavapiés
These two central Madrid neighborhoods, bordering Calle Atocha, are easily visited together. Letras, opposite the Prado Museum, was home to Golden Age figures including Miguel de Cervantes, the author of “Don Quixote,” and features vintage shops, cafes, designers and artisans. Lavapies is known as Madrid’s most multicultural area, reflected in its diverse restaurants, bars and galleries.
Best for: Students, style mavens, gastronomes
Where to stay: Cool Rooms Atocha ($$)
Things to do:Museo Reina Sofía, Casa Encendida (free), CaixaForum ($), Rastro flea market, Filmoteca ($)
Where to eat and drink:Los Chuchis ($), Mercado de Antón Martín ($), El Boquerón ($), Cafe Barbieri ($), Llardy ($$)
Go Deeper
With a little extra time and interest, you can immerse yourself in many different aspects of the city’s distinctive character.
Mercado de San Antón offers delicacies to sample.
Shopping
So many top-quality artisanal products are still made in Spain — shoes, leather goods, textiles, clothing, ceramics, olive oil — that shopping can often turn up endless surprises.
Candy made from sugar and the essence of violets at La Violeta.
Where to Stay
Hotels
Madrid has a broad selection of wonderful moderately priced hotels, though high-season rates rarely dip below 200 euros. New luxury hotels have recently opened near the Puerta del Sol area.
Club Metrópolis, a 19-room boutique hotel, recently opened in the triangular Beaux-Arts Metrópolis Building.
Where to Eat and Drink
Breakfast and Lunch
Madrileños are embracing the morning meal like never before. Come lunchtime (2 p.m.), many restaurants will offer a reasonably priced special two- or three-course lunch menu known as the “menu del dia” that showcases seasonal produce and their signature dishes.
Lunch at Malacatín, founded in 1895.
Tapas 101: The Classics
Jamón ibérico and jamón serrano are different categories of cured ham and may turn up thinly sliced on a plate for eating with your fingers or finely cubed to garnish vegetables and chilled soups like gazpacho.
Croquetas are small breaded and fried balls of béchamel flecked with ham, chicken or mushrooms.
Gildas (pronounced heel-das) are little skewers piercing an olive, an anchovy and a small mildly spicy pepper.
Ensaladilla rusa is mayonnaise-y potato salad with tuna, peas, chopped egg and carrots — and all manner of other ingredients. Tortilla española is a hearty potato omelet (made with or without onion).
Dinner
While the city’s culinary scene once stuck to old standards like steakhouses, today’s dining scene is wildly adventurous, international and dedicated to showcasing the bounty of Spanish farms, fields and seas.
Servers preparing for dinner at Desde 1911.
Bars
Bars are everywhere in Spain, even in hospitals and funeral parlors. While getting drunk is considered bad form, enjoying a well-made drink is one of life’s simple pleasures.
Bartender Javier Rufo prepares a dry martini at Bar Cock.
The Basics
Do I need a visa?
American passport holders currently do not need a visa to visit Spain if traveling for fewer than 90 days. But by late 2026, American travelers will need an electronic travel authorization via the European Travel Information and Authorization System.What is the best time of year to visit?
September to December and late February to June. Madrid is enjoyable in all four seasons, as winters can be short and alleviated by brilliant daytime sunshine. Summers are very hot, and many restaurants and shops close for vacation in August.What currency is used?
The euro. Mastercard and Visa are widely accepted, as is, to a lesser extent, American Express. Phone-based payment apps are commonly accepted — even for purchases as small as a bottle of water. Have some cash and coins handy for quick transactions or to leave small tips. Local A.T.M.s are plentiful.Do I need an adapter?
Yes, you will need a plug adapter for Spain’s Type C and F outlets.Is tipping required? How much for taxis, restaurants, hotel housekeeping?
Tipping is not required. However, it’s common to leave small change at cafes or round up the bill a euro or two for good service at casual restaurants. For fine-dining establishments, a 5 to 10 percent tip is appreciated. If paying by credit card in restaurants and bars, ask to add the tip before swiping your card. Rounding up to the nearest euro for taxis is typical, and up to 10 euros for hotel housekeeping.Is it safe to drink the tap water?
Absolutely. Madrid’s tap water is excellent, and by law, hotels and restaurants must serve it to guests who request “agua del grifo” (water from the tap). Merely asking for “agua,” or water, will probably have you paying for a small bottle of mineral water. The city has about 1,500 public water fountains where you can fill up your own reusable water bottle.Which airport should I fly into?
Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD), just northeast of the city.How do I get from the airport to central Madrid?
Madrid Metro’s Line 8 connects the airport to central Madrid (Nuevos Ministerios) in about 20 minutes. A one-way trip to that central station starts at 4.50 euros. A taxi from Barajas Airport to central Madrid (any destination inside the M-30 ring road, about a 20- to 40-minute ride depending on distance and traffic) is a fixed 33 euros. Fares for ride-hailing options depend on time of day and demand.Do I need to rent a car? How easy is it to take public transportation?
No need to rent a car. Central Madrid is walkable (though there are some hidden hills) and has a vast network of clean and safe transit options, including metro, bus, taxi or bike. For those looking to explore outside the city, the roads are easy to navigate, and common destinations have clear signage. Most of those popular sites can be reached on public transit.Does Uber exist? What are other local ride-share options?
Uber and Bolt are popular ride-share options. The city’s official taxis (available when the green light is illuminated) are sometimes faster because they are permitted to use bus lanes.Is there a dress code for restaurants, museums and other sites?
Outside of the most upscale restaurants and clubs, few places specify standards of dress. To feel more like a local, remember that Spaniards typically dress for the season, not the weather. No matter how warm it may be at midday, Madrileños don’t wear sandals, shorts or tank tops outside of summer.Are the streets safe at night?
Crowded plazas, parks or places that draw large numbers of tourists can lure pickpockets day or night, so visitors should always be attentive and aware of their surroundings. Because Spaniards do so much of their socializing “en la calle” (in the street), Madrid is generally a safe city for a stroll at virtually any hour.
