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Madrid itinerary

Every place in “12 Top Things to Do in Madrid, Spain”. Save places in the guide to make this list yours.

  1. 1

    Prado Museum - The World's Greatest Painting Collection

    The Museo del Prado holds the most important Spanish painting collection in the world plus an unrivalled European masters wing. Velazquez's Las Meninas, Goya's Black Paintings, Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, El…

    Address
    Calle Ruiz de Alarcon 23, 28014 Madrid
    Nearest transit
    Banco de Espana (Metro Line 2) or Atocha (Line 1), 5-min walk
  2. 2

    Royal Palace of Madrid - Europe's Largest Functioning Palace

    The Palacio Real is the largest functioning royal palace in Europe by floor area - 135,000 sq m and 3,418 rooms over 5 floors, designed in 1735 by Filippo Juvarra and Giovanni Battista Sacchetti for King Felipe V. The…

    Address
    Calle de Bailen, 28071 Madrid
    Nearest transit
    Opera (Metro Line 2, 5, R), 1-min walk
  3. 3

    Retiro Park - The Heart of Madrid

    El Retiro is Madrid's biggest central park - 125 hectares of formal gardens, rose beds (15,000 plants), the Palacio de Cristal (a 19th-century glass exhibition pavilion), the Estanque Grande lake (where you can rent…

    Address
    Plaza de la Independencia, 28001 Madrid
    Nearest transit
    Retiro (Metro Line 2), 1-min walk to main gate
  4. 4

    Plaza Mayor - The 17th-Century Royal Square

    Plaza Mayor is Madrid's grand 17th-century royal square - a 129 by 94 metre rectangle ringed by 4-storey red-brick arcaded buildings on three sides and the Casa de la Panaderia (Bakery House, 1590) on the fourth. The…

    Address
    Plaza Mayor, 28012 Madrid
    Nearest transit
    Sol (Metro Lines 1, 2, 3), 5-min walk south
  5. 5

    Puerta del Sol - Madrid's Kilometre Zero

    Puerta del Sol is Spain's geographic centre - a brass plaque (the Kilometre Zero stone) in front of the Casa de Correos marks the point from which all Spanish radial roads are measured. The square hosts the famous…

    Address
    Puerta del Sol, 28013 Madrid
    Nearest transit
    Sol (Metro Lines 1, 2, 3), at the square
  6. 6

    Reina Sofia Museum - Home of Picasso's Guernica

    The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia is Madrid's modern art museum - Spain's national collection of 20th-century and contemporary art. The unmissable piece is Picasso's Guernica (1937), the 7.7-metre anti-war…

    Address
    Calle de Santa Isabel 52, 28012 Madrid
    Nearest transit
    Atocha (Metro Line 1, R), 2-min walk
  7. 7

    Gran Via - Madrid's Broadway

    Gran Via is Madrid's most theatrical avenue - 1.3 km of early-20th-century neoclassical, art deco, and modernist buildings cutting from Plaza de Espana east to Calle de Alcala. Built between 1910 and 1929, the street…

    Address
    Gran Via, 28013 Madrid
    Nearest transit
    Gran Via (Metro Lines 1, 5), Plaza de Espana (Lines 3, 10), or Callao (Lines 3, 5)
  8. 8

    Mercado de San Miguel - Gourmet Tapas Market

    The Mercado de San Miguel is Madrid's most famous market - a 1916 wrought-iron and glass pavilion next to Plaza Mayor, now restored as a gourmet tapas hall with 30 stalls. Stand-up tasting bars serve oysters, jamon…

    Address
    Plaza de San Miguel, 28005 Madrid
    Nearest transit
    Sol (Metro Lines 1, 2, 3) or Opera (Lines 2, 5, R), 5-min walk
  9. 9

    Templo de Debod - The Ancient Egyptian Temple in Madrid

    The Templo de Debod is a real 2,200-year-old Egyptian temple, dismantled stone by stone and gifted to Spain by Egypt in 1968 as thanks for Spanish help saving the Abu Simbel temples from the rising waters of the Aswan…

    Address
    Calle Ferraz 1, 28008 Madrid
    Nearest transit
    Plaza de Espana (Metro Lines 3, 10) or Ventura Rodriguez (Line 3), 8-min walk
  10. 10

    Plaza de Cibeles - Madrid's Most Iconic Fountain

    Plaza de Cibeles is Madrid's most photographed fountain - the goddess Cybele in a chariot drawn by lions, sculpted by Francisco Gutierrez and Roberto Michel between 1777 and 1782. Real Madrid celebrate every La Liga and…

    Address
    Plaza de Cibeles, 28014 Madrid
    Nearest transit
    Banco de Espana (Metro Line 2), at the square
  11. 11

    Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum - The Third of Madrid's Big Three

    The Thyssen-Bornemisza is the third pillar of Madrid's Paseo del Arte - 1,000 paintings from the 13th to the 20th century, originally the private collection of Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza acquired by Spain in 1993…

    Address
    Paseo del Prado 8, 28014 Madrid
    Nearest transit
    Banco de Espana (Metro Line 2), 1-min walk
  12. 12

    Toledo Day Trip - The City of Three Cultures

    Toledo is the most rewarding day trip from Madrid - 35 minutes by AVE high-speed train, then a UNESCO-listed medieval city perched on a granite hill above a U-bend in the Tagus River. Toledo's nickname is the City of…

    Address
    Toledo, 45001
    Nearest transit
    AVE high-speed train from Atocha to Toledo, 35 min (EUR 13-25 round-trip)

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