All our Trip planning guides for Madrid, in one place.
How the Spanish Grand Prix works at Madrid's new MADRING circuit around IFEMA: the layout, how tickets are sold, reaching the track by metro, and where to base yourself.
A neighborhood-by-neighborhood guide to where to stay in Madrid: Sol and the center, Huertas, Chueca and Malasaña, Salamanca, La Latina and more, plus hotels, hostales and apartments, and who each area suits.
A four-day Madrid plan that does not rush: the museum triangle, royal Madrid, the tapas neighbourhoods, Retiro, and a day trip out, with the local eating hours built in rather than fought.
Getting from Madrid Barajas into the centre: the metro and its airport supplement, the express bus that runs all night, the fixed-fare taxi, and which terminal changes the answer.
What to save before you travel: the single European emergency number, the local police lines, how Spanish pharmacies work, what the EHIC and GHIC actually cover, and what they do not.
How entering Spain works for a Madrid trip: who travels visa free and for how long, how the rolling Schengen count works, the new biometric border, passport validity, and what to have ready at the airport.
When to visit Madrid: a month-by-month and season-by-season breakdown of weather, crowds, prices and events, and the sweet spots for the best trip whatever you are after.
The best day trips from Madrid by train or car: Toledo, Segovia, El Escorial, Ávila and Aranjuez, with how long to spend, how to get there and what not to miss in each.
How to see Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu: getting match tickets, what the stadium tour includes, matchday tips, and how to catch Atlético at the Metropolitano too.
How to eat well in Madrid: the tapas to order, the dishes the city invented, when locals actually eat, the best neighborhoods for a crawl, and how to skip the tourist traps.
No canals, no cathedral square with a violinist. What Madrid has instead is an Egyptian temple at sunset, a rowing boat, a glasshouse and dinner at eleven.
In mid May the city puts on waistcoats and headscarves, dances the chotis in a meadow and eats wafer rolls. Then it does something similar four more times a year.
The city sits on a dry plateau and July afternoons are brutal. Locals do not fight it, they restructure the day around it, and the day they build is a good one.
One has the sea, the architecture and the crowds. The other has the art, the food culture and a city that still belongs to the people who live in it.
Free museum hours, a legally protected set lunch, a flat walkable centre and public transport that costs almost nothing. Where the money actually goes here.
How to do the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen without burning out: what to see, when to go, how the free hours work and how to plan the perfect art day in Madrid.
A capital where nobody minds children in a restaurant at ten at night, with a cable car, two big parks, boats to row and a theme park on the western edge.
Everything a first-time visitor needs for Madrid: when to go, which neighborhood to stay in, what to book ahead, how to get around, what to eat and the rookie mistakes to skip.