Madrid 3-day itinerary

Three of the world's great painting collections on one boulevard — Velázquez and Bosch in the Prado, Guernica up the road, a private empire's worth in between — with a royal park behind them for the recovery.

1. 08:30
   Retiro ParkPark, 1h 30m

   Madrid's former royal park, opened to the public in 1868 — free to enter, any day, any time within opening hours. Rent a rowboat on the Estanque Grande (the big lake), or walk to the glass-and-iron Palacio de Cristal a few minutes further in. Current (April-September) hours run 06:00 to midnight; the park closes earlier, at 22:00, from October to March, and gates do lock for the night, so don't linger past closing. Dog-exercise areas open separately from 07:30. Weekends bring buskers, tarot readers and a puppet theatre near the lake — lively rather than quiet.

2. 10:15
   Puerta de AlcaláLandmark, 15m

   A neoclassical granite gate built for Charles III in 1778, one of the last survivors of the five royal gates that once marked the roads into the city. It stands on the traffic circle at Plaza de la Independencia, right at the edge of Retiro park nearest the museums — a natural photo stop on the walk between the Prado and the park, and lit up after dark. There's no ticket or interior to visit, just the monument itself in the middle of the roundabout, so budget only a few minutes here.

3. 12:00
   Lunch Viva Madrid1h

   A tiled corner tavern that's poured drinks since 1856 (Hemingway among its regulars), reopened in 2018 with a cocktail-forward menu alongside traditional Madrid tapas — cured meats, pickles, small plates, vegetarian options included. Kitchen serves until 01:00 even though the bar itself stays open until 02:00 (02:30 on Fridays and Saturdays); open every day. It sits between the Barrio de las Letras and the museums, making it a natural evening stop after the Prado or Thyssen.

4. 13:00
   Prado MuseumMuseum, 2h 30m

   Spain's national gallery, built around the Spanish royal collection — Velázquez's Las Meninas, Goya's Black Paintings, Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights. General admission is free every Monday to Saturday from 18:00 to 20:00 and Sunday/holidays from 17:00 to 19:00; this is the busiest slot of the day, so arrive 30-45 minutes before the doors open if going free. Unlike the other Golden Triangle museums, the Prado has no weekly closure day at all — it's open all seven days, shutting only on 1 January, 1 May and 25 December. The building is step-free throughout with adapted restrooms, accessible lifts and ramps, and wheelchairs available to borrow at the information desk. Large bags must go into the free cloakroom.

5. 15:45
   Reina Sofía MuseumMuseum, 2h

   Spain's modern and contemporary art museum, built around Picasso's Guernica, with strong Dalí and Miró holdings besides. Closed every Tuesday — the one day to build a schedule around. General admission is €12; free entry runs Monday evenings and Sunday afternoons (book the free slot ahead if possible, it fills up). Almost every public gallery has wheelchair access via ramps and two lift towers connecting the main floors, and wheelchairs and folding seats can be borrowed at the entrance — the one exception is the Vaults Room, which isn't accessible, and a few ramps in the older part of the building lack handrails or a wide approach.

6. 18:00
   Dinner La Platería1h 15m

   A quieter, less-touristy tapas bar in the Barrio de las Letras, a few minutes' walk from the Prado's Jerónimos entrance. Standing bar up front for a quick tapa and a vermouth, small dining room behind for sitting down to classic Madrid sharing plates. A good lunch stop between museums that skips the queues of the bigger-name places closer to Sol.

The official centre of Spain, kilometre zero underfoot — an arcaded seventeenth-century square, a covered market turned tapas hall, and the pedestrian shopping streets that connect them.

1. 08:00
   Breakfast Toma Café30m

   One of the cafés that started Madrid's third-wave coffee scene, tucked on a quiet Malasaña side street — house-roasted beans, a short pastry case, and a stripped-back counter with a few stools rather than a full dining room. Oat and other plant-based milks are available for the espresso and filter drinks. Open daily, weekdays from 8am and weekends from 10am, both until 8pm. It's small, so weekend mornings get crowded fast.

2. 08:30
   Plaza MayorLandmark, 30m

   A closed rectangular square built in 1619, arcaded on all four sides with nine gated entrances. Look up at the Casa de la Panadería, the frescoed building on the north side — the paintings are 20th-century but the square once hosted bullfights, executions and royal proclamations underneath them. A statue of Philip III on horseback sits at the centre. The terrace restaurants ringing the square are priced for tourists and rarely the best meal in the neighbourhood — walk two minutes into the surrounding streets instead. In December it fills with a Christmas market; year-round it's open and free to walk through at any hour.

3. 09:15
   Puerta del SolLandmark, 20m

   Spain's official kilometre zero — the marker in the pavement outside the Real Casa de Correos (now the regional government building) that every national road distance is measured from. Look up at the clock tower for the bells that ring in the New Year, and find the bronze bear reaching into a madroño tree, Madrid's civic symbol, near the eastern corner. It's the busiest single square in the city at any hour, always crowded with street performers and vendors, so keep bags zipped and to the front — this is the most-cited pickpocket spot in central Madrid. Every metro line in the centre converges underneath it, making it the natural starting point for a first day.

4. 09:50
   San Antón MarketMarket, 1h

   A three-storey food market a block from Chueca's terraces — ground-floor stalls for fish, produce, and jamón, a mid-level food court, and a rooftop terrace-restaurant with skyline views. Stalls run Monday to Saturday roughly 9:30am to 9:30pm and are closed Sundays, while the gastro-bars and rooftop restaurant stay open every day well past midnight. Come earlier in the day for the market stalls themselves; by evening it's mostly the bars and restaurant still going.

5. 11:05
   Church of San AntónChurch, 20m

   A working parish church that keeps its doors open day and night — a long-standing policy meant for anyone who needs shelter or a quiet moment, and travellers are welcome to step in outside Mass. It's also the church where Madrid brings dogs, cats, and other pets each January for the traditional blessing of San Antón, and a side window serves breakfast each morning to anyone who needs it. Avoid photography during Mass out of respect.

6. 12:00
   Lunch Restaurante Botín1h

   Trading since 1725 and Guinness-listed as the world's oldest restaurant, built over a 16th-century wine cellar just off Plaza Mayor. The signature dishes are whole roast suckling pig and roast lamb cooked in a wood-fired oven you can see from the entrance — the menu is meat-forward, with little on offer for vegetarian diners. Reservations are strongly recommended; walk-ins face real waits given how much of the room is pre-booked. Kitchen runs continuously from 13:00 to 23:30 every day, unlike most traditional Madrid restaurants that close mid-afternoon.

7. 13:00
   Madrid History MuseumMuseum, 1h

   Free municipal museum behind a striking Pedro de Ribera stone doorway — worth walking past even if you skip the exhibits. Inside, models and paintings trace Madrid's growth from a minor Habsburg outpost into a modern capital. Step-free access covers the building and the front desk has a magnetic induction loop for hearing aids. Closed Mondays and on 1/6 January, 1 May, and 24/25/31 December; these are the summer hours (mid-June to mid-September) — outside that window the museum stays open an hour later. Rooms clear ten minutes before closing.

8. 14:15
   Magpie VintageShopping, 30m

   One of several secondhand shops clustered on Calle de Velarde, Malasaña's vintage-shopping strip a couple of minutes from Tribunal metro — racks of clothing and accessories spanning the 1950s through 1980s. Open Monday to Saturday, roughly 11:30am to 9pm, closed Sundays. Mornings and weekdays are noticeably calmer than weekend afternoons.

9. 15:00
   Plaza del Dos de MayoLandmark, 30m

   Malasaña's living room — a wide, tree-lined square named for Madrid's 1808 uprising against Napoleon's troops, with the surviving gate of the old artillery barracks standing at its centre. Ringed by terraces that fill up from midday through the small hours, it's less a sight to tick off than a place to sit down, order a drink, and watch the neighbourhood go by. Always open, no ticket, no fixed hours.

10. 15:50
    Mercado de San MiguelMarket, 1h 15m

    An iron-and-glass 1916 market hall rebuilt in 2009 into a stand-and-graze tapas hall — small plates from a few euros to €10+ per dish at dozens of stalls (oysters, vermouth, jamón, croquetas, pastries). It's genuinely one of the pricier ways to eat in the neighbourhood, especially at the stalls nearest the main door, so treat it as a grazing stop rather than a full meal if budget matters. Open until midnight most nights and until 1am Friday and Saturday. It gets very crowded from early evening onward — arriving right at opening (10:00) or on a weekday afternoon is the way to actually get a seat at one of the standing counters.

11. 17:20
    Royal Monastery of the Descalzas RealesMuseum, 1h

    A working convent of cloistered nuns founded in 1559 in a former royal palace, one block from Sol but visited by a fraction of the crowd. Every visit is a guided tour of about an hour (English-language tours run daily at 12:00; more Spanish-language departures through the day) through galleries the noblewomen who took the veil here filled with Titian, Rubens and Brueghel over four centuries, plus a grand staircase and choir. Adult tickets cost €9. There is currently no accessible route for wheelchair users — the building's original stairs and floor levels have not been adapted. Closed Mondays.

12. 18:35
    Dinner Casa Labra1h 15m

    A standing-room-only tasca open since 1860, a minute from Puerta del Sol. Order at the marble bar — the tajada de bacalao (fried cod) and croquetas de bacalao are the reason to come, priced by the piece (roughly €1.70-2.30 each), and a full round with a beer easily comes to under €10 a head. There are no tables in the historic front room; find a ledge to lean on or take it standing. A small plaque marks where the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) was founded here in 1879. Open every day of the year except January 1st.

Bourbon Madrid on the western edge of the plateau — the largest royal palace in western Europe by floor area, a cathedral that took a century to agree on, and an Egyptian temple rebuilt above the sunset.

1. 07:40
   Check out of your stay
2. 09:00
   Sabatini GardensGarden, 30m

   A formal, symmetrical garden along the north side of the Royal Palace, laid out in the 1930s on the site of the old royal stables. Free entry, open daily 09:00-21:00 October-April and 09:00-22:00 May-September. Benches and clipped hedges make it a good sit-down break with a postcard view of the palace facade; it's much quieter than the Plaza de Oriente side.

3. 10:00
   Temple of DebodLandmark, 30m

   A genuine 2nd-century BC Egyptian temple, gifted to Spain in 1968 and rebuilt on this hill purely for its sunset views over the city. Entry is free, open Tuesday to Sunday 10:00-20:00 (last entry 30 minutes before close), closed every Monday including bank holidays, plus 1 and 6 January, 1 May, and 24, 25 and 31 December. Interior capacity is limited, so book the free timed slot online in advance rather than risk being turned away at busy sunset hours. Outside, the surrounding park and reflecting pools are open access and are where most people actually watch the sunset - you don't need the interior ticket for that.

4. 10:45
   Plaza de LavapiésLandmark, 20m

   The sloping, triangular square that gives the neighbourhood its name and its social centre - Bangladeshi, West African, Chinese and Spanish-run cafés and shops ring the edges, and the benches fill with a genuine cross-section of the barrio rather than tourists. Always open, nothing to buy a ticket for; it's simply the best single spot to feel how mixed these streets are before wandering the calles running off it.

5. 11:25
   Almudena CathedralChurch, 30m

   Entry to the cathedral nave is free (a €1 donation is suggested), open daily 10:00-20:30 (until 21:00 in July-August). The small museum, reached from Plaza de la Almudena, keeps shorter hours - weekday mornings only, roughly 10:00-14:30, closed Sundays and feast days - and charges around €7 (€5 reduced). The crypt underneath, entered from Calle Mayor, is separately free with a €1 donation suggested and runs 10:00-14:00 and 16:30-20:00 daily; a guided crypt tour costs around €4. Whatever you visit, expect the doors to close during Mass and other services, so check the schedule board before queueing.

6. 12:10
   Lunch Taberna Antonio Sánchez1h

   Standing since before 1787 and decorated like a bullfighting museum, this is Madrid's vermouth culture at its most unreconstructed - no music, no screens, just the zinc counter and small plates (rabo de toro, callos a la madrileña) built to slow you down between drinks. Open daily from midday, with the kitchen running roughly 13:00-17:00 and 20:00-midnight (Sundays afternoon only, closing around 17:00). Cards are accepted. It's a counter to lean at solo as easily as a table to share.

7. 13:10
   Royal Palace of MadridHistoric site, 1h 30m

   Europe's largest royal palace by floor area, though the state rooms open to visitors cover only a fraction of it. Self-guided entry is €18; a guided tour in Spanish or English runs €26. Monday to Thursday 17:00-19:00 in summer (16:00-18:00 in winter, when the whole palace also closes an hour earlier across the board), EU citizens and Ibero-American nationals get in free on production of a passport or ID - the catch is it's ticket-office-only, no online booking, and unguided visits only. Beyond the scheduled closures, the palace can shut with little notice for state ceremonies, so have a backup plan for that day. Wheelchairs are available on-site and the route is adapted for reduced mobility; ask at the ticket office. Photography without flash is fine, but leave the tripod and selfie stick behind.

8. 14:55
   Campo del Moro GardensGarden, 45m

   The palace's other, wilder garden - an English-style landscape below the west facade with fountains, peacocks and the long lawn used for the classic postcard photo of the palace. Free entry, open daily except 25 December and 1 January; enter from Cuesta de la Vega (behind the cathedral), Cuesta de San Vicente, or the Paseo de la Virgen del Puerto side near Príncipe Pío. It's flatter and less busy than Sabatini, and a better spot for a picnic bench with a view than a quick walk-through. Free to enter, open daily from 10:00, and it stays open until 20:00 between April and September rather than the 18:00 winter close.

9. 17:30
   Dinner Casa Ciriaco1h 15m

   A Calle Mayor institution for well over a century, a couple of minutes from the palace, known for cocido madrileño (traditionally served Tuesdays), gallina en pepitoria and callos a la madrileña. Open Wednesday to Saturday 10:00-23:00, Sunday to Tuesday 10:00-16:00 only - plan around that Sun-Tue lunch-only window rather than counting on dinner those days. Cards are accepted. The dining rooms can host up to 120 for groups, so it's not a quiet corner-table kind of place at busy hours.