Madrid in 3 Days

The choice: three city days, or two plus Toledo

Most three-day plans for Madrid quietly assume you will not leave the city. That suits a museum trip. It short-changes anyone who will not be back, because Toledo is one of the best day trips in Spain and only half an hour away.

Plan A: three days in the city

One big museum per day is the rule that keeps a Madrid trip enjoyable. The old centre, Retiro and the evenings fill the rest.

1. Day 1 — Old Madrid: Plaza Mayor, the Palacio Real and the Almudena Cathedral; lunch in La Latina; sunset at the Templo de Debod.
2. Day 2 — The Prado for the morning; lunch; Retiro Park and the Crystal Palace in the afternoon.
3. Day 3 — The Thyssen-Bornemisza in the morning, about ninety minutes; a long lunch; the Reina Sofía for Guernica in its free evening window.

If one of your three days is a Sunday, put old Madrid on it: La Latina is at its best on Sunday afternoon after the Rastro market, and the Reina Sofía’s free window moves to 12.30pm to 2.30pm.

Plan B: two days in the city and one in Toledo

This plan trades one museum and a slow day for Toledo. The city days get fuller, and the choice between the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen becomes the hard one.

1. Day 1 — Old Madrid in the morning; the Prado from early afternoon; sunset at the Templo de Debod.
2. Day 2 — Retiro in the morning; lunch; the Reina Sofía or the Thyssen in the afternoon; the Reina Sofía’s free window if it falls on this day.
3. Day 3 — Toledo. The AVE from Atocha takes 33 minutes; give the walled old city and the cathedral the whole day, and come back for a late dinner.

1. The Toledo cathedral alone takes about two hours — it is not a stop on the way to something else.
2. Toledo is a hill city: the walking is steep and on stone, so the same shoes rule applies as in Lisbon.
3. Segovia is the alternative: 30 minutes by AVE from Chamartín, easier, and more immediately photogenic. Pick one, not both.

What to book before the three days start

Madrid needs little advance booking outside the busiest weeks, but three things decide how smoothly the plan runs.

1. High-speed train tickets to Toledo or Segovia — only for Plan B.
2. Accommodation in the centre, so no day starts with a long metro ride: the old centre can be crossed on foot in twenty minutes.
3. Dinner reservations only for a specific restaurant on a Friday or Saturday — and for 9pm or later, not 7pm.

If it is hot, or if it rains

Three days is short enough that one bad afternoon matters. These swaps are based on the 1981-2010 climate normals for the Retiro station from AEMET.

1. Heat — July and August average highs of 32.1°C and 31.3°C. Keep the afternoons for the museums and do Retiro and the old centre in the morning.
2. Heat in Plan B — Toledo is a hill city on stone; in July and August, start early and plan the afternoon in the cathedral and the museums.
3. Rain — May has the most rainy days of the year (7.3) and October the most rain (60 mm). Madrid is easy to rearrange: swap any outdoor half-day for a museum.
4. Cold — December and January average highs of about 10°C, but they are dry and bright, and the museums are at their quietest.

The top three things to do in Madrid in three days

If the three days had to be reduced to three things, these are the ones that make Madrid different from every other city on a Spain trip.

1. The Prado — Velázquez, Goya, El Greco and Bosch in the largest of the three great museums.
2. Guernica at the Reina Sofía — in a room of its own, ideally in the free evening window.
3. A Madrid evening — tapas from about 8pm, dinner from about 9.30pm, and the squares still full at midnight.