Madrid Itinerary

One day in Madrid

One day is a stopover, but Madrid is compact enough to show you its three sides — the old city, the art and the evening — if the day is built in the right order.

1. 9.30am — Plaza Mayor before the crowds, then the Palacio Real and the Almudena Cathedral next door.
2. 12pm — Walk down into La Latina; Calle Cava Baja is the tapas street.
3. 2pm — Lunch, the main meal of the day. A weekday menú del día is the best value in the city.
4. 4pm — The Prado. Give it the rest of the afternoon: Velázquez, Goya, El Greco and Bosch.
5. Sunset — The Templo de Debod, which faces west over the Parque del Oeste. Arrive twenty minutes early for space.
6. 9.30pm — Dinner, when the city’s restaurants actually fill up.

Two days in Madrid

Two days keeps the one-day plan intact and adds the parts it had to leave out: Retiro Park and a second collection.

1. Day 1 — as the one-day plan above: old Madrid, La Latina, the Prado and Debod.
2. Day 2 morning — Retiro Park and the Crystal Palace at its centre, which is free to enter.
3. Day 2 lunch — near Retiro, from about 2pm.
4. Day 2 afternoon — the Thyssen-Bornemisza, about ninety minutes, or the Reina Sofía for Guernica.
5. Day 2 evening — the Reina Sofía’s free window if it falls on this day: Monday and Wednesday to Saturday from 7pm to 9pm (checked with the museum, August 2026).

Three days in Madrid

Three days is the length most visitors should aim for, and it has its own guide with two complete plans: three city days at one great museum per day, or two city days and a day in Toledo. The short version: old Madrid on day one, the Prado and Retiro on day two, the Thyssen and the Reina Sofía on day three.

A Madrid Sunday

Sunday changes the shape of a Madrid day more than any other, and it is worth building one day of the itinerary around it.

1. Morning: the Rastro, the open-air market in the streets south of La Latina.
2. Afternoon: La Latina, which is at its best on Sunday afternoon after the market.
3. The Reina Sofía’s free window moves to 12.30pm to 2.30pm on Sundays.
4. Retiro Park is at its busiest on Sunday — good for atmosphere, less so for quiet.
5. Plan dinner carefully: some independent restaurants close on Sunday evening.

Four and five days: Toledo and Segovia

Past three days, the best additions to a Madrid itinerary are outside the city. Both classic day trips are about half an hour away by high-speed train.

Toledo first. It is the denser and older of the two, and the cathedral alone takes about two hours. Segovia is the easier second trip, known for its Roman aqueduct and its alcázar.

Two themed routes through Madrid

Not every itinerary has to be built day by day. These two routes work as half-days inside any length of trip.

1. The art route (a morning): the Prado, the Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Reina Sofía sit along the same boulevard, within a fifteen-minute walk of each other. Do one fully rather than three partly.
2. The evening route (from about 8pm): tapas in La Latina, a walk up through Plaza Mayor, and dinner from about 9.30pm. Madrid’s squares are still full at midnight.

How the season changes the itinerary

The same itinerary needs different hours in different months. These are the 1981-2010 climate normals for Madrid Retiro from AEMET, the Spanish state meteorological agency.

1. July and August average highs of 32.1°C and 31.3°C: move the Prado to the afternoon and the walking to the morning and evening.
2. May averages 7.3 rainy days and October 60 mm of rain — keep a museum ready as the switch for a wet afternoon.
3. September is the month the full itinerary works best: a 26.4°C high and only 3.3 rainy days.
4. In December and January, highs are about 10°C and the light goes early, so put Debod’s sunset in the late afternoon.