The Grand Spanish Tour
from $27,200 per person
Madrid guide
Things to do in Madrid
The palace and the museums, the city's tables, and two old towns within half an hour.
By Ramin Jafari · Facts checked
In Madrid, the Royal Palace and the Prado come first, each with a guide of your own; then the city’s architecture on foot, a tasting menu at one of its starred tables, a tapas and wine walk and the Mercado de San Miguel; and a day out to Toledo or Segovia. For each, here is what it involves and what we can arrange.
At a glance
- Time in Madrid
- Three or four days; a week with Toledo and Segovia
- We reserve first
- DiverXO, as soon as your dates are fixed: it books up months ahead
- Day trips
- Toledo or Segovia, each 30 minutes by high-speed train
- July and August
- Highs of 31–32°C (88–90°F): keep the middle of the day indoors
Palace and museums
The palace and the museums
The Royal Palace and the Prado, each with a guide of your own, and the city’s architecture on foot.
Beside the Plaza de Oriente
The Throne Room The Royal Palace
- Royal Guard
- Changed in ceremony at noon, first Wednesday of most months
Still the official residence of the King of Spain, and used for state occasions, the palace has more than 3,000 rooms and works by Caravaggio, Velázquez and Goya. A private art historian takes you through the state rooms, from the Gasparini room to the Throne Room and the gala dining room, and on to the Royal Armoury; the royal kitchen is seen on its own guided visit.
Paseo del Prado
The Prado
- Private hour
- Before the museum opens, for a group
- Allow
- The museum suggests routes of 1, 2 or 3 hours
Velázquez’s Las Meninas, Goya’s Third of May, 1808 and the Black Paintings he painted on the walls of his own house: an art historian of your own makes sense of the Prado, and chooses the route through it. For a smaller party, the Thyssen-Bornemisza, a few minutes’ walk away, holds a visit of its own before its doors open to the public. We arrange either on request.
The old centre to the Retiro
Alfonso XII's monument in the Retiro Architecture, from the Habsburgs to the Gran Vía
A walk with a guide trained in architecture that puts the city’s eras in order. It starts in Habsburg Madrid, the oldest part of the city, around the Plaza Mayor and the Plaza de la Villa, with the Casa de la Villa and the Torre de los Lujanes, and comes out on the Gran Vía, built between 1910 and 1931 with Spain’s first skyscrapers. If you wish, it ends in the Retiro, where Alfonso XII’s monument watches over the lake. Private, on request.
Food and wine
At the table
A starred tasting menu, an evening between taverns, and the city’s iron market.
Across the city
A tasting menu with MICHELIN Stars
- Three Stars
- DiverXO, the only one in Madrid in 2026
- Two Stars
- Six, Coque, DSTAgE and the Ritz's Deessa among them
Each of the city’s starred tables is a different evening. DiverXO is Dabiz Muñoz’s; at Coque, the Sandoval brothers’ house, the meal moves from the cocktail bar through the cellar and the kitchen before you sit down; Deessa is Quique Dacosta’s restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental Ritz. We reserve the table that suits you, as far ahead as each allows.
La Latina or Chamberí
A tapas and wine walk
An evening on foot between old taverns and tapas bars, with a sommelier, or a chef where one is available, choosing the wine and the vermouth to go with each stop. Madrileños take their vermouth at about one, before lunch, so the walk can start at midday as well. Private, on request and subject to availability.
By the Plaza Mayor
The Mercado de San Miguel
The iron market of 1916, a few steps from the Plaza Mayor, has been a market of food to eat on the spot since 2009. A food guide can take you round it, from ham to cheeses from all over Spain, with a glass of wine, on request. It is a popular stop: go early in the day, or for an aperitivo.
Beyond the city
Two old towns on the World Heritage List, each an easy day out from Madrid.
70 km south of Madrid
Toledo
- World Heritage
- The Historic City of Toledo, since 1986
- By train
- 30 minutes, on Renfe's Avant
Built on a steep rock above the Tagus, Toledo was a Roman town, the capital of the Visigoths and, in the Middle Ages, a city where Christian, Jewish and Muslim cultures lived side by side. Go by train or with a chauffeur, then spend the day on foot through its streets with a local guide. For more of Spain’s great monuments, see our guide to Spain’s castles and palaces.
Castilla y León
Segovia
- World Heritage
- The Old Town and its Aqueduct, since 1985
A Roman aqueduct, probably built around AD 50, strides across the town, and the Alcázar, begun around the 11th century, stands at its far end. Half an hour by high-speed train, or by car with a chauffeur and a local guide; lunch is the town’s roast suckling pig, raised on milk alone. See our Madrid food guide.
Itineraries that include Madrid
Spain's Culinary Heritage
from $15,300 per person
Madrid guides
- Madrid travel guide
When to go, where to stay, the food, the great museums and the palace, and three days in the city.
- Madrid food and cuisine
Madrid's own dishes, where to eat, the Mercado de San Miguel and the wines around the city.
- Three days in Madrid
Three days, day by day: where to stay, the Prado, the Royal Palace, the Retiro and the city's tables.
- Best time to visit Madrid
Season by season and month by month, with the festivals, the heat and the best months for each kind of trip.
Further afield in Spain: the most beautiful coastal towns and Spain’s national parks.
Plan your Madrid trip
Tell us your dates and who is travelling. Everything else we can work out together.
Plan your Madrid trip Our Madrid page
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