City guide · Spain
Madrid
Golden Triangle art, midnight dinners, and tiled tabernas
April–June & September–October
Euro (EUR)
Spanish
Europe
The guides
The best of Madrid, by category
Madrid concentrates Velázquez, Goya, and Picasso's Guernica into three museums within a ten-minute walk, then keeps its tabernas pouring until the small hours. Spain's high-altitude capital runs on late lunches, vermouth on tap, and a street life that makes even Tuesday feel like a fiesta.
The shortlist
If you only have time for the best
The single highest-rated picks across every category in Madrid.
Hotels
See all 6- 1
Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Madrid
Paseo del Prado / Retiro
4.7★2,000+ reviews
- 2
Four Seasons Hotel Madrid
Centro Canalejas, near Puerta del Sol
4.7★2,000+ reviews - 3
The Westin Palace, Madrid
Barrio de las Letras / Paseo del Prado
4.6★7,500+ reviews
Restaurants
See all 6- 1
Sobrino de Botín
Calle Cuchilleros, near Plaza Mayor
4.5★15,000+ reviews
- 2
DiverXO
Chamartín, NH Collection Eurobuilding
4.6★3,000+ reviews - 3
Casa Lucio
Cava Baja, La Latina
4.5★7,500+ reviews
Bars
See all 6- 1
Museo Chicote
Gran Vía
4.5★3,000+ reviews - 2
Salmon Guru
Barrio de las Letras
4.5★7,500+ reviews - 3
La Venencia
Calle Echegaray, Barrio de las Letras
4.5★3,000+ reviews
Attractions
See all 6- 1
Museo del Prado
Paseo del Prado / Retiro
4.8★100,000+ reviews
- 2
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
Atocha / Lavapiés edge
4.6★75,000+ reviews
- 3
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza
Paseo del Prado
4.7★25,000+ reviews
Where to base yourself
Madrid neighborhoods, decoded
Pick your area first — it shapes everything else about the trip.
La Latina
Tapas crawls on medieval streetsMadrid's oldest quarter packs its curved lanes — Cava Baja above all — with more tabernas per metre than anywhere in Spain. Sundays pair the El Rastro flea market with all-afternoon vermouth around Plaza de la Cebada.
Malasaña
Post-movida indie energyThe cradle of the 1980s Movida counterculture still runs on vintage shops, vinyl bars, and third-wave cafés around Plaza del Dos de Mayo. By night its dive bars and cocktail dens stay loud until sunrise.
Barrio de las Letras
Literary quarter, golden-age charmCervantes and Lope de Vega lived and feuded in these streets, where golden literary quotes are set into the pavement of Calle de las Huertas. Its tiled tabernas and proximity to the Prado make it the smartest central base.
Salamanca
Polished boulevards, designer shoppingThe gridded 19th-century ensanche holds Spain's luxury mile on Calle Serrano and the gourmet stalls of Mercado de la Paz. It is Madrid at its most elegant, all garitas, galleries, and long lunches.
Beyond the city
Day trips worth the ride
Toledo
33 min by AVE train from AtochaSpain's former capital layers cathedrals, synagogues, and mosques on a hill wrapped by the Tagus, with El Greco's greatest paintings still hanging where he made them.
Segovia
28 min by AVE from Chamartín plus a short busA 2,000-year-old Roman aqueduct of 167 unmortared arches leads to a fairy-tale Alcázar and the wood-oven cochinillo houses of the old town.
San Lorenzo de El Escorial
1 hr by Cercanías trainPhilip II's colossal granite monastery-palace, with its Pantheon of Kings and a basilica dome visible across the Guadarrama foothills.
Eat like a local
What to order in Madrid
Cocido madrileño
A three-course chickpea stew of broth, vegetables, and slow-simmered meats, Madrid's defining winter lunch.
Try it at: Taberna La Bola or Lhardy
Bocadillo de calamares
A crusty baguette stuffed with fried squid rings, eaten standing in the streets off Plaza Mayor.
Try it at: La Campana, Calle Botoneras
Churros con chocolate
Ridged fried dough dipped in thick drinking chocolate, the classic end to a Madrid night out.
Try it at: Chocolatería San Ginés, open since 1894
Huevos rotos
Fried eggs broken over crisp potatoes and jamón ibérico, mixed at the table into glorious richness.
Try it at: Casa Lucio, Cava Baja
Good to know
Madrid essentials, answered
Three days covers the Prado-Reina Sofía-Thyssen triangle, the Royal Palace, Retiro, and proper tapas nights in La Latina and Las Letras. Add a fourth and fifth for day trips to Toledo and Segovia, both under 35 minutes away by high-speed train.
