Madrid, Spain

What to do in Madrid, Spain

Prado Museum Artistic Tour

Wind through the more impressive streets of the city and arrive at the Prado. This museum contains the world's greatest collection of Spanish paintings, especially works by Velázquez and Goya, ranging from the 12th to 19th centuries. Also housed is an impressive array of Italian and Flemish art, including Rubens and Botticelli.

Toledo Tour

This former capital of Spain is beautifully set on a hill above a river. Its history is rich, dating at least from the Roman occupation, through the Visigoth conquest in the Dark Ages to the medieval Moorish invasion. Each culture has left behind its religious, artistic, culinary, and architectural influence. The artist El Greco settled here in the 16th century and many of his works are exhibited. The cathedral is another of the most popular sights in the country.

El Escorial

One of the most famous sights in the country, this massive, architecturally austere palace was commissioned by Felipe II in 1563 in his desire for a puritanical life near his father's tomb. Despite this intent, there are sumptuous apartments decorated with exquisite art and marble sarcophagi that contain the remains of most Spanish monarchs.

Plaza Mayor

This impressive square is bordered all around by balconies, pinnacles, picture windows, and stepe slate roofs. Its dramatic atmosphere is utterly Castilian and its history is rich, having been over the centuries the site of bullfights, executions, pageants, and Inquisition trials, often attended by the king and queen.

Centro de Arte Reina Sofia

This museum/gallery showcases the best of contemporary art, including the works of such Spanish masters as Picasso, Dali, Miró, as well as foreigners like Bacon and Magritte. The highlight of the collection is Picasso's Guernica, depicting the horrors of war.

Parque del Retiro

Almost all that remains of Felipe IV's early 17th-century royal palace complex, this park was then the site of elaborate pageants, bullfights, and mock naval battles. Beginning in the 18th-century, it slowly opened to the public and is now the favorite place to relax in Madrid. Tree-lined lanes, rolling pastures, and a calm lake with rowboats make for a peaceful outing.

Palacio Real

Built by the Bourbon king to impress, this vast and lavish palace was the royal residence until 1931. There are over 2,500 rooms chock-full of tapestries, paintings, embroideries, porcelains, and so on. Highlights are the state apartments, throne room, royal chapel, library, and the dining room, which is still used by the current royal family for state occasions.

Plaza de Torros de Las Ventas

Whatever your opinion of bullfighting, this is arguably the most beautiful bullring in the world. Horseshoe arches circle the ring and elaborate tilework decorates the walls. A bullfighting museum adjacent to the ring is full of memorabilia.

El Rastro

Madrid's celebrated flea market has been the hot spot for bargains of every sort from furniture, to food, to books, toys, clothes, and more since the Middle Ages. The hub is on the Plaza de Cascorro and it sprawls down toward the Rio Manzanares.

Calle de Serrano Shopping

Madrid's most stylish shopping street is in the district of Salamanca and is lined with many luxury boutiques and antique shops housed in old mansions. Several of the world's top designers make a showing in this upscale promenade.