Madrid travel guides & articles
All 22 in-depth pieces we’ve published on Madrid — newest first.
Tours & tickets
Madrid's Royal Palace in September Without the Queue
Timed slots, summer hours, and a free evening window that ends with the month: how to plan a Royal Palace visit in September 2026, and what to do with the hours either side.
Surviving a Madrid August on Pools, Museums and Late Nights
The city does not slow down in August so much as change shift. Here is the timetable, with prices, opening hours and the places that are actually cool.
The Best Tapas Restaurants in Madrid
A local's honest map of where to eat tapas in Madrid in 2026 — from €3 fried cod to the tortilla worth crossing the city for — with the door and group realities nobody tells you.
Madrid Comes Back in October When the Heat Lets Go
The August shutters come back up, the roasting ovens make sense again, and the city drops back to walking pace: how to use Madrid's mildest month, hour by hour.
Madrid's Rooftop Circuit from Sunset to Half Past Midnight
Fourteen terraces and miradores across Madrid, in the order you would actually walk them, with the entry fees, door rules and closing times to check before you go.
Madrid Christmas Lights 2026: Switch-On Date and a Walking Route Through the Centre
Where to stand for the switch-on concert, what hours Gran Vía keeps, and a walk from Plaza de Colón to Plaza de España, stop by stop, with prices and closed days.
Madrid's Golden Triangle: Three Museums, One Walkable Mile
How to walk the Prado, Reina Sofía and Thyssen-Bornemisza without museum fatigue — and which quieter stops along the Paseo del Arte make the difference.
Madrid's Night, Hour by Hour
A walk through Madrid's after-dark infrastructure — the 11pm dinners, the sherry and jazz hours, the clubs that open at midnight, and the churrerías that catch everyone on the way out.
Madrid's Vintage Loop Over a Slow October Weekend
Two days on foot through Malasaña's shopfronts, a monthly market under a train shed and a Sunday morning at El Rastro, with hours, prices and how many people each room actually holds.
Sunday Morning in El Rastro: Madrid's Century-Old Flea Market Ritual
How to navigate Madrid's oldest Sunday market, what's actually worth the haggle, and where the regulars go once the stalls pack up — from a €4 cocido tapa to a proper Cava Baja vermouth crawl.
A Madrid Weekend That Ends at Shakira's 27 September Show
How to build three days in Madrid around a Sunday-night stadium concert nine kilometres south of the centre: museums, markets, flamenco and the ride home.
Tours & tickets
Tapas Hour Around Madrid's Puerta del Sol in October
Counter by counter through the two hours when the bars around Sol fill up: door prices, how big a group each place will take, and the one stop to skip.
Tours & tickets
November Flamenco at Corral de la Morería in Madrid
What a ticket covers, and how to fill the daylight hours before the three-hour evening begins.
Madrid Río: A Day From the Palace to Matadero
A flat, five-kilometre walk along the Manzanares links the Royal Palace's gardens to Matadero's converted slaughterhouse, taking in bridges, a free glasshouse and a seasonal beach on the way.
Between Midnight and Sunrise: The All-Night Churrerías of Madrid
A calm, neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood map to Madrid's churros con chocolate, from the 1894 institution off Sol to a 5am takeaway counter — so you can fold a stop into wherever the night leaves you.
Day Trips from Madrid Worth Taking on a First Trip to Spain
Fast trains to walled towns, and royal gardens a short ride out, with the fares, ticket prices and timings you need to choose between them.
Pradera to Pradera: Madrid's Week for San Isidro
A week in mid-May turns a riverside meadow into the meeting point for a city that otherwise rarely stops to celebrate itself, and here is how to move through it — mass, meadow, rosquilla, verbena — without treating it like a spectator sport.
Tours & tickets
Ávila's Walls and Segovia's Aqueduct in a Day from Madrid
A wall you can walk right round and an aqueduct you stand under, plus the door prices, free hours and closed days that shape the rest of the day.
Tours & tickets
Reading the Three Facades of Madrid's Plaza de la Villa
Give the cobbled three-sided square fifteen free minutes, then walk 10 minutes out to the churches, markets and ticketed interiors around it.
Madrid's vermouth hour — la hora del vermut
A guide to Madrid's Sunday ritual of barrel-poured vermouth and small plates, from the tabernas that never stopped tapping the cask to the new rooms reviving the tradition in 2026.
Madrid's Two Football Cathedrals and How They Differ
A walk through the Bernabéu and the Metropolitano, the bars that fill before kickoff, and the two fountains where Madrid crowns its champions.
Where Madrid Still Dances the Chotis
The chotis is danced on a single floor tile, and Madrid still turns it out weekly: in mirrored ballrooms, at a free Lavapiés class, and in one August square with ten couples and a barrel organ.