Madrid is Spain’s largest city, so it seems reasonable to question whether the few free days you have will be enough for it. Can you leave Madrid satisfied after one or two days? Maybe a three-day trip is not enough?
This, of course, depends on your needs and expectations. Each of us has a different pace when it comes to trips and you may not be interested in the typical tourist routes you can find on ‘best-of’ lists. So we’ve tried to include variants for those who don’t mind rushing through just to see everything and for those who prefer slower and calmer holidays (apart from the one-day option, because there’s no way you can relaxedly see much in one day in Madrid and we just assume you would want to see as much as possible before departing). So, let’s get started.
A few tips to start with:
- If you want to visit a place, the Museo Nacional del Prado for instance, you really should book your tickets in advance so you don’t have to waste time in queues
- If you don’t mind skipping out on charming walks through Madrid, public transport is quite efficient there, so make use of it
- We recommend thinking about a Travel Pass, the cost for Zona A for a day is just €8.40. For two days, it’s €14.20
One day in Madrid
What can you see in Madrid in one day?
We won’t lead you by the nose, it’s impossible to see that much of Madrid in just one day, but we can still optimise the route as much as we can to make sure you get a good chunk. How much time do you need to see the main attractions in the city centre alone? Getting through:
- Plaza Mayor
- Catedral de la Almudena
- Royal Palace of Madrid
- Plaza de Espana
- Temple Debod
- Puerta de Alcalá
- Prado Museum
- the Barrio de Las Letras
- back to Plaza Mayor
…takes two hours with no stops or breaks. And we’re not counting any downtime for taking photos, resting or actually entering the attractions. This is two hours of just walking by these things and seeing them from the outside. If you add entry to one or two attractions in Madrid plus lunch, that’s your whole day. It’s not much, but it is what it is.
Two days in Madrid
Are two days enough in Madrid?
We can squeeze out a lot more in two days. You can add visits to the most important parks in the centre of Madrid, such as El Retiro, between the main attractions we listed above. You can also take a half-day trip to Prado or relax a little and explore the backstreets of Madrid’s old town. Still, it’s just two days, so do take public transport when you can in Madrid, it’ll help a lot.
Three days in Madrid
A full weekend in Madrid
A weekend in Madrid is more of what we’re used to as far as city-breaks go. Here, you’ll have a choice of what to do with a whole day freed up alongside the two days as we’ve discussed above. You can either use it to fill out the missed stuff from day one or you can choose one of the following recommendations:
- You can choose another museum to visit with an evening free for just wandering around the city and La Latina especially
- One full day in the nearby Toledo or Segovia if you can’t stand the ‘big-city’ vibe for too long
- You can go for the Golden Triangle of Art in Madrid, ergo visiting Prado, Reina Sofia and Thyssen-Bornemisza
Four days in Madrid
Madrid in four days
This is what we could call ideal for Madrid – you can easily visit all of the essential attractions, enter at least the few of the most important museums, see the beautiful parks around and have half a day or a full one to visit Toledo or Segovia. If you don’t mind the rush, you can probably squeeze out both cities, but it takes away from the experience a bit. You can also chill a bit with the list of attractions and, instead, commit a day to a beach or simply hiking around.
How many days is best in Madrid?
How many do you need?
As we’ve said, no good global answer to this question, but we can at least propose some things. If you want to relax in addition to sightseeing, 3-5 days would be ideal. If you don’t mind rushing, you have a busy big-adult schedule and you just want to see the essential gist of Madrid, you can squeeze out a lot in two days, three would be really good already.
One is, frankly, difficult, and we fear that you may leave a bit disappointed by just how much Madrid has to offer and how little you can really see in a day. There may be better options basically, but it’s there if you really want it. Whichever option you choose, we hope you’ll have a great time in Madrid!
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