Things to do in Madrid

Old masters, royal halls and late nights

Madrid keeps three great art collections within a 15-minute walk: Velázquez and Goya at the Prado, Picasso's Guernica at the Reina Sofía, and eight centuries of painting at the Thyssen. The boulevard they share, the Paseo del Prado, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021 together with the Retiro park. Across the old centre, the Royal Palace has more than 3,000 rooms, and La Latina's lanes are lined with tapas bars. Plan around the city's rhythm. Lunch runs from about 14:00 and dinner rarely starts before 21:00. The Reina Sofía closes on Tuesdays, the Thyssen opens only 12:00–16:00 on Mondays, and the Bernabéu tour shortens on match days. The metro reaches almost everything, and Toledo and Segovia are each about half an hour away by high-speed train.

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