Things To Do in Madrid

Exploring Madrid is easy if you think of its neighborhoods as clusters. You’re likely to spend most of your time in the historic center, but you’d be missing out if you didn’t get to some of the surrounding areas too. Plan your day around one or two districts (see below), take public transit the center of the area and walk from there. In most cases, especially for the art museums, it makes sense to buy your tickets in advance online.

If you plan to visit Madrid's big three art museums, it’s worth investing in the Abono Paseo del Arte. At 32.80€, it saves you 20% on the cost of tickets to the permanent exhibits at El Prado, Thyssen-Bornemisza, and Reina Sofía. Perhaps more importantly, it lets you skip the queues. You can buy the pass at any of the three museums, or online (museothyssen.org/abono-paseo-arte-museos-madrid). Beware of buying from third-party sites that look official but add a hefty management fee that will wipe out any savings. The pass is good for a year, but note it allows just one entry to each museum—it is worthwhile only if you plan to visit all three. Tip: All three museums offer free admission during the last couple of hours of each day they’re open, which is great for those on a budget. But it’s no secret, and you may find it hard to get close to the pictures.

With a Frommer's guidebook in hand you can see the city in an informed way. But if you feel the need for a guide, or have specialist interests, the tourist office suggests a range of tours. Walking tours in English focus primarily on Madrid’s history and art. Other options include architecture, food, and wine-tasting. Prices range from 15€ for a history tour to 80€ for a gourmet walkabout. You can also tour the city by Segway (from 30€ an hour) or by TukTuk (from 80€ an hour). For private, half-day and full-day tours by expert local guides, try Tours by Locals, Context Travel, or Madrid Tour Experience. Expect to pay around 350€ for a 4-hour tour for you and your traveling companions.

If you do decide to go it alone, here's a look at some of the top areas for attractions, nightlife, and sightseeing:

Arts District & Paseos

The Paseo del Prado, the leafy boulevard that runs north to south from Plaza de Cibeles to Atocha rail station, is the mother lode for art lovers. Three of the world’s great art museums—Museo del Prado, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, and Museo Nacional Centro de Art Reina Sofía—stand just a few blocks apart, and there are plenty of other points of interest within walking distance, from the botanical gardens to the royal tapestry factory. Metro stops: Estación del Arte and Banco de España.

Puerta del Sol & Barrio de las Letras

Puerta del Sol is the hub of old Madrid and the principal crossroads of the city’s transport systems. It is also the square where madrileños have always flocked when trouble is afoot—from the uprising against Napoleon in 1808 to the economic protests of May 2011—and when there is a party to be had (on New Year’s Eve, for example).

Just uphill to the southeast are the old streets of the Barrio de las Letras, or literary district, which you’ll also hear referred to as Las Huertas. These narrow streets and shady alleys, now embedded with literary quotations, are the same paths walked by playwright Tirso de Molina (1579–1648), novelist Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616), and the greatest rascal of all, Félix Lope de Vega (1562–1635). Now as then, the neighborhood is home to many of Madrid’s liveliest bars and theaters. Metro: Sol, Sevilla, and Antón Martín.

Plaza Mayor, La Latina & Lavapiés

Madrid was born in La Latina. The neighborhood’s boundaries conform closely to the walled medina of the 10th-century citadel known as al-Majrīt, or “place of water” in Arabic. When Alfonso VI of Castilla y León conquered it in 1085, he turned the mosque into a church and left the walls in place. Four centuries would pass before they were fully torn down to let the village grow, and even today, its narrow streets follow the original Moorish pattern, punctuated almost randomly by little plazas. So, why is it called La Latina? It has nothing to do with the Romans but is named after a hospital founded in 1499 by Beatriz Galindo, a learned woman known as “la Latina.” Plaza Mayor was originally the market square outside the city walls, but since the 17th century it has been Madrid’s main square. Lavapiés, a once-neglected working-class district, is now a vibrant hub of multicultural cuisine and alternative street art.

(Palacio Real, photo by LucVi/Shutterstock)

Opera & Palacio Real

As you approach Madrid’s regal quarter, the narrow streets of the old city give way to sun-splashed plazas and the vast formality of the Palacio Real. Comparisons with the Paris Opera and the palace of Versailles are inevitable. Much of what you’ll see here was created under Bourbon kings with French taste—or by another Frenchman, Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother, who ruled Spain as José I (1808–13). He earned the nickname Pepe Plazuelas (Joe Squares) due to his penchant for demolishing houses to make way for open spaces, including Plaza de Oriente, the broad expanse between the Teatro Real and the palace. Stop at its center to admire the rearing equestrian statue of Felipe IV, based on designs by Velázquez with scientific input from Galileo. The horse’s hind legs and tail are heavily weighted, while its head and front legs are hollow. A crescent of elegant cafés faces the palace, frequented by ladies who lunch. Metro: Ópera.

Gran Vía, Chueca & Malasaña

The slashing diagonal of Gran Vía, built between 1910 and 1930, was Madrid’s first thoroughfare for the automobile age. By the end of the 20^th century, congestion and pollution had made it rather grimy and depressing, but a major program to broaden the sidewalks and spruce up its iconic buildings has restored much of its former glory. Swish hotels with rooftop bars have returned alongside some famous names that never went away. The best way to explore Gran Vía is simply to walk along it, admiring the architecture of the city’s first skyscrapers, the art deco Edificio Carrion (Capitol Building) with its famous Schweppes sign, and Belle Époque gems like the Edificio Metropolis that glitter in the sun. Immediately to the north, the inner-city barrios of Chueca and Malasaña have been gentrifying for decades. Chueca is Madrid’s gay district, a beacon of diversity across Spain, while Malasaña was epicenter of La Movida Madrileña, the post-Franco counter-cultural movement of the 1980s, and remains a haven for students and hipsters. Madrid’s vibrant streetlife and nightlife, rather than monuments, are the main attractions here. Metro stops include Gran Vía, Chueca, and Santo Domingo.

Salamanca, Retiro & Chamberí

After the bustle of old Madrid, Salamanca offers a refined change of pace. The Marqués de Salamanca began developing this neighborhood in the mid-19^th century just as the old city walls came down, and it quickly became Madrid’s most exclusive address. Situated north of El Retiro park and east of the Paseo de la Castellana, its broad, tree-lined avenues are laid out in an orderly grid, sprinkled with the flagship stores of international designer brands and some very expensive restaurants. The area around El Retiro is also exclusive, though less showy, while fashionable Chamberí to the northwest has become a magnet for Madrid’s young professionals, with lots of good places–both hip and traditional—for drinks and tapas. Metro stops include Serrano, Retiro, Nuñez de Balboa, and Iglesia.

Shopping is a passion in Madrid where free-spending pijos (people with money) keep the ultra-chic Salamanca designer shops in business. Chueca boutiques around Calle Almirante offer alternative designers, while Calle Fuencarral is packed with fashionable international brands. High-street stores are clustered along Calle Preciados and the best place for handicrafts is around Plaza Mayor. Larger shops stay open from 10am until 8pm or 8.30pm, many smaller ones close from 2pm to 5pm.

Here's a look at which top Spanish brands you can find on which streets, as well as an overview of specialty shopping.

Shopping in Salamanca, Madrid

For luxury (or window) shopping, head to Calle Serrano and its environs, nicknamed La Milla de Oro—the Golden Mile. These stylish avenues are sprinkled with the flagship stores of international designers and leading Spanish brands including Balenciaga, Calle Ortega y Gasset, 10 (tel. 91-419-99-00; metro: Núñez be Balboa), Adolfo Dominguez, Calle Serrano, 5 (tel. 91-436-26-00; metro: Retiro); and the elite handbag maker Loewe, Calle Serrano, 34 (tel. 91-577-60-56; metro: Serrano).

Some of Spain’s most venerable names in jewelry have stores here, including Rabat, Calle Serrano, 26 (tel. 91-431-93-33; metro: Serrano), Suarez, Calle Serrano, 63 (tel. 91-781-16-80; metro: Serrano), and Tous, Calle Serrano, 50 (tel. 63-014-83-26; metro: Serrano).

The upmarket shopping mall ABC Serrano, Calle Serrano, 61 (tel. 91-577-50-31; metro: Serrano), occupies a striking Neo-Mudéjar building that was once the headquarters of the ABC newspaper.

For exquisitely packaged food and wine, visit the Gourmet Experience at El Corte Inglés Serrano, Calle Serrano, 52 (tel. 90-193-09-30; metro: Serrano). Hand-made, gift-wrapped chocolates from Bombonería Santa, Calle Serrano, 56 (tel. 91-576-86-46; metro: Serrano), will make you popular when you get home.

Gran Vía Shopping

Madrid’s most famous street, Gran Vía, now hosts many of the ubiquitous international high-street brands but it’s still an enjoyable place for a shopping spree. The grandeur of its 20th-century architecture and the newly broadened sidewalks help. Spanish fashion brands with flagship stores here include Zara, Gran Vía, 34 (tel. 91-521-12-83; metro: Callao), Stradivarius, Gran Vía, 30 (tel. 91-523-07-15; Gran Vía), and Mango, Gran Vía, 32 (tel. 91-521-08-79; metro: Gran Vía), alongside some of the bespoke luxury brands you’ll also find in Salamanca.

Cheap But Cool Shopping in Chueca & Malasaña

Shoppers with more limited means may prefer these hip neighborhoods. Explore the side streets around Calle Fuencarral for up-and-coming designers, graffitied vintage clothes stores, and secondhand comics.

Popland, Calle de Manuela Malasaña, 24 (tel. 91-5-91-21-20; metro: San Bernardo), and Templo de Susu, Calle de Espiritú Santo, 1 (tel. 91-523-31-22; metro: Tribunal), are long-established classics and new places are popping up all the time.

Chueca’s Calle Augusto Figueroa is shoe central—often with bargain prices—and the outlet store of Salvador Bachiller, Calle Gravina, 11 (tel. 91-523-30-37; metro: Chueca), is a good place for cheap and cheerfully colored luggage and bags. Nearby Antigua Casa Crespo, Calle Divino Pastor, 29 (tel. 91-521-56-54; metro: San Bernardo), is a lovely old shop selling traditional rope-soled espadrilles (alpargatas), including fashionable new designs. Casa Postal, Calle de la Libertad, 37 (tel. 91-532-70-37; metro: Chueca), is a collector’s paradise of old postcards, photographs, and ephemera that paints a wonderful picture of Spain in days gone by.

To the east, the streets of the Justicia district are dotted with one-off concept stores for cutting edge design and sustainable fashion; two favorites are Luciernaga, Calle Infantas, 32 (tel. 65-799-84-54; metro: Gran Vía), and Despacio, Calle de Belén, 10 (tel. 91-011-02-85; metro: Chueca). Casa González y González, Calle de Pelayo, 68 (tel. 91-056-70-01; metro: Chueca), sells beautiful traditional household items.

Around Plaza Mayor & Puerta del Sol

Among trashy shops in the tourist center are some traditional and upmarket gems. Head to La Favorita, Plaza Mayor, 25 (tel. 91-366-58-77), or Casa Yustas, Plaza Mayor, 30 (tel. 91-366-50-84), for caps (gorras), berets (boinas), and good-value Panama hats. Casa de Diego, Puerta del Sol, 12 (tel. 91-522-66-43; metro: Sol), has been selling beautifully decorated hand-made fans (abanicos), shawls (mantones), and veils (mantillas) for 200 years, and Capas Seseña, Calle Cruz, 23 (; 📞 91-531-68-40; metro: Sol), has turned its traditional, and expensive, capes into high fashion. La Violeta, Plaza de Canalejas, 6 (tel. 91-522-55-22; metro: Sol or Sevilla), is a lovely old shop selling its own brand of violet-flavored boiled sweets, packaged with ribbons. 

Cocol, Costanilla de San Andrés, 18 (tel. 91-919-67-70; metro: La Latina), and Real Fábrica, Calle de Cervantes, 9 (tel. 91-125-20-21; metro Antón Martín), are modern stores focusing on authentic crafts and comestibles with a Made in Spain tag.

For luxury boutiques, head to Galería Canalejas, Plaza de Canalejas, 1 (tel. 91-108-56-06; metro: Sol or Sevilla), an extravagant shopping complex in a restored former insurance company HQ.

Specialty Shops

If you’re interested in Spain’s great ceramics tradition, don’t miss Antigua Casa Talavera, Calle Isabel La Católica, 2 (tel. 91-547-34-17; metro: Santo Domingo), where the tiled façade and friendly owner are worth the trip even if you’re not buying.

Spain’s guitar-making craft lives on at Guitarras Ramírez, Calle de la Paz, 8 (tel. 68-012-22-62; metro: Sevilla). Founded in the 1880s, its instruments have been favored by guitarists from Andrés Segovia to George Harrison. The Spanish guitar part on the Beatles’ And I Love Her was played on a Ramirez.

For secondhand flamenco and rock CDs and vinyl, Discos La Gramola, Postigo de San Martín, 4 (tel. 68-527-71-08; metro: Sol), is an enjoyable place to rummage.

Markets

Sunday morning is the time for Madrid’s famous flea market El Rastro, whose acres of stalls hawk vintage clothes, secondhand books and vinyl, and plenty of junk.

For the more serious collector, it’s worth returning on a weekday to browse the antique shops at Galerías Piquer and Nuevas Galerías on Ribera de Curtidores.

If you’re visiting Madrid on the second weekend of the month, Mercado de Motores is a good bet for bric-a-brac and quirky Spanish designs.

Madrid has a number of theaters, opera companies, and companies for flamenco and other types of dance (see individual reviews on this website of the best ones). But it's most renowned for its bars and clubs. From the the bars and dance clubs of trendy Chueca, to alternative Malasaña, stylish La Latina and multicultural Lavapiés, Madrid's nightlife is vast and varied. If you're looking for a bCafé Commercial, Café del Círculo de Bellas Artes and Vinoteca Barbechera are great places to warm up before the serious bar-hopping begins. Clubs officially wind down around 6am and others carry on till way past dawn – look out for flyers and advertisements.

Top Bars and Streets for Bar Hopping

The time for beer and tapas begins around 8:30pm. While many visitors gravitate to the bars around Plaza Santa Ana, locals are more likely to head to Cava Baja or Calle Jesús, or further afield. The bars of Chueca and Malasaña have plenty of antique character and hipster clientele, like at Taberna de Ángel Sierra (Calle de Gravina, 11), Casa Camacho (Calle de San Andrés, 4), or Casa Baranda (Calle de Colón, 11).

It’s also worth seeking out Chamberí’s Plaza de Olavide (metro: Quevedo or Iglesia), where almost every building on the circular plaza has a pavement bar full of chatting groups of friends. Nearby Calle Ponzano (metro: Ríos Rosas or Alonso Cano) is a great place to hop from one bar to another—there are scores on them on the same street.

We also have devoted an entire section of this website to the top tapas bars in Madrid by the food they serve. Click here to read that.

Late Night Tipples and Tapas

As the clock moves past midnight, gin and tonic served in goldfish bowl goblets becomes the drink of choice. Founded in 1931, Museo Chicote, Calle Gran Vía, 12 (tel/ 915-326-737; metro: Gran Vía), was Madrid’s first American-style cocktail bar, a favorite of Hemingway and Buñuel.

Salmon Guru, Calle de Echegaray, 21 (tel. metro:Antón Martín), is the last word in modern cocktails created by the mixologist Diego Cabrera. You can’t book, so be prepared to wait in line.

For late drinks with views, book a rooftop table at the ME Reina Victoria hotel, Plaza de Sta. Ana, 14 (tel. 91-701-60-00; metro: Sol or Antón Martín), or at the uber-stylish Hotel Urban, Carrera de San Jerónimo, 34 (tel. 917-877-770; metro: Sevilla). At weekends in summer, they stay open until at least 2am.

Live Music and Dancing

If you enjoy jazz or blues, check out Café Central, Plaza del Angel, 10 (tel. 91-369-41-43; metro: Antón Martín), or the cavernlike La Coquette Blues Bar, Calle de las Hileras, 14 (tel. 91-521-09-15; metro: Ópera). Both clubs get top talent. The Malasaña mega-club Clamores, Calle Alburquerque, 14 (tel. 91-445-54-80; metro: Bilbao), often stages early-evening concerts before turning into a late-night dance club. Its main competitor is Teatro Eslava, Calle Arenal, 11 (tel. 91-575-06-27; metro: Sol or Opera),  which is set in a 19th-century theater reimagined by the designer Philippe Starck. Enslava is open every night of the year and is conveniently located next to Chocolatería San Ginés for chocolate con churros at dawn.

Madrid is also home to a number of major music festivals. For a list of those, visit esmadrid.com/en/music-festivals.

LGBTQIA+ Clubs

Chueca pulsates with gay bars and clubs. The most happening include LL Show Bar, C. de Pelayo, 11 (tel. 61-908-88-11; metro: Chueca) which has nightly drag shows, and Studio 54, Calle de Barbieri, 7 (tel. 61-512-68-07; metro: Chueca), which pays homage to the ’70s New York scene.