Sightseeing in Madrid

Sightseeing in Madrid has a short inner walk and a long ring of day trips. The walk follows the old royal axis east from Plaza Mayor: the Metrópolis building, inaugurated in 1911, Cibeles, the Puerta de Alcalá of 1778 and the Retiro, which joined the UNESCO list with the Paseo del Prado in 2021. Gran Vía, cut through the old streets between 1910 and 1929, crosses it. The ring has its own dates. Aranjuez, where Philip II commissioned a palace in 1560, is a UNESCO cultural landscape, and Toledo's cathedral took from 1226 to 1493. In the Ribera del Duero, Protos, founded in 1927, ages its wine in tunnels cut into the castle hill at Peñafiel.

Madrid sightseeing tours come as coach days, car days and train days. Coaches leave Plaza de Oriente for Toledo with Ávila or Segóbriga, nine and a half to eleven hours. Small groups and private cars pair Aranjuez with Toledo, Ávila with Segovia, Salamanca or El Escorial, and the wine towns around Peñafiel. Some private cars only drop you in Toledo or Segovia and collect you five to eight hours later, with no guide. The train days reach Seville, Córdoba or Barcelona in twelve or thirteen hours, with return tickets and a guide at the other end, and Toledo by high-speed train is a five-hour private visit for up to two. In town, a two-hour walk covers royal Madrid, and chauffeured panoramic tours of two or three hours collect guests at the hotel.

Practical. Segovia stands at about 1,000 metres: January afternoons reach 8C and nights fall near 0C, while July afternoons reach 30C but nights drop to 15C. The Aranjuez palace is shut on Mondays, like most royal sites; Madrid's Royal Palace is the exception. The train days are non-refundable once booked, need every traveller's name and passport or ID number, and expect you at the station 15 to 20 minutes before an early departure.