Madrid for first-time visitors
Almudena Cathedral is the cathedral facing the Royal Palace across its own armoury square. The earliest of the picks for first-time visitors in Madrid opens at 07:00 and the latest closes at 02:00.
Madrid for first-timers, in numbers
- Picks on this page
- 24 places across 2 lists, led by Almudena Cathedral, Teatro Real, Teatro de la Zarzuela
- Posted hours
- 8 picks post hours earliest 07:00, latest 02:00; 3 open by 09:00, 8 past 21:00
Questions first-timers ask about Madrid
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Must-see
The Museo del Prado on Paseo del Prado. Spain's national art museum opened in 1819 and holds over 8,000 paintings, but Room 12's Velázquez Las Meninas (1656) is the single canvas that stops every visitor mid-step. General admission is €15. Book a timed 9:30am slot to skip the 40-minute midday queue.
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Best time to visit
Visit from late April to mid-June, or from mid-September to the end of October, when Madrid's highs run around 20-26°C, terrazas stay open past midnight, and the San Isidro fiesta fills the Pradera in mid-May. Skip July and August: afternoons reach 35-40°C, and many family-run restaurants close for the August holiday.
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Airport to city
Take the Exprés Aeropuerto bus from Madrid-Barajas (MAD) to Atocha station for €5 (about $5.80), running 24 hours, 30 to 40 minutes. The fixed-fare taxi is €30 to anywhere inside the M-30 ring road, set by city ordinance and non-negotiable. Metro Line 8 reaches Nuevos Ministerios in 12 to 25 minutes for around €4.50 plus a €3 airport supplement.
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How to get there
Madrid-Barajas (MAD) sits 13 km northeast of Puerta del Sol and handles all commercial flights. Nonstop service runs from New York (8 hours on Iberia and American), London (2.5 hours on BA and Ryanair), and most European capitals. Metro Line 8 reaches Nuevos Ministerios in 25 minutes for €4.50. AVE high-speed trains from Barcelona and Seville take under 3 hours.
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Getting around
Metro for most trips, walking for the center, taxi or Cabify after 1:30 AM when the Metro shuts. A Tarjeta Multi costs €2.50 and loads single rides at €1.50 each. From Barajas airport, the flat-rate taxi at €30 to central Madrid beats the Metro's €4.50 per person after the airport supplement.
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Curated for first-timers
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Must-see attractions
Madrid's must-see list is mostly a list of institutions still doing their original jobs: the Royal Palace is still described as the official residence of the Spanish Royal Family, Teatro Real is an opera house, and Las Ventas is a bullring. Their dates run from the Palace of Zarzuela's 1627 and El Retiro Park's 1680, through the palace's 1735 and the Alcalá Gate's 1769, to the Reina Sofía's 1992. Nearly all of them hold Bien de interés cultural status, and the Real Botanic Garden and the Alcalá Gate are each part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This list is for visitors who want the city's state rooms, its art and its open spaces, and who will plan around opening hours rather than turn up hoping. Two entries are residences of the royal family and the Prime Minister, included here so you know what they are; the paragraphs below say plainly how far a visit can go.
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Best restaurants
Madrid eats late, eats loudly, and eats on its feet. The list below is twelve addresses inside the old centre (Sol, Plaza Mayor, the tight lanes off Carrera de San Jerónimo) where the kitchens run past midnight and the counters fill with people who came to eat, not to be photographed. There is no tasting-menu theatre here and no chef-as-celebrity signage; there is a taberna that opens at 07:00 for the market crowd, a burrito counter that keeps going until 01:00 on weekends, a Peruvian dining room a few minutes from Ópera, and an Argentine parrilla off Plaza de Canalejas that lights its grill at lunch and does not stop until after midnight. The city rewards visitors who eat where the postal code is 28012 or 28013 and the phone number still starts with 91. Skip the pyramid-of-paella restaurants ringing the main square; walk one street off it. That is the whole editorial thesis of what follows.
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