Tips
- Use the metro. It is a modern and clean metro. The most efficient way is to purchase a 10-trip ticket (as suggested by a rail employee). Although there is a metro, I took a taxi as was travelling with 3 others to and from the airport.
- Find food off of the main square as it is cheaper (obviously)
Activities
Athletico’s Metropolitan stadium tour
This stadium is a lovely purpose-built stadium on the outskirts of the city, with a large outside area and purpose-built metro stadium. You can really see the thought process that went into it.
The tour is excellent. It’s a self-guided tour that takes you through the players entrance, into the presidential stand, locker room and media theatre. There are plenty of photo opportunities.
The end of the tour is the trophy room that contains lots of artefacts going back 100 years including football boots and shirts.
I was going to do the bernabau stadium too. But they were having renovations which meant a reduced tour.
Palacia Real de Madrid
This is a beautiful palace. Although we did not take a tour of the reception rooms I am gutted that I did not. I am told that they are beautiful. The outside is glorious and enormous again a great place for photo opportunities.
Catedral de Santa María la Real de la Almudena
Next to the palace, this Catholic cathedral is free entry and has multiple striking chapels with different devotions.
The actual architecture and stained glass is glorious and there is also a display of a large piece of religious artwork.
I saw a humerous thing here in the form of electric votive candles which activate for 15-30 minutes every time you put a coin in the slot – very fun to guess which one lights up!
Mercado de San Miguel
For you foodies this is a prepared food market where you can try all sorts of glorious things from sushi to paella to ice cream to cheeses. It is expensive but good to look around and there are some bars serving some local beers.
Museo de Prada
The art museum with 100s of pieces is usually €15 during the day. During the hours of 6-8pm it is free, but be warned there is usually a queue forming which despite is length did move quite quickly.
If you are into art this is great, for someone who doesn’t take a large interest it was interesting to see, but you may struggle to take your companions who have no interest.
Places of interest
Ministerio de Transportes y Movilidad Sostenible
This building is far from most things. It is a place of interest since it is the location of the façade of the Netflix hit “Money Heist” series 3, where it is portrayed as the bank of Spain. It’s fun to see for fans of the series.
The other building featured in series one is inaccessible to the public.
The Largest Primark in the World
This Primark is the size of a small shopping centre with nothing but Primark. Excellent for you fast-fashion lovers.
Tío Pío’s Hill
A great view of the city from the south can be seen here, with stunning sunsets. It is a metro ride away from the centre.
El Retiro Park
This large park features some stunning gardens, with a small boating lake in the middle.
Plaza Mayor
The first thing any trip ideas site will tell you is to go here. This is the central square with restaurants around the circumference. Other than it being a large square there wasn’t much going on when I was there. I am told it is historically significant and many important events have occurred here.
Food
Generally lots of food places serve pretty much the same dishes. You have your paella, pizzas and sometimes dishes with fried eggs in them – strange since in the UK we only usually see fried eggs for breakfast. It can be somewhat fun to checkout how paella varies from restaurant to restaurant – but I can tell you there isn’t much variation.
If you do walk around, usually just off the main square, you can get some bargains such as 3 courses for €15. Expecting smaller portions, we were impressed that they were pretty much the same size from restaurants on the square that were charging €20 just for the one dish.
Madrid in General
Madrid is quite a walkable city, with other attractions within a metro ride away where the ticket cost me €6 for 10 trips. Lots of wind-ey narrow streets keep you occupied and generally locals know English so there is no problem here.
The locals telling off!
I was very pleased with my accommodation. Since there were four of us, it was financially feasible to have a holiday apartment, which was spacious and and allowed us to cook breakfast to bring the cost of the trip down.
The only problem with an apartment is that there is no daily cleaning, which means you have to wash your own things and take out your own rubbish. Nonetheless, I find an available washing machine a huge benefit since I can use the washing machine for my own clothes – literally lessening the post-holiday load when I return home.
This apartment was first floor with a small balcony located on C. de la Ruda. My dad had his hands full, walking down to the street bin, with an enormous pizza box. I asked my dad to open the bin up when he gets there to allow me to drop in cans and bottles from the window – since there’d be multiple trips for that. So he went down opened the bin. I dropped some cans in bin, then some middle-aged woman from the street started watching us. A plastic bottle did bounce off of the bin rim but it rolled to the side of the road.
She had a strong word with my dad informing us that it’s the wrong bin. There were, according to her, two bins, one general waste other recycling. We assumed recycling was one with recycling symbol on. But on closer look, they both had this symbol on, with one bin without lid and one with. She continued to tell off my dad mentioning that it’s dangerous to drop things and was “setting a bad example”.