Escorted Madrid Holidays and Guided Tours
Madrid stands higher than any other capital in Europe, on the plateau of central Spain, which is why the winter skies are so hard and blue and the summer afternoons so dry. It is a city of galleries, squares and long lunches rather than sights ticked off in a rush.
Our Madrid holidays are built around the three great collections on the Paseo del Prado, with entrance fees included and a tour manager to get you through the doors. Most run five or six days by air from one hotel in the city, leaving room for days out to Toledo, Ávila, Aranjuez and El Escorial.
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Madrid Tours
A fair amount, and much of it standing rather than striding. The Prado alone involves an hour or two on marble floors, and Toledo is built on a hill with cobbled lanes and steps. The coach takes you between places, so the walking comes in stretches rather than all at once. If you are unsure whether a particular itinerary suits you, ring us and we will talk you through the day-by-day pace.
Yes, return flights are included on our Madrid holidays, along with coach transfers in the UK and in Spain. The departure airport and the flight times depend on the individual departure, so please ask us before you book if you need to travel from a particular airport. The flight to Madrid–Barajas takes a little over two hours, with a short transfer into the city at the other end.
Breakfast every morning is included on all our Madrid tours, and evening meals are included on some or all nights depending on the itinerary — one tour lists two evening meals, another lists them all. The tour page for each holiday sets out exactly what is covered. Lunches are generally left free, which is no hardship in a city with a bar on every corner.
Yes. A good number of our travellers book as solo travellers, and an Open Group departure is a straightforward way to see Madrid without having to organise museum tickets or find your way about. Prices are quoted per person sharing a twin or double room, and a single supplement applies if you would like a room to yourself. Ask us for the current supplement on the departure you are considering.
Entrance fees to the museums listed in the itinerary are included, and your tour manager handles the arrangements at the door, which usually means far less standing about than an independent visitor faces. The Prado in particular gets busy in the middle of the day and at weekends. You will normally have free time inside the galleries as well as guided time, so you can go back to whatever caught your eye.
Yes. Any of our Madrid itineraries can be run as a Private Group for a gardening club, U3A branch, church group or a large family, with the whole tour taken by your own party. Some of our costings are based on a group of around 25 travelling together. Tell us roughly how many you are and when you would like to go, and we will put a price and an outline itinerary together.
The Golden Triangle of Art
Three museums sit within a mile of each other along the Paseo del Prado, and between them they cover most of European painting. The Prado is the heart of it: Velázquez's Las Meninas, the Goya rooms including the black paintings from his house outside the city, Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, and a Spanish collection assembled by kings rather than committees.
The Reina Sofía takes up the twentieth century in a converted hospital, with Picasso's Guernica in a room of its own and the preparatory sketches alongside it. The Thyssen-Bornemisza was a private family collection, and it fills the gaps the other two leave — Italian primitives, Dutch interiors, Impressionists, American painting, Pop art — in roughly chronological order from the top floor down.
Our art tours include entrance to all three, and the day is paced so that you are not doing more than one serious collection before lunch.
Days Out to Toledo, Ávila and Aranjuez
Madrid makes an unusually good base, because the old capitals of Castile are all within an easy drive.
- Toledo stands on a granite outcrop inside a loop of the River Tagus, an hour south. Arab, Jewish and Christian Toledo are layered on top of one another in the walled town, and El Greco's Burial of the Count of Orgaz still hangs in the Church of Santo Tomé, where he painted it for the wall it occupies.
- Ávila is ringed by eleventh-century walls that run for well over a mile with dozens of towers — the most complete circuit in Spain, and best seen from the road as you approach.
- Aranjuez, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has the Bourbon royal palace and its gardens laid out along the Tagus, planted with trees brought from across the empire.
- El Escorial is Philip II's monastery, palace and royal mausoleum in the foothills of the Guadarrama, austere on purpose.
Which of these appear depends on the tour, so check the itinerary.
Madrid Between the Museums
The city itself repays the walking. Plaza Mayor is a closed rectangle of arcades where autos-da-fé, bullfights and royal proclamations all once happened; five minutes away, the paving slab at Puerta del Sol marks kilometre zero, from which every Spanish road is measured. The Royal Palace has more rooms than any other in western Europe, though only a fraction are shown.
Our panoramic city tours cover the Bourbon boulevards and the Habsburg lanes, and some itineraries include the Círculo de Bellas Artes, whose roof gives the best free-standing view over the rooftops towards the Gran Vía.
Madrileños eat late — lunch at two, dinner rarely before half past nine. Tour meals are earlier than that, which leaves the evening open if you fancy a walk to the Retiro or a glass of vermouth somewhere with marble tables.
How Our Madrid Tours Work
These are escorted holidays. Return flights are included, along with coach transfers at both ends, and you stay in one hotel in Madrid for the whole trip rather than repacking every other night. An English-speaking tour manager travels with the group and coach transport is provided for the excursions.
Breakfast is included daily, with a number of evening meals as well — the exact number varies between itineraries, so read the inclusions on the tour you are considering. Entrance fees to the museums and monuments named in the itinerary are covered, which matters in Madrid, where tickets for the big three collections would otherwise be bought separately.
Departures are either Open Group, where you join others on a scheduled date, or Private Group, where a club, society or set of friends takes the tour on its own dates.
