Spain's high plateau capital — the Prado and the Reina Sofía, a royal palace, tapas until midnight and Toledo an hour down the line
✈ International🛂 Visa — Schengen Required💱 €
€2,474
Est. total budget
5
Days
10
Attractions
13
Meals planned
💡 Recommended trip length for Madrid: 5 days — the Prado and Reina Sofía, the Royal Palace, a day in Toledo, the Bernabéu and flamenco after dark.
🗓 Prices & visa rules verified: August 2026
1
Arrival Day
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2
Day 2 — a free sample of your itinerary
Your unlocked preview day
☕
08:00
☕Breakfast
Tostada with tomato and a café con leche, standing at the bar.
€5.45 /person (est.)
🏛
09:05
🏛Plaza Mayor, Sol & Mercado de San Miguel· Centro
🕒 Open all day · The squares are free; San Miguel is a market for tourists and priced that way — good for one plate and a vermouth, not for dinner. For actual tapas walk five minutes to Cava Baja in La Latina.
Free entry⏱ 2.5 hoursculture
Plaza Mayor, Sol → Royal Palace
🚶~10 min on foot · Sol (L1/L2/L3) → Ópera (L2/L5/R)
👑
11:45
👑Royal Palace & Almudena Cathedral· Centro
🕒 10:00–19:00 · Last entry 16:30 · Free for EU citizens in the last two hours; everyone else pays. It closes without warning for state ceremonies — check the website the morning you go. The Changing of the Guard is at 11:00 on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and the full ceremony on the first Wednesday of the month.
€14.00⏱ 2.5 hoursculture
🥘
14:15
🥘Lunch
The menú del día — three courses and a drink for about €15.
€14.98 /person (est.)
Royal Palace → Museo del Prado
🚇~15 min by metro · Ópera (L2/L5/R) → Banco de España (L2)
🖼
15:30
🖼Museo del Prado· Centro
🕒 10:00–20:00 · Last entry 17:00 · Free to everyone 18:00-20:00 Monday to Saturday and 17:00-19:00 Sunday — but the queue forms an hour before and you get two hours, not three. Book a timed ticket if your time matters more than €18. Las Meninas is in room 12; go there first, before the tour groups.
€18.00⏱ 3 hoursculture
🍷
19:00
🍷Dinner
Tapas along Cava Baja, late — Madrid eats at 22:00.
€25.43 /person (est.)
Museo del Prado → Flamenco at a Tablao
🚇~15 min by metro · Banco de España (L2) → La Latina (L5) / Ópera
💃
21:00
💃Flamenco at a Tablao· Centro
Part of your Day 2 — unlock to see the full description, how long to allow, opening hours and the ticket price.
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Day 3
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4
Day 4
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5
Departure Day
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🔒 You're viewing 1 of 5 days. Unlock to open the other 4 fully-planned days.
✈️Flights€1,090
Per person · return from India€544.86
Total · 2 adults€1,090
🏨Accommodation€345.08
3-Star hotel · per night (per room)€86.27
4 nights × 1 room€345.08
🎭Attractions & Activities€382.00
Museo del Prado€36.00
Royal Palace & Almudena Cathedral€28.00
Toledo Day Trip€70.00
Museo Reina Sofía — Guernica€24.00
Santiago Bernabéu Tour€74.00
Segovia Day Trip€60.00
Flamenco at a Tablao€90.00
Total (all pax)€382.00
🍽️Food & Dining€396.84
🌅 Breakfast × 4d × 2 pax€43.59
☀ Lunch × 5d × 2 pax€149.84
🌙 Dinner × 4d × 2 pax€203.41
Total food & dining€396.84
🚇Local Transport€80.00
Per person · per day (public transit)€8.00
5 days × 2 pax€80.00
🛂Visa — Schengen Required€180.00
Entry typeSchengen short-stay visa (Spain)
Fee€90 per applicant
ProcessApply via BLS International for Spain + biometrics
ProcessingAbout 15 working days — Spain's summer slots book out well ahead
ValidityUp to 90 days in any 180-day period (Schengen-wide)
TipCarry travel insurance, hotel bookings and return tickets for the application.
Estimated Grand Total
Madrid · 5 days · 2 adults
€2,474
Estimate · 2 adults, 3-star. Your dates, group & final plan set inside the full itinerary.
In your Itinerary
10 attractions
✓ All 10 attractions with descriptions, opening hours & ticket prices. Your personalised day-by-day plan unlocks with the full itinerary.
✓ Day 2
01 / 10
🖼 Museo del Prado
Centro
culture
3 hours
🕒 10:00–20:00
One of the two or three greatest painting collections on earth — Velázquez's Las Meninas, Goya's black paintings, Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, and enough Titian to reorder your idea of the man.
✓ Day 2
02 / 10
👑 Royal Palace & Almudena Cathedral
Centro
culture
2.5 hours
🕒 10:00–19:00
Europe's largest functioning royal palace by floor area — 3,000 rooms, of which you see about fifty: the Throne Room under a Tiepolo ceiling, a porcelain room, and a Stradivarius quintet nobody else has.
✓ Day 2
03 / 10
🏛 Plaza Mayor, Sol & Mercado de San Miguel
Centro
culture
2.5 hours
Habsburg Madrid on foot — a colonnaded 17th-century square that has been a market, a bullring and an execution ground, the kilometre-zero stone at Sol, and an iron-and-glass market hall selling everything by the plate.
✓ Day 2
04 / 10
💃 Flamenco at a Tablao
Centro
culture
2 hours
🕒 19:00–24:00
An hour of guitar, cante and dance in a small room where you sit close enough to hear the floorboards — not the folk-show version, but the real thing, which is harsher and much better.
05 / 10
⚔ Toledo Day Trip
Toledo
culture
6 hours
🕒 10:00–18:30
A walled city on a granite bluff inside a loop of the Tagus, where Christian, Jewish and Muslim Spain built on top of each other for 800 years — a cathedral of impossible density, El Greco's Burial of the Count of Orgaz, and the old sword-making lanes.
06 / 10
🎨 Museo Reina Sofía — Guernica
Centro
culture
2 hours
🕒 10:00–21:00
Spain's 20th century in one building — Picasso's Guernica on its own wall with the preparatory sketches around it, plus Dalí, Miró and the Civil War documentary rooms that give the painting its context.
07 / 10
🌳 Retiro Park & the Crystal Palace
Retiro
nature
2 hours
🕒 06:00–22:00
125 hectares of former royal garden in the middle of the city — a boating lake under a colonnade, a glass pavilion built for a Philippines exhibition in 1887, and the only statue to the Devil most people will ever see.
08 / 10
⚽ Santiago Bernabéu Tour
Chamartín
culture
2.5 hours
🕒 09:30–19:00
Inside the rebuilt home of Real Madrid — the retractable pitch, the players' tunnel, the dressing room, and a trophy room with fifteen European Cups in it that has to be seen to be believed.
09 / 10
🏰 Segovia Day Trip
Segovia
culture
5 hours
🕒 10:00–19:00
A first-century Roman aqueduct running straight through the middle of a town, 167 arches high and built without a drop of mortar, and a castle on a spur that Disney is said to have borrowed for Cinderella.
10 / 10
🌇 Temple of Debod at Sunset
Centro
leisure
1 hour
An actual 2nd-century BC Egyptian temple, given to Spain when the Aswan dam flooded Nubia and rebuilt stone by stone on a hill west of the palace, reflected in its own pool as the sun goes down behind it.
✓ All 4 stops on your Day 2 route. Unlock to see all 10 attractions mapped across your full itinerary.
✓ All 10 tips — visa, airport transfer & ways to spend less.
🛬
Airport → your hotel
Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas (MAD) is about 13 km northeast. The Metro line 8 runs from all four terminals to Nuevos Ministerios in 15 min — €5 including the compulsory €3 airport supplement, then change for the centre. The Cercanías C-1 train from T4 goes direct to Chamartín and Atocha for €2.60 and is the best value if your flight lands at T4. The Express Aerobús to Atocha is €5, 24 hours a day. A taxi to anywhere inside the M-30 is a flat €33 — fixed by the city, no meter, no negotiation. Verified Aug 2026.
💰
Ways to spend less
Paseo del Arte Pass — €32 covers one visit each to the Prado, Reina Sofía and Thyssen-Bornemisza and is valid a full year. Buying the three separately is €44, and the pass skips the ticket queue.
Every major museum has free hours: Prado 18:00-20:00 Mon-Sat and 17:00-19:00 Sun; Reina Sofía 19:00-21:00 most evenings; Thyssen free Mondays. You give up time and queue instead of paying — a fair trade if the budget is tight, a bad one if it is not.
The taxi from the airport is a flat €33 to anywhere central. For two or more people with luggage, that beats the metro's €5 a head plus a change.
A 10-trip Metrobús ticket is €12.20 and is shareable between people — far cheaper than singles if there are two of you.
Lunch on the menú del día — three courses, bread and a drink for €13-16 on weekdays — and eat lightly in the evening, which is what Madrid actually does.
🆘
Emergencies
112 — single EU emergency line, English-speaking, free and 24/7. Tap water in Madrid comes from the Sierra and is excellent.
📱
SIM & data
Movistar, Vodafone, Orange and Yoigo sell prepaid SIMs; you need your passport to register one. An eSIM is quicker. EU roaming plans cover Spain.
🌤
Best time to visit
April to June and September to early November. Madrid sits at 650 m on a plateau and the summer is brutal — 38-40°C through July and August, when the city half empties and many small restaurants shut for the month. Winter is cold, bright and dry, and the museums are yours.
🚇
Getting around
The Metro is cheap, clean and reaches everything — buy a rechargeable Tarjeta Multi (€2.50) and load a 10-trip Metrobús (€12.20), which two people can share. The centre is small enough to walk: Sol to the Prado is 15 minutes. Note the airport supplement (€3) applies on top of any metro fare to or from Barajas.
🛂
Visa for Indians
Indian passport holders need a Schengen short-stay visa. Spain's applications go through BLS International with biometrics; fee ~€90, processing about 15 working days. Summer appointment slots go fast — start 6-8 weeks ahead. Apply to Spain if it is your main destination or your first Schengen entry.
🍽
Food to try
Cocido madrileño (a three-course chickpea stew, and a whole afternoon), bocadillo de calamares on Plaza Mayor, jamón ibérico de bellota, tortilla, and churros at 2am. Vegetarians should know that 'sin carne' does not always exclude ham or fish stock — say 'soy vegetariano estricto' and check the tortilla is not cooked with chorizo.
🕐
The clock is different here
Madrid runs 2-3 hours later than northern Europe. Lunch is 14:00-16:00, dinner starts at 21:30 and kitchens serve past midnight. Turning up for dinner at 19:00 gets you an empty room and a tourist menu. Plan the afternoon around the fact that many smaller shops still close 14:00-17:00.
☀
Summer heat is a planning problem
In July and August the middle of the day is genuinely dangerous for walking tours. Do the Prado, Reina Sofía and the palace interiors between 13:00 and 18:00, and save Retiro, the squares and Debod for early morning and after 20:00 — sunset is around 21:45 in midsummer, so the evening is long.