How many days do you need in Madrid?
Three days. That is the length of the itinerary we built for Madrid.
Here is what each day holds. Every stop below carries its time, and every gap says how to get to the next stop, with the walk or drive time wherever both stops are mapped.
Madrid · 3 days Spain
Best time: April to June and September to October.
The art triangleDay 1
📍10:00 AMMuseo del Prado
Velázquez's Las Meninas, Goya's Black Paintings, and Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights. Free for the last two hours; go then only if you are picking a few rooms.
🚶 ~11 min · 🚗 ~1 min · 0.4 mi
🌳2:30 PMRetiro Park
The former royal garden: a rowing lake, a glass palace among the trees, and the whole city sitting outside on a Sunday.
🚶 ~20 min · 🚗 ~3 min · 0.7 mi
📍6:00 PMReina Sofía
Picasso's Guernica in a room of its own, plus Dalí and Miró. Free in the evenings and much calmer than the Prado.
Old MadridDay 2
🏰9:30 AMRoyal Palace
The largest functioning royal palace in Western Europe by floor area, still used for state occasions. Check it is not closed for one.
🚶 ~11 min · 🚗 ~1 min · 0.4 mi
📍1:00 PMPlaza Mayor and Mercado de San Miguel
The arcaded square that has held markets, bullfights, and executions, with a glass-walled food market a minute away.
🚶 ~9 min · 🚗 ~1 min · 0.3 mi
🍽️8:00 PMLa Latina tapas crawl
The oldest quarter, and the standard local move: one drink and one plate per bar, then move on. Sunday after the flea market is the big one.
NeighbourhoodsDay 3
📍10:30 AMThyssen-Bornemisza
The private collection that fills the gaps the other two leave: Holbein to Hopper, in one manageable building.
🚶 ~24 min · 🚗 ~3 min · 0.9 mi
📍2:00 PMMalasaña
The district that gave Madrid the post-Franco counterculture, now vintage shops, record stores, and small squares that fill at aperitivo hour.
🚶 ~20 min · 🚗 ~3 min · 0.7 mi
⛩️8:30 PMTemple of Debod at sunset
An actual second-century BC Egyptian temple, given to Spain and rebuilt in a park, with the best free sunset in the city behind it.
This is how Petrel lays out a trip. Upload your own confirmations and it builds this for your dates: flights and hotels included, with live flight status and the travel time between stops.
This is one of 126 free itineraries. Open it, change anything you want, and it becomes your trip.