Visit Madrid

First impressions of Madrid

Madrid is the swaggering, late-night, art-and-tapas capital of Spain — a 3-million-person city in the dead centre of the Iberian Peninsula, with one of the highest altitudes (667m) of any European capital and a fierce continental climate that gives it bright dry summers and surprisingly cold winters. The city's headline draw is the 'Golden Triangle of Art' — three world-class museums within a 15-minute walk: the Prado (the greatest concentration of Spanish painting anywhere, with Velázquez's 'Las Meninas', Goya's Black Paintings, and the moving 'The Third of May 1808'), the Reina Sofía (Picasso's 'Guernica', plus brilliant 20th-century Spanish modern art), and the Thyssen-Bornemissza (the world's most comprehensive private art collection, from Duccio to Pollock). Beyond the art, Madrid is about street life: the Plaça Mayor and the elegant Plaça Mayor, the wonderful Mercado de San Miguel for tapas, the historic Cava Baja street with its tiled tabernas, and the brilliant Sunday morning Rastro flea market in La Latina. Don't miss El Retiro park (with the Crystal Palace), the Royal Palace (the largest functioning royal palace in Europe, though the current king lives elsewhere), and a long night of tapeo — the late, late, late tradition of moving between bars for tapas and small drinks until 2-3am.