How To Spend Three Days In Madrid

14.05.2024 - 17:01 / forbes.com / Don Quixote / Star IV (Iv)

Once considered the gateway to popular Spanish locales like Barcelona, the Balearic Islands and Andalucía, Madrid has emerged as a destination in its own right. Visitors now arrive in droves, thanks to the Spanish capital’s surge of luxury accommodations.

Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star Four Seasons Hotel Madrid opened in September 2020 in the Centro Canalejas and occupies seven restored historic buildings. This sophisticated oasis sits at Calle de Sevilla and Calle de Alcalá. It is a well-situated base to explore Madrid’s opulent palaces, storied museums and tempting food markets and restaurants.

Here’s a guide for what to do in Madrid on a three-day escape, though the capital city’s vast cultural offerings can keep you entertained for a lot longer than that.

Day One

Start your day by accomplishing two tasks: Getting your bearings by hitting the streets on foot and trying a staple of madrileño cuisine — a classic bocadillo de calamar (calamari sandwich).

After checking in at your hotel, head west down Calle de Alcalá toward the Puerta del Sol, a busy public square known as the home of Kilometer Zero, a stone slab that marks Spain’s geographical center.

Make your way toward the Plaza Mayor, the main square, where bullfights, processions and even Inquisition trials and executions once took place. These days, Plaza Mayor is home to traditional shops selling canned goods, bottles of extra virgin olive oil and, you guessed it, bocadillo de calamar. La Ideal has served the snack for decades for a modest four euros. For a more upscale version, backtrack to nearby Lhardy for a calamari sandwich in a spongy roll called pan bombón. While you can order the bocadillo at the shopfront downstairs and eat it at the counter, go upstairs to the opulent dining room if you want something more filling. The stew here is one of the city’s most revered. In addition to a traditional chickpea base, this classic stew features angel hair noodles, sausages, ham, bacon and root vegetables.

From Plaza Mayor, keep walking west until you reach the Palacio Real de Madrid, the official residence of the Spanish royal family. The nobles actually live in Palacio de la Zarzuela, which is twice the size of Buckingham Palace and Versailles and worth visiting. The surrounding Lepanto and Sabatini gardens also merit a look, as does the view of the Catedral de la Almudena.

Continue your journey north to Plaza de España, a large pedestrian square best known for its giant sculptures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, the fictional hero’s sidekick. Keep heading west, and you’ll get to the Temple of Debod, an Egyptian temple donated to Spain by the Egyptian government to save it from floods.

Return to Plaza de España and watch for Gran Vía, one of