Read on before you book your cheap business class flights to Madrid. We have compiled some helpful information to prepare you for a visit to this vibrant and historic city.
Madrid, the Spanish Capital, is a city built on art and feeds off excitement. There’s a world of discovery found in and around the centuries of architectural design. It is a city defined by its royal history with incredible palaces and mansions mingled with newer Spanish buildings making it hard to define Madrid with one specific landmark or attraction. Expect to be swept away in one of Europe’s busiest nightlife, far reaching flea and night markets, an incredible climate that still demands the daily siesta and a warm open spirit from the locals. Madrid is essentially Southern Europe’s financial powerhouse, containing the headquarters to three of Spain’s biggest companies, it is also a city brimming with some of the finest art galleries in the world and is home to two of Europe’s greatest soccer teams. If you’re a person of culture who’s looking for a good time Madrid could be the place to fly.
Museums and galleries should be on the top of any visitors list, the ‘Golden Triangle of Art’ along the Paseo del Prado comprises of three world-famous museums. The most famous being the Prado Museum featuring well over 20,000 works from some of history’s finest artists dating as far back as the 12th Century. The other two museums are the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum and the Reina Sofia Museum, where Pablo Picasso’s Guernica hangs.
Some of Madrid’s finest art pieces are found within great works themselves, there are a huge amount of Catholic churches housing the most important Spanish religious artworks.
The nightlife of Madrid is perhaps one of its most popular aspects catering the millions of tourists who visit each with year with tapas bars, cocktail bars, jazz lounges, live music venues, clubs and flamenco theaters – just to name a few.
Madrid has a well-known Bohemian culture deep in its heart with areas containing retro style cafes, venues for performing alternative and expressive art. In the neighbourhood of Lavapiés there are also “hidden houses”, illegal bars or abandoned spaces where concerts, poetry readings as well as the famous Spanish botellón – a traditional yet illegal street party that’s rarely stopped – is annually held.
Visiting a city as gigantic as Madrid and being able to see and do all it has to offer is no easy feat. From the stretch of museums to the thousands of high-class restaurants and bars, every corner you turn uncovers a spot that draws in tourists and locals alike. It is the third larges city in the European Union after London and Berlin. Madrid is located on the Manzanares river in the centre of the country and while it has a very modern infrastructure it has retained the look and feel of many of its historic avenues and neighborhoods. It is home to Spanish government and monarch and even contains the headquarters of the World Tourism Organization belonging the United Nations.
Some of the top visitor attractions are as follows:
If this is your first trip to Madrid then it may be worth investing in the Madrid Card. The card gives you access to the essential sites in Madrid. It also includes exclusive discounts at popular restaurants and shops. As a Card holder you can also skip the line at many of the sites so you don’t need to waste time on your trip waiting in a long queue to enter. The card activates on its first use and will be valid for a designated time period, 24, 48, or 72 hrs. Along with the card you will also receive a free guidebook and map to help you navigate the city and plan your day.
You can purchase the card online or at a number of tourist offices and online, it is advised though to purchase over the Internet. The Madrid card is your ticket to the sites allowing much smoother access and ensuring readily available tickets to all the amazing attractions Madrid has to offer.
Madrid is a huge city and trying to tackle everything without much knowledge could be too big a task. Thankfully many tour groups have emerged over the years offering numerous methods to exploring Spain’s capital. Some popular tours include:
Segway tours – a number of companies are offering tourists the chance to glide through Madrid on their personal Segway. This option is far easier on the feet and cover many of the central sites, it’s also great if the weather is too hot, which can often be the case in Madrid
Food tours – Madrid is a place of fine dining from the restaurants to the street and in particular they pride themselves on tapas, a selection of small dishes comprising a meal. There are a huge amount of tours that specialize in sampling all the finest and regionally diverse cuisines of Spain.
Personalised Tours – there’s such a high volume of tourists that come to Madrid that sometimes it’s good to book something special. There are various companies such as Madrid and You and Private Madrid Museum Tours that allow for a private guide who will take you and your family or friends round exclusive and lesser know attractions, providing excellent knowledge of art history and local folklore and getting you to the front of many queues. Be sure to check websites such as Tripadvisor to find out.
The cuisine in Madrid is a colorful mixture of the cuisines from various regions of Spain drawing roots all the way back the the mass migration to the capital in the reign of King Felipe II. Today Madrid is filled with a huge amount of great restaurants offering both Spanish and International cuisine. Dinner is served between and two and four in the afternoon and a light supper is usually had after ten at night. There’s an extraordinary amount of great Tapas places in Madrid but read on to learn about a few special places.
Botin: A big tourist attraction as it is in fact the oldest restaurant in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Don’t let that put you off, though, because the Spaniards still go here to sample the excellent food, specialties being cochinillo asado (roast suckling pig) and cordero asado (roast lamb). The restaurant in housed in a XVI century building in the old part of Madrid and really is a must when visiting Spain’s capital.
Café de Chinitas: A famous Flamenco restaurant situated in a gorgeous 18th Century mansion. The establishment delivers world-class Mediterranean food and there is a show every night. Enjoy some high class entertaninment and an astounding three course meal.
Restaurante La Barraca: La Barraca restaurant is one of the most famous paella restaurants in Madrid. It was founded in 1935 and is completely unique for its traditional Valencian rice dishes, as well as Mediterranean cuisine from other Spanish regions. There are more than 10 different types of rice dishes on the menu: mild or strong, seafood or vegetables, dry or with a more liquid consistency, all are exceptional.
Shopping in Madrid is an experience like no other with key districts ranging from the high-end to the boutique. Being such an attractive city shopping in Madrid coincides with quaint cafes, taking in the sights and feeling part of the city’s air of vibrancy.
Salamanca District: This is one of the most luxurious neighborhoods in the city center, brimming with cool restaurants, fashionable bars and expensive shops. The main avenues are Calle Serrano and Calle Velázquez, but you try and explore all the small streets of the area too, as their filled with surprises.
Calle Claudio Coello and Calle Lagasca are also filled with a wide variety of shops. Calle Serrano is a long avenue that cuts across the central part of the city north to south. However, some great shopping is from its beginning at Plaza de la Independencia (where the Puerta de Alcalá is) to calle Juan Bravo.
There’s a huge variety of food and flea markets in Madrid running daily and nightly but here’s a few definitely worth checking out.
Mercado De La Paz: Also in the Salamanca barrio, the congregation of food merchants was established in 1879 and is one of Madrid’s oldest markets. Despite its high-end location, it is still a local market with friendly stall owners who’ve been there for generations. Find some of the finest specialty fish dishes, particularly salted cod, guaranteeing a gourmet experience.
El Rastro: Said to be the largest flea market in Europe with up to 3500 different stalls, it extends through several streets in one of the city’s oldest working-class neighborhoods. Established in the Middle Ages, its hub is the Plaza de Cascorro (featuring a statue of legendary soldier Eloy Gonzalo) and sprawls downhill towards the river. The main street is Calle Ribera de Curtidores, formerly the site of the city’s tanning industry. It is open 9am to 3pm.
Madrid’s nightlife is a gigantic aspect of the city and as tradition dictates the night does not begin until very, very late. The city has everything from bars, clubs, cocktail lounges, roof terraces and many open air events particularly in summer months. Be warned that the Spaniards are very generous with their liquor pouring when ordering cocktails.
Located in the Malasana neighborhood, Tupperware is an alternative rock bar that is popular among Madrid’s twenty-something crowd. Tupperware’s resident and guest DJs spin mostly rock and pop music that run the gamut from yesterday’s mainstream to today’s indie
Kapital is Madrid’s mega nightclub with seven floors of bars, dance floors and recreational space. They regularly have different theme nights and sessions, including an early evening session for teenagers.
One of Madrid’s most exclusive terraces is The Roof at Me. The Roof is exceedingly cool with low lighting, waitresses who resemble supermodels and a strict door policy. If you want a slice of the good life and sample some of the capital’s most expensive cocktails, The Roof is the place for you.
Madrid has a continental climate meaning extremes of both, sweltering summers and freezing winters (particularly at night). While both have attractive aspects some of the finest times to visit are the Spring and Autumn. The clocks go forward in March and the city becomes a lot more active as the summer approaches. Equally around October the leaves in the park change making the atmosphere very calm and beautiful especially in the parks. Be sure to check when public holidays and Fiestas are taking place before you book tickets.
There are many major airlines that fly regularly to Madrid including British Airways, Virgin, Emirates and Lufthansa, so prices can vary. Flights from London Heathrow take 2h 30m, from Los Angeles it’s 11h, from New York it’s 7h 20m and from Sydney is around 24h flight time.
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Excellent and prompt service, diligent attention and follow-up. Absolutely great price all in all a wonderful experie...
