Highlights of Madrid

Heading to Madrid the may bank holiday weekend.

Have heard of people going but no one has ever talked about hotspots, great things to see or do?
anyone ever been? also, is it expensive? (in comparison to Dublin)

Where to start?! Madrid is a huge, 24 hour city. You can do pretty much whatever you want to do there. What sort of things are you looking for?

It's much less expensive than Dublin, by and large.

Hi,

I live in Madird, and am just back from a nice outdoor lunch in the splitting sun!

There's loads to do and see - depends what types of things you like.

There are the 3 art galleries - Prado, Reina Sofia and Thyssen. They are all within short walk of each other.
The Retiro park is nice to walk around for a few hours.
You can do tours around the Bernabeu stadium.
A good way to start is to do one of the open-top bus tours, since you get a city in perspective. They go from Puerta del Sol (big square in the center), and cost 13E for a day ticket I think (copany is called Madrid Vision).
Then the all the different areas to walk around and get to know - the older disctricts of Huertas and La Latina with windy streets to the upmarket shops of the Salamanca district.
Most people rave about spanish food - its also very cheap in comparison to Dublin - a three course lunch with a glass of wine will typically cost about 10E.
Madrid is also known for its nightlife - things start really late - restaurants open about 9:30pm, but no-one goes till about 10:30, then bars hot up about 1:00am, and clubs go all night..
Its a bit noisy, so if I were you I'd request a hotel room at the back of your hotel.

Enjoy it!

thanks for that.

We're going for the may bank holiday weekend. We have half day tour of madrid included in our weekend.

Other than that I told my friend I am not walking in and out of shops all weekend, I want to see madrid.
the old style windy streets you talked about in your post would be right down my alley. See the old style buildings etc.

and of course being out until all hours will be a definate aswell.

thanks again, cannot wait!!

the post office is worth a look as well

Just back from Madrid. The weather spoiled it a little-it was actually more sunny in Ireland the week we were away.

We visited the Prado and the Royal Palace. I found both too busy to fully appreciate everything, but impressive nonetheless. We queued for around 30 minutes to get into both.

Took the Madrid Vision tour-you can get a 2 day ticket for €20 which isn't bad value.

Even though it has a reputation for late eating, we were given terrible service and food in a restaurant after the Chelsea game (maybe it was owned by someone from Valencia??)-I got the impression that they were itching to close-this was around 11.30/12.

I would recommend La Vaca Argentina as somewhere to eat-it is a chain of steakhouses, and is very good value in my opinion.

We went to a game in the Bernabeu and it was great.

The buildings/architecture are impressive.

Metro is €1 per journey and very clean.

Tip-we flew with Iberia and into T4 (new terminal). The queue for taxis was horrendous (no metro at T4 yet) and we hadn't investigated buses. We decided to hop on a shuttle to T2 (where the meto stop is I believe) and lo and behold, loads of taxis and nobody waiting at T2. Taxi was reasonable-€25-€30 into the city centre.

One thing I noticed was a severe lack of grocery type shops in the city centre (the likes of a Spar or Centra). El Corte Ingles is everywhere and this was the only place I could buy beer, water etc. for the room. Not a major issue, but very different to Dublin in that way.

All in all, a good place to go-nice weather would have made a big difference, but I liked in nontheless.

CCOVICH said:

One thing I noticed was a severe lack of grocery type shops in the city centre (the likes of a Spar or Centra). El Corte Ingles is everywhere and this was the only place I could buy beer, water etc. for the room. Not a major issue, but very different to Dublin in that way.

Click to expand...

There actually are plenty of them, but they're independent stores not chains so they mightn't be as visible as a Spar or Centra.

Brooklyn said:

There actually are plenty of them, but they're independent stores not chains so they mightn't be as visible as a Spar or Centra.

Click to expand...

I found 3 on one side street, but other than that, they were thin on the ground.

CCOVICH,

I have found that most continental countries do not have "shops", as we know them, i.e. Centra/Spar/Londis shops.

I suspect this is a legal issue, and/or a planning issue.

They have butchers, florists, tobacconists, bakeries, etc., but no "shops", where you might get all of the above.

So in Germany or France, I often ask myself, where or how would I buy milk/water/bread at 8 or 10pm?

Protocol said:

So in Germany or France, I often ask myself, where or how would I buy milk/water/bread at 8 or 10pm?

Click to expand...

Agreed-don't really want to drag the thread off topic though. I suspect many people would argue that a lack of Centra/Spar storefronts is no bad thing.

I have to say that I preferred Mardrid to Barcelona. I was surprised to see Barajas ranked below Heathrow for 'quality' in a recent Economist article-T4 is brand new and spotless-and plenty of room as far as I can see.

Yes, good tip from Ccovich about T4. Its further from the city, and costs about 10E more in a taxi. Prob the best thing to do is get shuttle to T2 as ccovich did and get taxi from there. You could also get bus the short distance to Barajas village, where the metro goes from. This bus goes from beside the shuttles and is number 201 I think. There are loads of people dressed in green in the airport, who are customer service, and they speak english and can tell you the best way to your destination.

Yes the post office on Plaza Cibeles (near Prado) is worth seeing.
The Palace area is also nice - there is the palace, the cathedral, and close by a park with a monument called the Templo de Debod which is worth walking to.
If you want the windy streets, its best to stick to the old barrios (neighbourhoods) in the center south of Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor. There is good nightlife in these areas too, with lots of tables outside if the weather is good.
I recommend you go to Plaza de la Paja which is about 5 mins south of Plaza Major and has lots of little bars, restaurants etc.

Yes, there is a definate lack of convenience stores - I miss popping into Spar for some Walkers crisps! The main chain is called Sprint, but there are also loads of Chinese stores which sell water.

Enjoy!

ragazza said:

Yes, good tip from Ccovich about T4. Its further from the city, and costs about 10E more in a taxi. Prob the best thing to do is get shuttle to T2 as ccovich did and get taxi from there. You could also get bus the short distance to Barajas village, where the metro goes from. This bus goes from beside the shuttles and is number 201 I think.

Click to expand...

Or you could just take the airport shuttle to T2 and take the Metro from there!

Not to labour the point but I have never had problems finding small grocery shops there. They also have a few 7-11s.

Note : From where the shuttle leaves you in T2, its still a long walk to the metro, and if you dont know where exactly you are going, or have heavy bags, isnt ideal.