Insight Guides Pocket Madrid (Travel Guide eBook)

By Insight Guides

Perfect day itineraries and top travel tips in a pocket-sized package.

Plan your trip, plan perfect days and discover how to get around - this pocket-sized guide is a convenient, quick-reference companion to discovering fun and interesting things to do and see in Madrid, from top tourist attractions like Plaza Mayor, the Prado, El Escorial, Puerta del Sol and Plaza Santa Ana to hidden gems, including Parque del Been Retiro. 

Compact, concise and packed with essential information about Where to Go and What to Do, this is an ideal on-the-move pocket travel guide when you're exploring Madrid.

- Cultural: delve into the city's rich heritage and get to know its modern-day life and people
- Inspirational: discover where to go and what to do, highlighted with stunning photography
- Practical: get around with ease with a free pull-out map featuring key attractions
- Informative: plan your visit with an A to Z of advice on everything from transport to tipping
- Inventive design makes for an engaging, easy-reading experience
- Covers: Old Madrid, Paseo del Prado, Recoletos and Castellana and Malasana and Chueca.

About Insight Guides: Insight Guides is a pioneer of full-colour guide books, with almost 50 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides with user-friendly, modern design. We produce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps, as well as phrase books, picture-packed eBooks and apps to meet different travellers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Insight Guides
• Release date: Aug 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781839051104

Insight Guides

Pictorial travel guide to Arizona & the Grand Canyon with a free eBook provides all you need for every step of your journey. With in-depth features on culture and history, stunning colour photography and handy maps, it’s perfect for inspiration and finding out when to go to Arizona & the Grand Canyon and what to see in Arizona & the Grand Canyon. 

Book preview

How To Use This E-Book

Getting Around the e-Book

This Pocket Guide e-book is designed to give you inspiration and planning advice for your visit to Madrid, and is also the perfect on-the-ground companion for your trip.

The guide begins with our selection of Top 10 Attractions, plus a Perfect Itinerary feature to help you plan unmissable experiences. The Introduction and History chapters paint a vivid cultural portrait of Madrid, and the Where to Go chapter gives a complete guide to all the sights worth visiting. You will find ideas for activities in the What to Do section, while the Eating Out chapter describes the local cuisine and gives listings of the best restaurants. The Travel Tips offer practical information to help you plan your trip. Finally, there are carefully selected hotel listings.

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

Maps

All key attractions and sights in Madrid are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map], tap once to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

You’ll find lots of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of Madrid. Simply double-tap an image to see it in full-screen.

About Insight Guides

Insight Guides have more than 40 years’ experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce 400 full-colour titles, in both print and digital form, covering more than 200 destinations across the globe, in a variety of formats to meet your different needs.

Insight Guides are written by local authors, whose expertise is evident in the extensive historical and cultural background features. Each destination is carefully researched by regional experts to ensure our guides provide the very latest information. All the reviews in Insight Guides are independent; we strive to maintain an impartial view. Our reviews are carefully selected to guide you to the best places to eat, go out and shop, so you can be confident that when we say a place is special, we really mean it.

© 2019 Apa Digital (CH) AG and Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

Table of Contents

Madrid’s Top 10 Attractions

Top Attraction #1

Top Attraction #2

Top Attraction #3

Top Attraction #4

Top Attraction #5

Top Attraction #6

Top Attraction #7

Top Attraction #8

Top Attraction #9

Top Attraction #10

A Perfect Day In Madrid

Introduction

The heart of Spain

Culture and nightlife

Geography

Architecture

Modernity and tradition

Options from Madrid

A Brief History

Spain’s Golden Age

Madrid’s rise to Capital

Decline and decadence

The Civil War

Modern Spain

Historical landmarks

Where To Go

Old Madrid

Plaza Mayor

Plaza de la Villa

La Morería and La Latina

Palacio Real

Almudena Cathedral

Plaza de Oriente and Opera

Puerta del Sol

Huertas and Santa Ana

Lavapiés

Calle de Alcalá to Plaza de Cibeles

Paseo del Prado

Museo del Prado

Highlights of the Prado

Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía

Atocha

Other museums

Parque del Retiro

Real Jardín Botánico

Recoletos and Castellana

Around the Paseo de Recoletos

Colón

Along the Castellana

Salamanca

Gran Vía, Malasaña and Chueca

Gran Vía

Malasaña

Chueca

Plaza de España

South of Princesa

Moncloa and the West

Casa de Campo

Excursions

El Escorial

Valle de los Caídos

Toledo

Segovia

Aranjuez

Chinchón

Ávila

What To Do

Shopping

What to buy

Entertainment

Nightlife

Music and theatre

Sports

Children’s Madrid

Calendar of events

Eating Out

Mealtimes

Restaurants and menus

Castilian specialities

Regional specialities

Drinks

Opening hours, payment and prices

Reading the Menu

To help you order…

The basics…

…and read the menu

Restaurants

plaza mayor and la latina

Huertas, Santa Ana and Lavapiés

Palacio Real and Opera

Sol, Gran VIa and Chueca

Salamanca, Castellana and Prado

Outside madrid

Ávila

San Lorenzo El Escorial

Segovia

Toledo

A–Z Travel Tips

A

Accommodation

Airport

B

Bicycle rental

Budgeting for your trip

C

Camping

Car hire

Climate

Clothing

Crime and safety

D

Driving

E

Electricity

Embassies and consulates

Emergencies (see also Health and medical care and Police)

G

Getting there (see also Airport and Driving)

Guides and tours

H

Health and medical care

L

Language

LGBTQ travellers

M

Maps

Media

Money

O

Opening times

P

Police

Post offices

Public holidays

R

Religion

T

Telephones

Time zones

Tipping

Toilets

Tourist information

Transport

V

Visas and entry requirements

W

Websites and internet access

Y

Youth hostels

Recommended Hotels

Sol, Plaza Mayor, Santa Ana

palacio real and opera

Gran Vía, Chueca, Plaza de España

Salamanca and the Prado

Outside Madrid

Ávila

Segovia

Toledo

Madrid’s Top 10 Attractions

Top Attraction #1

Corrie Wingate/Apa Publications

Plaza Mayor

Take a seat at a terrace café and watch the world go by at the busy centre of local social life. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #2

Corrie Wingate/Apa Publications

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina SofÍa

A popular showcase of art of the 20th and 21st centuries, including work by Picasso and Luis Buñuel. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #3

Getty Images

Puerta del Sol

The plaza’s clock tower overlooks the bustling heart of Madrid and chimes in Spain’s New Year revelry. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #4

Shutterstock

El Escorial

The palace created by Felipe II, where Spain’s Golden Age is writ large. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #5

Public domain

The Prado

Spain’s rich artistic heritage is conserved in one of the world’s most prestigious museums. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #6

Corbis

Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales

A unique chance to see the artistic heritage of a working convent over 450 years. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #7

Shutterstock

Plaza Santa Ana

A great place to start el tapeo, the ‘tapas crawl’. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #8

Shutterstock

Palacio Real

Elegant centre of royal Madrid. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #9

Getty Images

La Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida

Goya’s frescoes adorn the cupola of this 18th-century chapel. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #10

iStock

Parque del Buen Retiro

Its trees, lawns and lake make this Madrid’s most child-friendly green space. For more information, click here.

A Perfect Day In Madrid

9.00am

Santa Ana

Join locals for coffee and fried churros as the day gets underway on this classic tree-lined plaza in the city’s 18th-century quarter. Don’t miss the colourful tiled friezes on bars around the square.

10.00am

Green oasis

Explore the beautifully tended Real Jardín Botánico where dahlias were first planted in Europe. Three greenhouses are filled with desert and tropical flora and there is an appealing garden gift shop.

11.00am

The Prado

Visit one of the world’s greatest art galleries. Do not miss the restored Renaissance Patio de los Jerónimos. The Spanish paintings, largely collected by the royal family, include masterworks by Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Goya.

1.00pm

Art and aperitivos

Take a break in the top floor café of Herzog de Meuron’s CaixaForum arts centre where you can sip an aperitivo and look down on the adjacent vertical garden, a rich tapestry of globally sourced plant varieties.

2.00pm

Classic cocido

Madrid’s celebrated chickpea stew, or cocido, with its own soup and vegetables, is cooked the old-fashioned way in earthenware pots over charcoal at La Bola, where you lunch with locals at a leisurely pace.

4.00pm

Guernica

Pablo Picasso conceived Guernica, one of the 20th century’s greatest paintings, as a protest against the Nazi bombing of the Basque village, in 1937. See it hanging alongside his preparatory drawings on the second floor of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.

5.30pm

Shop till you drop

Pedestrianised Calle de Fuencarral, running off Gran Vía, is the city’s most fashionable shopping drag. Here you can find hip Spanish fashion brands from Camper shoes to Custo and Hoss Intropia clothes, plus other European fashion. Cafés, bars and ice cream parlours offer retreats from the street.

7.30pm

Tapas time

Enjoy the city’s magical dusk light with a paseo, or evening stroll, through the sloping old streets that link the Plaza Mayor to the Cava Baja in