The PERFECT Trip to Madrid Spain! Best Things to Do & Eat (Travel Guide)

The PERFECT Trip to Madrid Spain! Best Things to Do & Eat (Travel Guide)

I’m so excited. I’m so excited. Oh my gosh. Welcome to Madrid. We are so excited to be showing you around this city over the next few days and showing you some of the best things to do, eat, and see. I’m speechless. This thing is massive.

We’re gonna be showing you some of the top spots as well as a few hidden gems here that a lot of people don’t know about. Oh my God, look at that. I think this might be my favorite thing that we’ve done in Madrid so far.

Right now we are standing in Plaza Callao, which is like their Time Square. It is the busiest Plaza in the entire city. As many as 51,000 vehicles pass through these intersections and it can hold 10,000 people at one time. There are billboards everywhere.

It is absolutely packed with people. It is such a vibe. It’s also right along Gran Villa, which is one of the busiest streets in Madrid, and it is just a short walk to the Plaza Mayor. No trip to Madrid would be complete without visiting the Plaza Mayor or the main square.

This first opened in 1620 by King Phillip III. They have a statue in the center dedicated to him. And this plaza was the hub for everything back in historic Madrid. They would use this for bull fights, fiestas, executions, also concerts. There’s balconies surrounding the entire plaza that they would watch these events from.

Now they are hotel rooms that give you eight gorgeous vantage point. And below you’ll find tons of cute little bars and restaurants and shops. We’re not personally dining or drinking at any of them just because it is a very

Touristy area and the prices are higher and if you just walk a few blocks outside of the plaza, you can find so many hidden gems with great prices and a much more local vibe. A lot of people like to go to the Mercado de San Miguel,

Which is right next to the Plaza Mayor. It’s a historic market where you can find fresh goods like meats, cheeses, tons of little tapas restaurants. It’s a really nice atmosphere, but it’s very touristy. If you’re looking for more of an authentic experience,

I highly recommend going to some of the other markets that are around town, several of which have now been turned into more international indoor food markets. There’s Mercado Antone Martin, but today we came to Vallahermosa, which is on the north side of town. Our first stop of the the day is Miga Cana.

You can get a lot of the traditional Spanish tapas here. They also have specialty items, so we ordered a brioche with crab and langostine, which is crawfish and a lovely lime mayonnaise. And we got salmorejo which is a cold soup made normally with tomatoes, garlic bread and olive oil.

This one uses cherries and it has green apple in it. I’m very excited about it. Mm-Hmm, what’d. You do? Did you make a mess? Oh my God, stop making a mess. I can’t not make a mess. You know who I am. This is like a monster sandwich.

I’m not quite sure if I should just eat it or cut it. I’m just going to eat it. I have radish in there some lettuce. Ooh, really good . There’s a lot of traditional things you should try when coming to Spain.

Sangria and paella I think are the first thing that comes to everybody’s mind. Sangria is delicious and you can definitely order it here, but vermouth is actually their national drink, so I highly recommend trying either white or red vermouth that kind of has like a little bit of an apertivo anise

Flavor to it gets your digestive juices flowing and it’s really, really refreshing and delicious. It smells like a Christmas day. It does smell like Christmas. Mm. One food from Spain that I absolutely love is morcilla, which is blood sausage.

It’s kind of an off-put thing to hear for people who are not familiar with it, but I promise it is so tasty. They add rice and spices and put it in a casing. This one does not disappoint in any way, shape, or form. Speechless. This thing is massive. We love Spanish food,

But this is week seven for us being in this country and this is a really great international market with a lot of food to offer than just traditional Spanish tapas. We came to a pastrami spot. We got this spicy Serrano pastrami.

They use a really high quality brisket for this and they brine it themselves for five weeks. Look at that. This morning we are headed to the Royal Palace with a two hour guided tour that we booked with Get Your Guide. Who’s the sponsor of this video?

Get Your Guide is eight online booking service that offers thousands of different experiences and tours and cities across the world. Anytime we visit a new city, we always make sure to check get your Guide. They offer everything from cooking classes and food tours,

Sightseeing and history, and we’ve used them in Barcelona and now in Madrid, and we always love our experiences. We’re gonna have links for all of the activities including this exact tour in the video description below. So when you’re visiting Madrid,

You can make the most of your time in this beautiful city. I think the. Tour is starting. I’m so excited. I’m so excited. We’ve been on a. Bridgerton kick, so I’m like very time period oriented with this and I feel like I’m living a little bit of my Bridgeton life.

We’ve learned that the palace is the largest in Eastern Europe. It is double the size of Versailles. It’s almost double the size of Buckingham Palace. It doesn’t look that grand from the outside. Well, I mean it does look very grand from the outside. I was about to say ,

But it’s deceiving because there’s four levels below the ground, which is why it is one of the largest palaces. They used to have 6,000 people working here in order to make this palace be a reality. The king and queen actually don’t live here today.

They have a separate residence. They do come back here for formal events, but they stopped living here in 1931. We’re only gonna be able to film in the two first rooms and they’re gonna be visiting 25 other rooms on this tour, which you’re not allowed to take pictures or videos there.

Spain’s Royal Palace was built under orders from King Philip V in 1738 was built on top of the former site of a ninth century Islamic fortress. The building was built with baroque and neoclassical designs by three Italian architects. It took 18 years to complete and when finished occupied over 1.4 million square

Feet, no expense was spared on the palace’s design. Nearly every room had hand painted frescoes on the ceilings gilded in gold and massive chandeliers. Over its 260 year history. The Palace has undergone only minor cosmetic changes, very much looks as it would have under King Philip V’s rule. That tour was absolutely fantastic.

We were only able to show you a fraction of what we even saw. I don’t even think we saw a full 1% of the 3,500 rooms here. If you thought what we showed you was opulent, let me just tell you.

The other rooms that we couldn’t show you were so much more grand and ornate and incredible. The amount of money and work and care that went into crafting these rooms is unreal. You definitely have to come see this for yourself. These tickets sell out really fast.

This is something you want to book before you arrive and I definitely recommend the 9:45 AM tour. It’s the earliest tour they open at 10:00 AM you can also upgrade to do a kitchen tour because the kitchen was a completely separate area.

Downside that’s only offered in Spanish three times a day. Don’t forget, we’ll have a link down below for you to book this tour yourself. Today we came to one of the historic restaurants in Madrid. Botin is known for being the oldest restaurant in the world and the Guinness

Books of World Records. It’s been open for over 300 years. They specialize in cochinillo which is a baby suckling pig that is slow roasted. It comes from the region of Segovia. We’ve tried it there at one of the famous restaurants and it is absolutely incredible. We weren’t able to get a reservation there,

So you do want to book early if you’d like to dine there. Instead, we came to Posada de La Villa to try cocido and it’s one of my favorite things to eat in all of Spain, but I don’t think a lot of people know about it.

It’s a traditional stew in all the ingredients like chicken ro, a bunch of different type of pork and they put potatoes and garbanzos. They just put it in this old clay pot and cook it over coals for five hours. This is a really cool building. It was built in 1642.

It was the old mill for this area and it went abandoned first several years until a developer put millions of dollars rebuilding it and turning it into this restaurant and they’ve done such a beautiful job. It feels like you’re stepping into a restaurant from 1642.

But if you also want to try Lechazo, they are known for that at this restaurant. It is a slow roasted lamb, which is a specialty of this region as well. We’ve had lechazo before and it is magnific, but cocido is going to be a belly buster. It is a very heavy plate.

These croquettes are good. The soup or the sopa is the first course and it comes with little flat noodles called fideaus. This is my favorite part of the soup honestly. I could just have the broth. Oh, so you just get a lot of fat in the mouthfeel,

But it’s so light and refreshing at the same time. We’re gonna have so much leftovers. This, this whole pot is just the first course of this and it’s at least half full. This is not something you’d want to come to order in the summertime though.

It is a very warming meal. This is typically bound in wintertime. This is enough to feed four people. , this plate is massive. We have cabbage, chicken, chorizo, morcilla (blood sausage), potato, carrot, actual bones with bone marrow, and then we have some pieces of really juicy fat bacon with garbanzos.

You can mix it with the soup if you’d like or you can just eat it separately. Everyone has their own little method of eating cocido. I don’t even know where to begin. The garbanzos are, I think the best we’ve had with the cocido. They’re really flavorful.

We didn’t even put a dent in it. It’s ridiculous. I’m so full. Yeah. We did get a doggy bag though. Yes! We’re taking this home. It’s gonna be like lunch for two days. We’re going to have a chupito and then siesta. Two hours later.

Madrid has a Holy Trinity of museums where you can find three fantastic art museums that are world renowned. We’re gonna be going to two of them today starting at the Prado Museum. We just arrived and the line to buy tickets is literally around the building.

It is massive, but because we use Get Your Guide, we get to skip the line and go straight in and I’m pretty sure the tickets are like the same price. If not like a Euro difference. Well worth it. We can’t film here unfortunately.

We will be able to show you some of the artwork from the next museum. We’re going to. This one is known for older pieces from the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th century, and I have collections from all across the world. This museum is massive.

We spent about three hours in there with an audio guide and we only saw one floor. I would plan to spend all day or much longer than three hours ’cause we only scratch the surface. The next museum we’re gonna be going to has a lot more modern contemporary

Artists. You’ll find things like Dali, Goya, Picasso, which we really enjoy. Nothing quite kicks off a morning in Madrid like churros con chocolate. This sweet treat is very famous for breakfast. It’s deep fried dough that you dip in this thick, sweet, rich, beautiful chocolate. It is heaven.

We came to an institution which is San Gines. This has been here since 1894 and is by far the most famous spot for getting churros con chocolate. Normally you’ll find a line that goes around the block, so be prepared to wait.

But luckily we came around 11:00 AM on a Tuesday and it’s not too busy. We were able to snag a spot. Hmm, . It’s so delicious. Oh my gosh. . I might like this one more. Really? You get more chocolate on the surface area.

Ah. I would suggest if you’re not a chocolate lover, skip this dish. But if you like a sweet treat. The City of Madrid dates back to 865 AD so there’s a lot of history here, but most of the buildings that you’re gonna see date back to the 17th and 18th century.

We’re walking right now on Calle Alcala, which is one of the most historic streets. It’s also where you’ll find a lot of the important monuments for Madrid, like the Bank of Spain and the Cibeles Fountain. You haven’t watched Casa de Papel.

It’s a fantastic show that is based here in Madrid where they break into the Bank of Spain and the Mint. There really is a gold vault below the Bank of Spain, about 37 feet below the fountain, which holds like billions of dollars in gold.

We’re gonna get out of this crazy intersection and head to Retiro Park, which is like the central Park of Madrid. Being in Retiro Park is so refreshing. We’ve spent now two weeks in the city and Madrid and Barcelona are stunning, but they are completely cement cities,

Which is massive buildings and you just don’t really get much nature. And this is over 300 acres of lush trees, beautiful manicured gardens and fountains. It is a true oasis in the city. Retiro Park was actually built by King Phillip IV in 1640.

This was his private gardens. They had his Duke purchased the land, which at the time that it was purchased, made up about half the size of the city of Madrid. And then in 1838, Queen Isabelle decided to make it open to the public, opening the nine gates in the park.

You’ll just find people from all walks of life’s tourists, locals walking their dogs, people having a nice little picnic, people doing yoga in the park. It is absolutely beautiful. I think this might be my favorite thing that we’ve done in Madrid so far. If you’re looking for a really romantic like day date,

You could easily pack a little picnic, grab some jamon and cheeses and a bottle of wine. Come have a little lunch here or snack here and then go for a row boat ride on the lake. The rose gardens here alone are just breathtaking.

Can you imagine just getting to stroll this as your private residence have been a King or a Queen or in those days is insane. The gardens have changed a lot. This whole area has changed a lot over the years. It used to be like interconnected waterways and canal systems mostly,

And there was some areas of greenery in between. The King even had gondolas shipped in from Italy so he could traverse the waterways. They would have plays here. What a grand time. Only for the wealthy, though. So really not that grand of a time.

10 out of 10 experience. This park is absolutely lovely. Such a hidden oasis to get you away from the hustle and bustle of the city. We’re now heading all the way across town so that we can get to an iconic

Spot for the sunset, but it’s gonna be a long haul to get there. There is a metro system in Madrid, but it’s not the most well connected, especially compared to like Barcelona. You can also take the bus, you can rent bikes. There’s like e scooters that you can rent as well.

And of course you can take a taxi or Uber. We’re going to take the metro, but it will include like a 40 minute journey to get there. At least we’re walking through the park. I’m not mad about that. It’s absolutely beautiful. ,

We made it to Principe Pio, which is the highest point Madrid, giving you absolutely stunning vistas of the city. And of course one of the reasons it is such a popular spot for Sunset. There’s a beautiful park here. It’s also a really cool Egyptian temple called the Temple of Debod.

This was built in Egypt in the second century and it was gifted to Madrid and Egypt where it was located. They were building a dam and it was gonna be flooded, so a donation. It was rebuilt stone by stone here in the city center and opened in 1976

To the public. It faces east and west just as it would’ve if it was in Egypt. I’m sure that has something to do with the original purpose of the temple. Oh, and another fun fact. This part has a lot of history to it. This is where the 1808 battle took place against Napoleon.

There was like mass executions when Napoleon’s troops came in against the rebels. This is also where the uprising happened that started the Spanish Civil War in 1936. Once again, I am impressed with the Parks of Madrid for sure. This is a lovely green space.

There’s a lot of people just reading this chilling out after work. I’m really looking forward to the sense that I think it’s going to be epic. Now it’s time for some tapas and some drinks. So tapas, you’re supposed to move from place to place.

It’s actually a verb tapear which is to go from place to place eating small snacks and having a drink with each one. You can absolutely go and just sit down and order a bunch of tapas at one place, but it’s really not how the locals consume tapas.

You’re supposed to move from bar to bar, eating tapas and having a drink at each place and asking what their specialty is. There’s tons of like local traditional tapas that you can order. A lot of the restaurants will put like a spin on it. For example, this place we order croquetas,

Which normally comes with bechamel and jamon inside and they deep fry it. These however are made with blue cheese and sun dried tomato. We’ve never seen that before, so we had to order them. This place is known for their tortilla de patatas.

But they only serve it in the morning to early afternoon. So unfortunately, we are not going to taste test that. It’s one of our favorites to eat. Hmm, funky . Our second stop on our tapa crawl is down at the street, Cava Baja.

There’s so many different tapas restaurants that you can come to making it a really popular place to do a tapa of crawl and most of the restaurants on the street are absolutely fantastic. We came to Casa Lucas, we’ve been here many times before. They’re known for the croquetas,

But today we got their other specialty, which is the Rabo de Toro. In other words, the bull tail. It sounds like a really odd piece of meat to eat, but is actually quite tender and delicious and it is a byproduct of bull

Fighting. They put it on a puree of potatoes with some olive oil and crushed up pistachios. Just as good as I remembered. Our last stop is Huevos de Lucio. They have two sides. Actually. We recommended this spot from our friends, Carmen and Poeo. They specialize in huevos rotos.

Which is french fries with two beautifully fried eggs on top that you end up cutting or breaking, which is roto. And then you just cut it in all of the juice from the huevos like kind of sops into the french fries. It’s heavenly. They normally have this for dinner.

This is a very typical dinner dish if you were just in a traditional Spanish home and we ended up adding chistorra, which is a special type of sausage from Basque Country. It looks like little chorizos but it’s not . It’s so simple, which I think is the beauty of it.

It’s our last day in Madrid, so it’s our last chance to enjoy Spanish food. I’m not gonna lie, I’m not ready for it. We came to El Cogoll de La Descaraga. It’s a cute little restaurant, just a three minute walk from the Plaza Mayor,

Which is I think somewhat of a hidden gem among tourists. This came as a recommendation from our Uber driver who has not steared us wrong so far. I’m excited. It’s like perfectly tender has just the right spice level. We ordered cochopo which is an Asurian dish, which is a region in Spain.

They take two very thinly pounded veal slices and then they stuff it with cheese and ham. So it’s almost like a schnitzel and a cordon blue, but Spanish style. And then they bread it and they fry it. It is absolutely fantastic and this place is known for it. Oh my God,

Look at that! Wow. We ended up having someone watching us as we were talking on YouTube who was like, I just wanna let you know this truly is my favorite place. I’m from Madrid, this is one of my favorite places to visit.

She did recommend trying to steak or any of the mariscos. Also, if they have pulpo, or octopus, for the day, you should ask for that. So don’t just go for the cochopo, although it is fantastic and if you’ve never tried it,

It’s a great place to do so. But they have a lot more to offer here. And the owner, Miguel, here is the sweetest. He is so friendly and brought us more desserts. So these are two are desserts from Galicia. Both are made from almendras, or almonds. It’s called Teja,

Which is like the roof tiles they use here in Spain because it kind of resembles that. And the other one is called the Tarta de Santiago. So good! Oh. But now we’re off to eat. San Fran in the house. San Fran in the house, bro. The Hagia Sophia or not Hagia Sophia.

That’s in Istanbul. Oh my God. Okay. . I. I didn’t understand that part. We’re just gonna act like did.

Don’t forget to check out Get Your Guide’s unique experiences and tours on your next trip! The tours we took while in Madrid are below ⬇️
👑 Royal Palace Guided Tour https://gyg.me/8QbatCdQ
🖼️ Prado Museum Skip the Line Tickets https://gyg.me/VXFcXPbg
👩🏼‍🎨 Reina Sofía Museum Tickets https://gyg.me/EkDqpG9t
🚖 Get Acquainted with the city on a Tuk Tuk tour https://gyg.me/yj4Zvvxm

If you have more time make sure to check out these day trips from Madrid. We’ve visited them all before and they are AMAZING!
🏰 Segovia and Avila Day Trip from Madrid https://gyg.me/wuSfN1R2
🍷 Wine Tasting in Ribera del Duero (Spain’s second largest wine region) https://gyg.me/JAy9YSiJ 🍇 You can learn more about this wine region here https://youtu.be/6EWbUx6ZUD8

🏨 Need a place to stay in Madrid? Check out these top hotels https://tripadvisor.tp.st/1tP5LUbc

🥘 Our Recommendations for Where to Eat in Madrid (Food Guide) https://eatseerv.com/best-places-to-eat-in-madrid/
🏙️ Perfect 3-Day Itinerary for Madrid blog post: https://eatseerv.com/3-days-in-madrid/

00:00 Intro to Madrid travel vlog
00:33 Plaza Callao (Madrid’s Busiest Plaza)
00:59 Madrid Plaza Mayor
01:53 Merca de San Miguel (plus better tapas option)!
04:16 Touring Spain’s Royal Palace https://gyg.me/8QbatCdQ
07:25 What to Eat in Madrid Spain (Cocido)
10:03 Madrid Golden Triangle of Museums https://gyg.me/VXFcXPbg
11:22 The Best Churros in Madrid
12:18 Exploring Madrid
13:20 Retiro Park
15:48 The Best sunset spot in Madrid
17:32 DIY Tapa Crawl in Madrid (Best Tapas on Calle Cava Baja)
19:59 Our last meal and Madrid (hidden gem)

If you’re coming to Madrid, this travel vlog is a one-stop shop for the best things to do in the city. We take you with us as we eat loads of tapas, show you traditional Spanish foods to eat, and the top places to visit in Madrid, Spain.
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