Madrid

Madrid was made capital in 1561 for a reason that still shapes it: it sits almost exactly in the geographical centre of Spain, on a high plateau, with no river of consequence and no natural advantage other than position. Everything here arrived because the court did: the royal palace, the collections that became the Prado, the boulevards laid out to impress.

The result is a capital that feels less like a tourist destination than Barcelona or Seville and more like a working Spanish city, with the art, the food and the street life concentrated in a centre you can cross on foot.

The Paseo del Arte — the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen-Bornemisza within a few hundred metres of each other — is one of the densest concentrations of European painting anywhere, and the reason many people come.

The other reason is the way Madrid lives: dinner at ten, bars full at midnight on a Tuesday, whole families in the squares on a Sunday. It is a sociable city at street level in a way that visitors tend to remember longer than the museums.

• The Prado. Velázquez, Goya, El Greco, Bosch. Too large to absorb in one go — the Velázquez rooms and Goya's black paintings are the core. The museum offers free admission in the last hours of the day, which is busy but genuinely free.
• The Reina Sofía. Twentieth-century Spanish art, built around Picasso's Guernica, with the preparatory studies displayed alongside it. Also has free evening hours.
• Retiro Park. The former royal gardens, now a World Heritage site together with the Paseo del Prado. The Crystal Palace, the rowing lake and the Sunday crowds.
• The Royal Palace. The largest functioning royal palace in western Europe by floor area, still used for state occasions; the changing of the guard happens on a published schedule.
• Mercado de San Miguel and the older markets. San Miguel is a restored iron market, now food stalls and touristy; Antón Martín and La Cebada are the everyday versions.
• An evening of tapas in La Latina, especially along Cava Baja: the classic Madrid crawl, standing, one thing per bar.
• Flamenco in a tablao. Not Madrid's own art form but long established here, and the city has some of the most serious venues in Spain.

Spring, roughly April to early June, and autumn, September to November, are the comfortable seasons, with warm days and cool evenings.

July and August are genuinely severe: the plateau heat is dry but intense, afternoons empty the streets, and many madrileños leave the city entirely, closing bars and restaurants with them. If you come then, live by the local rhythm: out early, indoors from two until six, out again after dark.

Winter is cold, clear and bright, colder than most people expect from Spain because of the altitude. It is the cheapest time and the museums are at their most pleasant.

Sol and Centro put you inside everything and inside the noise. Fine for a short trip if you are not a light sleeper.

Barrio de las Letras (Huertas) is the best compromise: walking distance to the three museums, full of bars and restaurants, and more atmospheric than Sol.

Malasaña and Chueca are the nightlife districts: young, dense with bars, loud until late. La Latina is the tapas quarter and busiest at weekends.

Salamanca is the grid of elegant nineteenth-century blocks east of the Retiro: quiet, upmarket, good restaurants, a short metro ride from the centre. Chamberí is residential and under-used by visitors, with excellent local food and calm streets.

Centro and Sol: Plaza Mayor, Puerta del Sol, the pedestrianised shopping streets.

La Latina: medieval street plan, the Rastro flea market on Sundays, and the tapas bars of Cava Baja.

Lavapiés: the most multicultural quarter, with South Asian and African restaurants, theatres and a strong neighbourhood identity.

Barrio de las Letras: where Cervantes and Lope de Vega lived, now bars and small hotels, next to the museums.

Malasaña: the centre of the post-Franco Movida in the 1980s, still the alternative music and bar district.

Chueca: the heart of Madrid's LGBTQ life, with design shops and restaurants, and the Pride celebrations that fill the city each summer.

Salamanca: luxury retail along Serrano, the archaeological museum, orderly streets.

Chamberí: middle-class, residential, and the best place to eat like a local.

The metro is extensive, cheap and easy, and it is the way most visitors will move. You buy a rechargeable card once and load it with either single trips or a tourist pass; a single card can carry trips for one person at a time, so a group needs one card each.

Fares to and from the airport carry a supplement on top of the normal ticket. Buses and the suburban Cercanías trains share the same card and are useful for day trips and for the airport's terminal 4.

The historic centre is compact enough to walk end to end in half an hour, and walking is how the evening is spent here. Taxis are metered and reasonably priced, with fixed fares to and from Barajas.

Madrid's own dishes are hearty and cold-weather: cocido madrileño, a chickpea stew served in courses; callos, tripe in a paprika sauce; bocadillo de calamares, a fried-squid sandwich eaten around Plaza Mayor. Being the capital, it also has the best of everywhere else in Spain: Galician seafood, Asturian cider houses, Basque pintxos bars.

The rhythm matters more than the menu. Lunch is the main meal, from around two, and the weekday menú del día is excellent value. Dinner is from nine or ten. Between those times, bars serve drinks and small plates.

Unlike some Spanish cities, a free tapa with every drink is not guaranteed in Madrid, though some bars still do it. Order at the bar, keep a tab, and pay at the end; tipping is small change rather than a percentage.

Toledo: the former capital of three faiths, a walled city above a river gorge with a vast cathedral, synagogues and a mosque. Half an hour by high-speed train and the classic day out.

Segovia: the Roman aqueduct, the fairy-tale Alcázar and roast suckling pig; under half an hour by fast train.

El Escorial: Philip II's monastery-palace in the mountains, austere and enormous, with the Valley of the Fallen nearby.

Ávila: the most complete medieval walls in Spain, walkable all the way round.

Aranjuez: royal gardens and palace on the Tagus, a short Cercanías ride south.

Madrid is the best value of the major western European capitals. Metro fares are low, the weekday menú del día is inexpensive for a full meal, and tapas eaten standing at the bar cost a fraction of a sit-down dinner.

The three great museums all offer free admission during set hours, usually at the end of the day: check the current times on each museum's own site, as they are adjusted periodically. The Retiro, the Rastro, the Templo de Debod at sunset and the whole historic centre cost nothing.

Where money goes: hotel rates in the very centre, restaurants on the main squares, and flamenco tablaos, which are priced for visitors.

Adjust your clock. Arriving at a restaurant at seven means an empty room or a kitchen that is closed. Lunch at two, dinner at nine or later.

Use the free museum hours if budget matters, but arrive before the queue forms and accept that the galleries will be full.

Buy a transport card on arrival. One per person; the airport supplement applies on top.

Avoid the restaurants on Plaza Mayor for anything but a drink. Two streets away the same money buys much better food.

Respect the summer heat. July and August afternoons on the plateau are not for walking tours.

Watch your pockets on the metro and around Sol, which is where the city's pickpocketing is concentrated.