Many visitors to Madrid come for the world-class art palaces but find themselves seduced by the ramshackle and idiosyncratic museums that pepper the city. Others come in search of old-school tapas bars and are surprised to find a gastronome’s paradise. Some will be drawn to the late-night buzz and find that mooching around cafés in the afternoon can be just as enjoyable. One thing’s for sure – most leave surprised and few leave disappointed.
Madrid has three reference points: the Puerta del Sol, the city’s absolute centre; the Plaza Mayor, the Golden Age core; and the Plaza de Cibeles. This is where you’ll find most of its government buildings, major cultural institutions, restaurants and nightlife.
Above all, Madrid is a city experienced on the street. It truly offers Europe's craziest nightlife -- you'll find yourself out until 6am bouncing from tapas bars to nightclubs wondering when and where the hours escaped you. If you'd rather make a tranquil night of it, you'll find every kind of restaurant imaginable, dozens of movie, theatres and flamenco venues. If you're a sports fanatics, plan ahead to see the "Best Football team of the 20th Century," Real Madrid CF, in action at the Bernabéu stadium.
The Museums Area- Atocha
The Thyssen Museum opened its new wing in July 2004, adding considerably to its eclectic array of Western art. The giant, neo-classical Prado is well known for its extraordinary religious paintings and regal portraits by Goya, El Greco and Velázquez, as well as works by Hieronymus Bosch, Titian, Rubens and others.
The Reina Sofía Museum, Spain’s national gallery of modern art.
Los Austrias
The Habsburg dynasty dominated Madrid’s history until 1700, and the area bounded by Sol, the Plaza Mayor, the Palacio Real and San Francisco el Grande, the oldest part of the city, is commonly known as ‘Los Austrias’ after them. Directly south of the Plaza Mayor, in C/Toledo, stand the San Isidro Cathedral. West from here, the area between Plaza de la Cebada, Mayor and the Palacio Real is the oldest part of the city, the site of the morería (the Muslim quarter) and medieval Madrid.
Sol & Gran Vía
Sol is Madrid’s most photographed square, home to the emblematic bear and strawberry tree statue, as well as the famous Tío Pepe sign. The area north and east of Sol is dominated by the two great avenues of C/Alcalá and Gran Vía. C/Alcalá, once described as the grandest street in Europe, has a wonderful variety of 19th- to early 20th-century buildings, including the stunning Círculo de Bellas Artes, with its fine café and the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando.
Huertas & Santa Ana
The stamping ground of Madrid’s Golden Age literary set remains an important theatre district today; the literary tradition lives on in cafés such as El Salón del Prado.
Salamanca
The straight grid of streets that forms the district of Salamanca was where the most affluent families built their houses and palaces in the 19th and 20th centuries. In this district there are places of artistic and architectural importance along the Paseo de la Castellana: the Palacio de Linares, now the Casa de América. On the easternmost edge of Salamanca is Madrid’s temple of bullfighting, Las Ventas.
The Retiro Park
The Retiro is the place to promenade and on Sundays, particularly, there are vendors hawking everything from wafers to etchings, tarot readers, football and elderly men playing petanca. Below the Prado is the verdant Jardín Botánico, with more than 30,000 plant species.
You will find more information about the zones of Madrid in our section Madrid by zones
Madrid, Spain’s capital city, is the country’s largest with about 3 million inhabitants. Of these, at least 17% are immigrants and many Spaniards are from elsewhere. This means that people in Madrid are very friendly to fellow outsiders. If you ask anyone in Madrid about where are they from, you will find hard to find true "madrileño”. Nevertheless, the fact that there are few autochthonous madrileños makes it that much easier for outsiders to feel at home. In short, you don't have to be from Madrid to be a madrileño.
The central characteristic that unites Madrid people is easy to identify: they love to socialize. You will find people on the streets at all hours of the night, every night of the week. And, on the whole, Madrid's inhabitants are quite friendly and ready to welcome you to the fiesta with them.
The people of Madrid speak "castellano," also known simply as Spanish. Therefore, unlike many other parts of Spain, there is no regional language here. This makes it a great place to study Spanish - apart from the fact the good English speakers remain surprisingly few and far between.
Madrid is a melting point for the cuisines from all over Spain. Gourmets sometimes argue whether Madrid cuisine exists or not, but the truth is that the capital of Spain has enriched its gastronomy with the contributions of the Spaniards from other regions and other immigrants who have settled here.
Typical Foods in Madrid
Cocido madrileño: meat and chickpea stew
Cochinillo asado: roasted sucking pig
Rabo de toro: stuffed cow or bull's tail
Callos a la madrileña: tripe in a spicy tomato sauce
Oreja: pig's ears
Bocata de calamares: fried calamari sandwich on French bread (look around the Plaza Mayor)
Tortilla de patatas: thick omelet of eggs, onion and potatoes.
Patatas bravas: fried potatoes covered in a spicy tomato sauce
Huevos rotos: eggs fried over a plate of french fries
Sopa castellana: garlic soup
Porras: a thicker version of churros - fried batter eaten with thick hot chocolate or coffee
There are plenty of other delicious, standard tapas options (croquetas, manchego cheese, serrano ham...). And of course, Madrid offers hundreds of restaurants of all kinds if you prefer other types of national and international cuisine.