Mid-range · 6-hour walk · Madrid
The Prado and the Retiro in six hours
The three great galleries of the Paseo del Arte, the park behind them and the glass palace in the middle of it.
Madrid's three major collections stand within 500 metres of each other on one boulevard, which is why the city calls it the Paseo del Arte and sells a combined ticket. Doing all three in a day is possible and a mistake; this route takes two properly and puts the Retiro between them, which is what the park is for. The Prado is free for the last two hours of the day and correspondingly full.
The route, stop by stop
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Museo del Prado
Velázquez, Goya and Bosch, and the single best room in it is the one holding Las Meninas. Free 18:00-20:00 on weekdays, which is worth knowing and worth avoiding.
120 min here Walk here → -
Jardín Botánico
Next door to the Prado and almost empty by comparison. Eight hectares laid out in 1781 on three terraces, and the quietest thing on this route.
35 min here Walk here → -
Museo Reina Sofía
Guernica is here, on the second floor, and the room is always crowded. The rest of the collection is the best account of Spanish 20th-century art anywhere.
90 min here Walk here → -
Palacio de Cristal
A glass and iron pavilion built in 1887 to hold Philippine plants, now an exhibition space with a pond of carp in front of it. Free.
30 min here Walk here → -
Parque del Retiro
A hundred and twenty-five hectares that were royal until 1868. Rowing boats on the lake, buskers, and the oldest tree in Madrid near the Puerta de Felipe IV.
45 min here Walk here →
More in Madrid
Every walking route in Madrid, or the full Madrid guide for where to stay and what a day costs.