Madrid, explained
Toledo is a walled city on a granite hill about 70 kilometres south of Madrid, encircled almost entirely by a bend in the Tagus river. It was the capital of Spain until 1561 and is now the capital of the Castile-La Mancha region. UNESCO lists its entire old town as a World Heritage Site. High-speed … Read more
Manzanares el Real is a municipality in the Community of Madrid, about 50 kilometres north of the capital, built around a well-preserved 15th-century castle and a reservoir at the foot of the Sierra de Guadarrama. It functions both as a lived-in town and as the main access point to La Pedriza, a granite mountain area … Read more
Cuenca works well as a day trip if the plan is limited to the old town and its museums — the high-speed train makes it roughly an hour each way from Madrid. It becomes an overnight if the plan includes the Ciudad Encantada, the wider Serranía de Cuenca, or simply seeing the hanging houses lit … Read more
Chinchón is a small town in the Community of Madrid, about 45 kilometres southeast of the capital, built around an irregular, arcaded Plaza Mayor lined with tiered wooden balconies. It is known for that square, for a locally produced anís liquor, for a Goya painting in its parish church, and for a castle that later … Read more
Aranjuez is a town about 47 kilometres south of Madrid, built around a former royal residence and its gardens on the banks of the Tagus river. It functioned as a spring and autumn retreat for the Spanish court from the 16th century onward, and UNESCO has inscribed its palace, town plan and gardens as a … Read more
Alcalá de Henares is a city of around 200,000 people in the eastern part of the Community of Madrid, roughly 35 kilometres from the capital. It is built around one of Europe’s oldest universities and is the recorded birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes. UNESCO lists its university and historic centre as a World Heritage Site. … Read more
Ávila is a small walled city in Castile and León, about 110 km northwest of Madrid, built on a granite outcrop above the Adaja river. Its walls are a largely intact Romanesque fortification from the late 11th and 12th centuries — roughly 2.5 km of stone circuit with dozens of towers, still enclosing the old … Read more
El Escorial is a vast granite monastery-palace built for King Philip II in the second half of the 16th century, about 45 kilometres northwest of Madrid. It combines a working Augustinian monastery, a royal palace, a basilica, a library and a mausoleum where most Spanish monarchs since Charles I are buried. UNESCO lists it as … Read more
Segovia is a city of around 50,000 people in the Castilian plateau, roughly 90 minutes north-west of Madrid by road or under 30 minutes by high-speed train. Its landmark is a Roman aqueduct: a raised stone channel, built without mortar, that still stands more than 800 metres through the middle of the old town. What … Read more
The Sierra de Guadarrama is the mountain range that closes off the northern edge of the Madrid basin, part of the wider Sistema Central that runs across the middle of the Iberian Peninsula. Its nearest ridges lie roughly 50–60 km from central Madrid, and its closer towns are reachable by suburban train in under two … Read more
About what you read here. Access Madrid is an independent guide written from published, checkable sources — museum and transport operators’ own information, official city and tourism data, and the public record. We have not visited the places we write about, and we do not publish personal recommendations or invented “local favourites”. Where we point to something notable we say who says so.
Opening times, fares, closures and prices change, often at short notice. Everything here is a starting point, not a booking confirmation — always check the venue’s or operator’s own site before you build a day around it. We are not a travel agency and we give no advice on visas, insurance, health or safety requirements; for those, use your own government’s official guidance.