🇪🇸 Spain · Europe
Madrid
World-class museums with free evening hours — eat like a local and it’s cheap.
cityculturefood☀ best: Apr – Jun & Sep – Oct
The Madrid guide
Inside the premium guide
A preview of the real thing — a detailed premium guide, researched and checked in 2026. Click a page to enlarge.
THE COMPLETE CITY GUIDE
SPAIN · RESEARCHED 2026
Madrid
World-class museums with free evening hours — eat like a local and it’s cheap.
sama·sama
The cover
What this guide covers
38 pages, A4 — cover to back. A phone edition comes with it.
What’s inside + how to use
The place & what a day costs
City at a glance — the best-of snapshot
What & how to eat
Where to eat — cheap & local
Mid-range & special occasion
Sweets, cafés & coffee
Vegan, veggie & gluten-free
Supermarkets & typical prices
Markets & food halls
Souvenirs & shopping
Where to stay — neighbourhoods
Budget, boutique & luxury stays
Hostels — the backpacker shortlist
Six big things to do
Top 10 experiences — book & compare
Nightlife & after dark
Best day trips
Insider tips + safety & scams
Ready-made day plans
Getting around
Arrival, tickets & transport cheat sheet
When to go + best time to visit
Cash, cards & tipping
Connectivity & insurance
Health, safety & entry
The travel toolbox
Every link, one place
Sama·Sama · Madrid guide38 pages
Everything it covers
STRAIGHT FROM THE GUIDE
Designed cover to cover
One real entry from the Madrid guide
The price tables further down give you the ranges. The guide gives you the places — 31 of them in Madrid, each priced, each one tap from Google Maps.
€1.20–1.50 / croquetaCasa JulioA tiny Malasaña institution famous for arguably Madrid's best croquetas — classic jamón or spinach-gorgonzola. Expect a queue.📍 Open in Google Maps →One of 31. The rest are in the guide.
Everything. Two files. One price.
This isn’t a blog post saved as a PDF — it’s a detailed, premium, 38-page A4 magazine — researched and checked in 2026, designed to be used. And every purchase comes as two files: the A4 edition for your laptop, tablet and printer, and a phone edition laid out tall and narrow so you never pinch or zoom — the same guide re-flowed into 93 phone-sized pages. Keep it on your phone or print it, open it at a street corner in Madrid and it answers the question you’re standing there with.
38A4 pages — cover to back
93phone pages — same guide, re-flowed
233+researched prices in €
262live, verified links
115jump straight to Google Maps
68hand-picked photos
Add it up: 563+ researched details — every price checked, every venue placed, every link live. More usable information than a week of blog-tab hopping, in one beautiful file.
- Made for the phone in your pocket — as well as the A4 magazine you get a phone edition: one attraction per screen, nothing cut, every link still live. No pinching, no sideways scrolling.
- Every venue is one tap from navigation — 115 Google Maps links mean you never type an address on holiday.
- Real prices, not vibes — three honest daily budgets (€52 / €91 / €182) and prices on everything from a dorm bed to a splurge dinner.
- Zero sponsorships — nobody paid to be in this guide. If it’s in, it’s in because it’s good.
- Book everything from the page — stays open on Booking.com & Hostelworld, experiences on GetYourGuide, Trip.com & Klook, transport on official operator sites.
- Plan-it-for-me included — ready day plans, a Top 10, a best-of snapshot, and neighbourhood “best for” labels that choose your base with you.
Buy the Madrid guide — €9.95 →Or buy Madrid on Etsy ↗
Was €14.50 — now €9.95, every city the same.
This page gives you the ranges. The guide gives you the places — every venue named, priced and linked.
SHOESTRING
€52/day
dorms, street plates, transit
COMFY
€91/day
private room, sit-down meals, a treat
FLASH
€182/day
nice hotel, good dinners, no maths
🧮 Trip maths
€638 total
What Madrid costs, day to day
🛵 Getting around
Bolt
Uber
Cabify
Metro rideper ride — The 10-trip Metrobús (~$13) is shareable€1.3–€1.7
Cercanías trainper ride€1.3–€2.2
Airport → centre (metro + supplement)one-way€4.3–€5.2
BiciMAD e-bikeper 30 min€0.4–€0.9
🛏 Stays
Per night
Hostel dorm bed€17–€28
3-star double, centre€69–€113
Airbnb 1-BR€52–€87
Gran Vía 5-star double€174–€330
Monthly
Studio, Lavapiés / Usera€738–€1,042
1-BR flat, central€868–€1,302
🛒 Groceries & daily life
Mercadona / Alcampo — value staples; Alcampo is the cheap hypermarket
Lidl / Dia — discounters everywhere
Mercado de Maravillas — Europe’s biggest food market — real prices
Water 1.5 L€0.4–€0.6
Milk 1 L€0.9–€1.1
Eggs ×10€1.9–€2.4
Bread loaf€0.8–€1.2
Rice 1 kg€1–€1.5
Chicken breast 1 kg€5.2–€6.5
Bananas 1 kg€1.2–€1.6
Local beer 0.5 L (shop)€0.7–€1
🍜 Eating out
Bocadillo de calamaresThe Plaza Mayor classic€3–€4.3
Menú del día lunchper person€10–€14
Mid-range dinnerper person€22–€35
Tasting menuper person€69–€130
Caña + free tapaper drink€1.7–€2.6
🎡 Things to do — with kids
Retiro park rowboatsper boat€6.1–€6.9
Zoo Aquariumentry€22–€25
Parque Warner dayentry€35–€42
Churros at San Ginésfor two€3.5–€5.2
🌙 Things to do — grown-ups
Pradoentry — Free daily 18–20 h — the locals’ slot€14
Reina Sofíaentry — Free evening hours too€11
El Rastro Sunday marketfree
Bernabéu stadium tourentry€24–€30
Flamenco tablaoticket€22–€35
🌤 Climate
Day °CRain
Best: Apr – Jun & Sep – Oct · Wet: —
High plateau: crisp dry winters, furnace Jul–Aug afternoons. Spring and autumn are made for terrazas.
✈️ Getting there
RyanairVuelingeasyJetWizz AirMalaga€16–€39
Lisbon€17–€43
Rome€22–€52
Every low-cost carrier fights over MAD — fares to half of Europe under $50.
🏧 ATMs & money
Fees: The tricky one: Spanish banks surcharge foreign cards €0–5 each — Santander and CaixaBank sit at the punchy end, smaller banks are kind.
Limits: €300–600 typical; some machines offer €1,000 'premium' pulls with a bigger fee — decline.
Best machines: ABANCAEVO BancoIbercaja
Check the on-screen fee before confirming and walk to the next bank if it's €3+. Decline conversion, and skip exchange offices — a low-fee ATM beats them all.
🩺 Health & safety
Vaccines: Routine only.
Health: Tap water fine everywhere on our list (coastal areas vary in taste, not safety). July–August heat inland (Sevilla, Madrid!) is genuinely fierce — siesta culture exists for a reason; May–June and Sept–Oct are golden alternatives.
Tap water: ✅ Safe nationwide (Madrid's is famously good); some coastal spots taste briny but remain safe.
Safety: Violent crime toward visitors: among Europe's lowest. Barcelona is, however, the continent's pickpocket capital — Las Ramblas, metro L3, and beach bags are the arenas. Phone gripped, bag worn forward, nothing valuable on the sand: play that defense and Spain is pure joy.
Emergency: 112
🌱 Vegan, veggie & gluten-free
Plant-based: Tortilla, gazpacho, salmorejo (check bread), pimientos de padrón, escalivada — tapas culture has a veg lane if you order à la carte.
Gluten-free: Jamón, tortilla, grilled fish are GF; beware croquetas (flour) and always ask about 'harina' in sauces. GF menus are legally common.
'Soy celiaco/a' is widely understood — Spain is one of Europe's best coeliac countries.
🛂 Visa & entry
This is a Schengen-area country. Most US, UK, EU, Canadian, Australian, NZ, Brazilian, Japanese and Korean passports enter visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180-day period across the whole Schengen zone. From 2025 the EU's ETIAS pre-authorisation applies to visa-free non-EU visitors — check before you fly.
Rules change — always verify with an official source for your nationality before you book.
💬 Traveller tips & reports
Eat standing, like everyone — The best cheap food is vertical: market counters at Maravillas, a caña with a free tapa in La Latina. Terrace seats cost ~20 % more — sometimes worth it, always a choice.
@gato.nocturno · Apr ’26 · ▲ 164