Madrid
Spain
Late nights, great art, and endless tapas
Photo by Jorge Fernández Salas on Unsplash
Photos by Eduardo Rodriguez, Florian Wehde, Vienna Reyes and Jorge Fernández Salas on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Spain
April to June, September to October
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 55mm in Nov
Where it is
40.42°N, 3.70°W Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Spend a morning in the Prado
- See Guernica at the Reina Sofía
- Tapas crawl through La Latina
- Walk and row a boat in Retiro Park
- Tour the Royal Palace
- Watch a flamenco tablao in Lavapiés
Madrid travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Spain
Mid-rangeEuro. Card acceptance is near universal. Keep €10-20 in coins for smaller neighbourhood bars.
ATMs & cards
Use BBVA, Santander or CaixaBank machines. Spanish banks increasingly charge non-customers €2-3, so withdraw larger amounts less often. Always decline conversion.
Avoid these
- Euronet
- Cardpoint
- ATMs inside Sol and Gran Vía shops
Use these instead
- CaixaBank
- BBVA
- Santander
Spanish banks increasingly charge non-customers €2-3, so take out larger amounts less often.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Spain
Reasonably safeOne of Europe’s safer capitals. Pickpockets work Sol, Gran Vía and the metro line to the airport. Summer heat above 38C is a genuine risk — plan indoor afternoons.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (7 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- Puerta del Sol — and Gran Vía, for pickpockets in the crowd
- Lavapiés — late at night — lively rather than threatening, but worth attention
- Metro lines 1 and 5, especially with luggage
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Spain visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Spain
Excellent and cheapRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date (MMR, tetanus, polio)
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
OutstandingEat late — lunch at 14:30, dinner at 22:00. In La Latina, order a caña and the tapa often arrives free. Try bocadillo de calamares near Plaza Mayor.
Nightlife
The city that made late nights an institution, and still keeps them. Dinner at ten is early.
- Malasaña — indie bars, and the young crowd
- Chueca — the gay scene and a great deal else
- La Latina — Sunday vermouth after El Rastro
- Barrio de las Letras — loud, central and touristy
Closing: Bars 03:00, clubs 06:00, and churros at San Ginés after that.
A beer in a bar: €2.50–4
Getting around
Easy and cheap- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- CabifyWorks here
- FREE NOWWorks here
- From the airport
- Barajas to the centre is a flat €33 by taxi, €5 on the metro
- Against a taxi
- About level with a metered taxi, and where a city sets a flat airport fare the taxi usually wins.
Several cities cap private-hire licences hard, so at peak the app may simply have nothing to send.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Madrid — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Spain
What these numbers mean
Home broadband — Fast. Several people on calls at once, large uploads, 4K. Broadband here runs at 2.1× the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Fast. Enough to work from a cafe or a beach on a hotspot all day. Mobile runs at 1.6× the global median of 109 Mbps.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Spain, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Spanish
- HelloHolaOH-la
- PleasePor favorpor fa-VOR
- Thank youGraciasGRA-thyas
- Yes / NoSí / Nosee / no
4 more phrases
- Excuse mePerdónper-DON
- How much is it?¿Cuánto cuesta?KWAN-to KWES-ta
- The bill, pleaseLa cuenta, por favorla KWEN-ta
- Cheers!¡Salud!sa-LOOD
Religion
Catholic
Nominally Catholic and deeply secular in practice. Churches are working buildings as well as sights, and Semana Santa is taken seriously even by people who never attend Mass.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Eat late — lunch from 14:00, dinner rarely before 21:00
- Greet with two cheek kisses, right cheek first, between women or a man and a woman
- Stand at the bar to drink; it is cheaper than sitting and more sociable
- Say buenos días on entering a small shop, and adiós on leaving
Don't
- Do not expect anything to be open between 14:00 and 17:00 outside the big cities
- Do not order sangria in a serious restaurant — it is a tourist drink; ask for tinto de verano
- Do not tip heavily; rounding up or a euro or two is normal
- In Barcelona, do not assume Catalan and Spanish are interchangeable — the distinction matters to people
Where to stay in Madrid
No Holistay rentals in Madrid yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Madrid on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Barajas MAD
30 minfrom the airport· 14 km as the crow flies
Metro line 8 or the Exprés Aeropuerto, 30 min.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
