4 Days in Madrid: How We Plan A Trip

Visiting a big city like Madrid and managing to experience everything you want to during your stay is no easy task. When we visit large cities we like to do an assortment of things, check out some popular attractions, do things that are lesser-known to tourists, and have a local experience which usually includes food. Sticking to these 3 areas helps us narrow down the list of things to see and do in the places we visit.

We have four days to explore Madrid before heading to southern Spain. It will definitely be a challenge to experience everything we want in the incredible Spanish capital, but we're up for it!

Here’s how we plan to do all kinds of things we love and fit it all into our short time in Madrid.

Eat Often and Everywhere

There is no activity more Spanish than tapas hopping! Any bar or barrio will do, you just need a good concentration of tapas purveyors. Can you do tapas hopping with kids? Yes, you can! Choose a table instead of sitting at the bar, visit three bars instead of five and everyone in your crew will be comfortable enjoying tapas.

Even more culturally common than tapas is the menu del Dia (pre-set menu specials) primarily weekday lunches. Inexpensive three-course meals accompanied with soda, beer or wine sound good to us! It should tide us over until tapas hopping time anyway. As the weather warms up in Madrid people take to the streets, eating and drinking on Terrazas. We plan to drink and dine outdoors every chance we get! Locals in Madrid eat lunch and dinner later, no lunch before 2 pm and no dinner before 9 pm with lots of snacking and drinking in between.

Update! We managed to visit some great tapas bars during our short stay in Madrid! Check out this post, Awesome Local Hangouts for Tapas and Beer in Madrid to get the details!

Experience Popular and Lesser Known Activities

We will take a walking tour to get the lay of the land. We can return to places that piqued our curiosity on the tour, later on, our own. They are the best way to see and learn about a destination in a short period.

Check out the tour we decided to take during our 4 days in Madrid in this post, How to Experience the Best of Madrid with the Madrid Food Tour.

We also plan to hunt for an elusive cookie! There are secret cookies baked by cloistered Nuns in Madrid. What makes these cookies so special? Legend has it that the sought after treats made from ancient recipes date back to Roman times. We got a lead on where to find some of these precious cookies for ourselves.

We found the cookies! Check out our adventure to track them down in this post, The Search for Secret Cookies in Madrid.

Stay and do as Locals Do

There are so many hotels in Madrid! We like to stay in local neighborhoods with Airbnb or find a self-catering hotel for the kitchen. We love to cook with local ingredients the places we visit which goes hand in hand with the other thing we love, markets! We plan to visit a few (local and touristy), Mercado de San Miguel, Mercado de la Paz and Dia de Mercado. Parks are fun too so we are going to check out Retiro, Madrid's sprawling central park and a popular hangout for locals and tourists alike.

I always find a couple of articles to refer back to for tips and advice when we travel. I found one by TripAdvisor and Like a Local for Madrid that I think are particularly helpful.

How do you like to experience a destination? Do you have any tips to uncover the best in a city in a short period?

Featured image by Joao Santana via Trover