Castles · Tour

Prado First, Palace Last: Optional Early Access an Hour Before Opening

This one runs in the opposite direction from most Madrid day tours: the Prado first, the old town in the middle, and the Royal Palace at the end. The order pays off. Museums are quiet in the morning and palaces are not, and a gallery with over a thousand works on display is a very different room at nine than at two. There is also an early access option at booking, which puts the group inside the Prado a full hour before the doors open to the public. That hour is the difference between looking at Las Meninas and looking at the back of someone's head. Groups are capped at sixteen, which keeps the guide reachable rather than amplified. Between the two institutions the route crosses the medieval streets of the centre, through the Plaza Mayor and the Puerta del Sol, with the account of how Madrid went from a frontier post of a collapsing Moorish emirate to the capital of Catholic Europe. The guides also hand over the practical things: where to eat and where to go afterwards. The Royal Palace closes the day, entered without queueing: the chapel, the dressing rooms, the throne room still used for royal receptions, and Carlos III, the king who rebuilt the city.