Top 5 Things to Do in Gran Vía, Madrid

The short answer

Gran Vía is Madrid's hundred-year-old statement avenue: a canyon of belle-époque and art-deco towers — the Metrópolis, the Telefónica building, the Capitol's curved prow — carved through the old city in the 1910s and 20s. It is the city's theatre district, its cinema strip, and increasingly its rooftop-bar skyline: half the hotels here have a terrace with a view worth the room rate.

The list, ranked

1. Rooftop crawl at sunset — Círculo de Bellas Artes' azotea has the definitive view of the Metrópolis dome; several hotel terraces along the avenue let non-guests up for the price of a drink.

2. A show on the avenue — Gran Vía runs Spanish-language productions of the big musicals plus home-grown revues — tickets are half West End prices.

3. Templo de Debod at dusk — The genuine 2nd-century-BC Egyptian temple in the Parque del Oeste, 12 minutes' walk west — Madrid's best sunset, free.

4. The Capitol & Telefónica facades — Walk the avenue's full 1.3 km once at night for the neon and once by day for the stonework — it's two different streets.

5. Gran Vía end to end — 3 km · 1.5 h. Metrópolis → Telefónica → Callao → Plaza de España → up through Parque del Oeste to the Templo de Debod viewpoint. The city's 20th-century showpiece, finished with its best sunset.

Make a day of it

Metro stations pearl the avenue — Banco de España, Gran Vía, Callao, Santo Domingo, Plaza de España — covering lines 1, 2, 3, 5 and 10. The airport express bus (24h, ~40 min) stops at Cibeles at the avenue's eastern foot. Everything central is walkable from mid-avenue.