One Week in Madrid & the Comunidad

Days 1–4: the city, unhurried

With four nights you can stop triaging. Do the Golden Triangle across two mornings instead of one death-march; give the Austrias and La Latina a full day ending in the Cava Baja; give Malasaña, Chueca and Chamberí (lunch on Ponzano) the third. On day four, choose your own adventure: the Sorolla museum and Salamanca’s market, or the Casa de Campo cable car and Madrid Río.

Base: split the difference between sights and life — Huertas for the first two nights if it’s your first time, then consider moving to Malasaña or Chamberí to live the barrio version. Two bases inside one city sounds fussy; in Madrid it’s two different holidays.

Day 5: the vega — palace gardens and the theatrical plaza

Check out, leave the bags with the hotel, and take the C-3 to Aranjuez: palace in the morning, the Príncipe gardens after lunch. Bus or taxi the 25 minutes to Chinchón in the late afternoon — when the day-trippers drain away, the Plaza Mayor at dusk becomes one of the great Spanish stage sets. Sleep in a balcony room over the square; dine on roast lamb below it.

Drivers can invert this: Chinchón for lunch, Aranjuez for the evening river walk, sleeping in either. Both towns are covered in detail on their area pages.

Days 6–7: the sierra

Morning bus or train to San Lorenzo de El Escorial (via Madrid; under two hours door to door). Give Philip II’s monastery the whole afternoon — it needs it — and sleep in the cool air at 1,000 m. Day seven: the La Herrería walk to the Silla de Felipe II at dawn, then either the bus home or — the strong move — onward to Cercedilla for the Fuenfría Roman road and the C-8 back to Atocha as the sun drops.

Walkers can upgrade day seven to the Camino Schmidt or, with the C-9 mountain train, to Peñalara’s lagoons. Pack layers: the sierra runs ten degrees below the city.

The budget arithmetic

A week structured this way sleeps cheaper than seven central nights: the vega and sierra towns run €44–60 for rooms the city charges €80+ for, and menús del día out there still cost €12–14. Count on the Tourist Travel Pass (zone T) making every train and bus on this page flat-rate.