Places to visit in Madrid

When considering places to visit in Spain, Madrid should be at the top of your list if you truly want to get sense of the Spanish culture as a whole.   Since living here for the last 13 years I am going to start by telling you I am totally biased.  I love this city. Madrid is one of the greatest big little towns I know. There are plenty of places to visit in Madrid. It has everything a big city offers yet somehow it still feels quite small relative to other great capitals like Berlin, London, or Paris.  Surprisingly enough it is also the third largest city in Europe by population. Despite that fact, it still feels like a village to me sometimes. It feels comfortable and close while being very cosmopolitan and sexy. In terms of places to visit in Madrid it is does not have the quantity of monuments like Barcelona possesses but instead offers a specific lifestyle. All the important attractions like the functioning Royal Palace, markets, old town, and the museums are all centrally located. If you like to walk you can easily walk across the significant center of town in under an hour. Like most capitals in the world Madrid is a collection of people from across Spain and the world.  Not only will you encounter typical Spanish cuisine from Madrid but also regional foods like Basque, Galician, Catalan, Andaluz, Extremeño, Valenciano. and of course world cuisine from Ethiopian to Thai. Over 6500 bars & restaurants are included in places to visit in Madrid,  including the oldest restaurant in the world.

Spaniards are very social and Madrid is no exception.  The nightlife continues to rage despite the recent recession and you will find more people on Gran Via at 5am than 5pm.  It is more about how you experience the city and with whom as opposed to what you see.  Its a place where the locals live the city, they meet friends and family, go to the museum and then off for a long lazy lunch or an unexpected evening of bar hopping for tapas and wine across the various “barrios” (neighborhoods) It about enjoying all that the city has to offer.