Madrid, Sevilleand Granada

Three cities in eight days: the museums of Madrid, the palaces of Seville and the Alhambra above Granada. Trains between cities, no car needed.

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Route

Getting around

Spain · 8 days

The capital and the way in. The country’s two biggest museums, the royal palace and evening streets where people walk until midnight.

Day by day

Day 1 · 7 placesArrival and a first evening downtown
Barajas → central Madrid · metro line 8 or Cercanías, about 40 min
  • Aeropuerto Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas (MAD)
    Where you land. Into the center by metro line 8 (one change) or the Cercanías C-1 commuter train to Atocha station, about 40 minutes either way.
  • Puerta del Sol
    The very middle of the city and of the whole country: set into the pavement is the “kilometer zero” from which Spanish roads are measured. Pedestrian streets fan out from here in every direction.
  • Plaza Mayor
    A square closed on all four sides, built in the 17th century, entered through nine arches. It is lit at night, and people sit in the cafés under the arcades — pricey, but worth it once.
  • Mercado de San Miguel
    A glass-and-iron market from 1916 that no longer sells groceries: people eat standing at the counters. Expensive for dinner, but worth walking through to look at the stalls.
  • Gran Vía
    The city’s main street: early-20th-century buildings, theaters with musicals, neon and crowds until midnight. Walk it in the evening, when everything is lit.
  • Círculo de Bellas Artes (Azotea)
    The rooftop of an arts club: from up here you see Gran Vía, the domes of the center and the sunset over the palace. Paid entry, an elevator takes you straight up.
Day 2 · 8 placesThe palace quarter and sunset at the Temple of Debod
the whole day on foot, one neighborhood
  • Palacio Real de Madrid
    The largest working royal palace in Western Europe: three thousand rooms, of which about fifty are shown — the throne room, the porcelain room, the armory. Timed entry; buy the ticket ahead.
  • Plaza de la Villa
    A small square with the oldest houses in the city — the Lujanes tower is more than five hundred years old. A ten-minute stop on the way to the palace.
  • Real Basílica de San Francisco el Grande
    A round basilica with one of the largest domes in Europe and an early Goya inside. Almost nobody here.
  • Catedral de la Almudena
    A cathedral that took over a century to build and was only finished in 1993 — so the ceilings inside are painted in bright modern colors, nothing like an old church.
  • Plaza de Oriente
    A garden of stone kings between the palace and the opera house. A good place to sit on a bench after the palace.
  • Jardines de Sabatini
    Neat green parterres under the north wall of the palace. The prettiest view of the palace itself is from here.
Day 3 · 6 placesThe museum mile: the Prado, the Retiro, the Reina Sofía
the Paseo del Prado and the park beside it
  • Museo Nacional del Prado
    One of the great painting collections of the world: Velázquez’s Las Meninas, Goya’s Black Paintings, Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights. You cannot walk it all — pick these three and give them two hours.
  • Puerta de Alcalá
    A stone gate from the 18th century in the middle of a traffic circle — the city once ended here. Five minutes, and a handy way into the park.
  • Parque del Retiro
    A former royal garden, now the city’s main park: a pond with rowboats, avenues of plane trees, street musicians. In the morning it is joggers and dog walkers.
  • Real Jardín Botánico
    The botanical garden right behind the Prado: quiet terraces, a greenhouse, old trees. The best pause between two big museums.
  • Museo Reina Sofía
    20th-century art and Picasso’s Guernica — that is what people come for. The museum is closed on Tuesdays, which is why it sits on this day.
  • Calle de las Huertas
    The writers’ quarter: lines from Cervantes and Lope de Vega are set into the paving, and both sides of the street are bars where the whole neighborhood comes out in the evening.
Day 4 · 6 placesTrain to Seville and a first evening
Madrid → Seville · AVE from Atocha to Santa Justa, about 2 hrs 30
  • Setas de Sevilla (Metropol Parasol)
    A huge wooden structure over a market square, the largest of its kind in the world. A walkway runs along the top: the whole old town below, and at sunset the roofs and the Giralda turn gold.
  • Estación de Madrid-Puerta de Atocha
    The AVE south leaves from here. Come half an hour early: there is a baggage check at the entrance, like an airport. In the old station hall there is a tropical garden with palms.
  • Estación de Sevilla-Santa Justa
    Seville’s train station. The old town is a mile and a quarter away: 10 minutes by taxi, bus C1/C2, or half an hour on foot.
  • Calle Sierpes
    Seville’s main pedestrian street: old shops with fans and hats, pastry shops, a crowd from evening until night. Walk it and you understand the city.
  • Plaza Nueva
    The square by the city hall at the end of Sierpes: palms, a statue of King Ferdinand, cafés under the arcades. The center of the new town and the start of the evening walk.
  • Plaza del Salvador
    The square in front of a baroque church, where in the evening people stand with a glass right on the steps — that is how it is done here, and it is the simplest way to be among locals.
Day 5 · 8 placesThe Alcázar, the cathedral and Santa Cruz
the whole day on foot through the old town
  • Real Alcázar de Sevilla
    A palace that Moorish craftsmen built for Christian kings: carved ceilings, tiles, quiet gardens with orange trees. The strongest thing in Seville — come at opening, before the crowds.
  • Catedral de Sevilla y La Giralda
    The largest Gothic cathedral in the world, built on the site of a mosque. Inside is Columbus’s tomb, and the Giralda tower is climbed by ramps, not stairs — it was built so a rider could go up on horseback.
  • Barrio de Santa Cruz
    The old Jewish quarter: white walls, pots of geraniums, lanes the width of your shoulders. Getting lost here is part of the fun; the quarter is small and always brings you out.
  • Jardines de Murillo
    Shady gardens along the old city wall, where you sit and catch your breath on the way to Plaza de España.
  • Plaza de España
    A half-circle of brick and tile built for the 1929 exposition: a canal with rowboats, little bridges, benches for every province of Spain. Find your own — or the one whose name you like.
  • Torre del Oro
    A twelve-sided tower from the 13th century on the bank of the Guadalquivir — a chain once ran from it across the river to close the port. A small naval museum inside, and a view from the top.
Day 6 · 11 placesTrain to Granada and sunset over the Albaicín
Seville → Granada · Renfe train, about 3 hrs
  • Estación de Sevilla-Santa Justa
    The train to Granada leaves from here. Buy Renfe tickets ahead — there are only a few departures a day.
  • Estación de Granada
    A small station a twenty-minute walk from the center. A taxi to Plaza Nueva takes five minutes.
  • Alcaicería
    Narrow covered lanes on the site of the old Moorish silk bazaar: lamps, spices, tiles. The shops are for tourists, but the street itself is real.
  • Corral del Carbón
    The only Moorish-era inn left in Spain — 14th century, a quiet courtyard with a well. Free entry, ten minutes.
  • Plaza Nueva
    The main square at the foot of the Alhambra hill: from here both the climb to the fortress and the road along the river into the Albaicín begin. The minibuses up the hill stop here too.
  • Carrera del Darro
    The prettiest street in the city: a stream in a stone channel, little bridges, old houses, and the walls of the Alhambra above them. Walk it slowly.
Day 7 · 6 placesThe Alhambra, the Generalife and an evening in Sacromonte
up to the Alhambra and back down into town
  • Generalife
    The summer garden of the emirs, above the fortress itself: clipped hedges, channels and fountains, the sound of water on every side. It is easier to start here — then the whole way is downhill.
  • Palacios Nazaríes (Alhambra)
    This is what people come to Granada for: the Court of the Lions, plaster carving made like lace, and halls where the ceiling looks like a starry sky. Entry strictly within the half-hour window on your ticket.
  • Palacio de Carlos V
    A Renaissance palace the emperor dropped right into the Moorish fortress: square outside, a round colonnaded courtyard inside. The courtyard is free.
  • Carmen de los Mártires
    A hillside garden next to the Alhambra: palms, ponds, peacocks and a view of the whole city. Free and quiet — the Alhambra crowd never gets here.
  • Capilla Real de Granada
    Here lie Isabella and Ferdinand — the monarchs under whom Moorish Granada fell and Columbus sailed. Small, quiet, with their own art collection.
  • Zambra en Sacromonte
    Flamenco in a cave — the local zambra, danced in a hall cut into the hill, with the audience along the walls a yard from the dancer. Book ahead: the rooms are tiny.
Day 8 · 7 placesMonasteries on the way out, and the flight
Granada → GRX airport, about 10 miles
  • Monasterio de San Jerónimo
    Two quiet cloisters and a church painted from floor to dome — there is literally no empty surface inside. Almost no tourists.
  • Basílica de San Juan de Dios
    The densest baroque in the city: gilded walls, silver, mirrors. Five minutes inside, and you understand what Spanish baroque means.
  • Jardines del Triunfo
    A garden with fountains across from the Hospital Real — a short pause before the last monastery.
  • Hospital Real
    A 16th-century Renaissance building, now the university’s main offices. People come for the two courtyards of orange trees; entry is free.
  • Monasterio de la Cartuja
    A Carthusian monastery on the edge of town: a sacristy of marble and plasterwork that is called Spain’s Sistine Chapel. Worth it on the way to the airport.
  • Alfar Romano de Cartuja
    An excavated Roman pottery workshop with kilns, next to the Cartuja. Free, twenty minutes, and a reminder that the city is older than the Moors.
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