15 Unique, Quirky and Cool Things to do in Madrid

Preparing a excursion to Madrid and not positive wherever to begin?

We spent days scouring the web for exceptional matters to do in Madrid well before we landed in Spain’s major town and money. Madrid has stood for more than 1,100 many years, so you know there have to be lots of matters really worth checking out.

Turns out there are hundreds of quirky and unusual issues to do in Madrid! As soon as you’ve found the touristy hotspots, like checking out the sprawling Parque del Retiro or the incredible Royal Palace of Spain, you could possibly be crave some additional concealed factors to do in Madrid.

The 1st time we visited Madrid, we understood there were being many ought to see and do activities in this however rising city, nevertheless even back then we didn’t comprehend how a lot of enjoyable points there were being to do in this lively city.

No matter if you’re just stopping in Madrid as a commencing stage for a extensive road excursion in Spain and Portugal or getting a Madrid to Barcelona educate trip, know that Madrid has lots of items to see and do.

Special Items to do in Madrid

Join us for 15 special matters to do in Madrid.

Take in Curros con Chocolat at San Ginés

When curros con chocolat (churros with a mug of thick chocolate) absolutely isn’t exclusive in Spain, we’ve nevertheless to see another Spanish metropolis that does this mix so nicely.

Very first opening in 1894, San Ginés has been serving churros and chocolate 24 hours a working day to the masses.

A favorite late night halt (specially prevalent with immediately after the bar patrons), the chocolate is so thick that even although it’s served in a mug, superior luck ingesting it. Produced generally for dipping the tasty fried churros (yummy deep-fried batter sticks covered in cinnamon and sugar), it’s not something to be missed, and was a emphasize on our 1st excursion to Madrid.

Explore a piece of Egypt at The Templo de Debod

What can be more exclusive than acquiring a real, 2200 yr old Egyptian temple in your city?

The Templo de Debod was an Egyptian gift as many thanks for supporting Egypt offer with preserving artifacts and monuments when they built the Aswan Dam. Somewhat than acquiring the temple ruined, it was torn down brick by brick and then rebuilt to exacting depth in Madrid.

The Templo de Debod was at first crafted to honor the two the god Amun and the goddess Isis, and sits in the heart of Madrid, Spain, in Parque de la Montaña, shut to the Royal Palace. You can wander the grounds anytime for free, on the other hand there is a charge to enter the key setting up.

Get surreal at The Reina Sofia Museum

What will make the Reina Sofia Museum special has more to do with what’s in it fairly than what it is.

Stuffed with unique paintings and sculptures, such as surrealist paintings by artists like Picasso and Dali, you can devote hrs going for walks from one chamber to one more surrounded by one of a kind is effective of artwork.

The Reina Sofia Museum is also effectively known for how they team their collections.

From their avant-garde selection, to eclecticism, all to way to their equipment assortment, every single place retains a narrative that blends paintings, sculptures, posters, films and audio alongside one another in a way that leaves you considering prolonged following you have left the museum.

If you’re heading, make confident to look at out Pablo Picasso’s ‘Guernica’, considered a person of the most impressive anti-war paintings in historical past, and one you do not want to skip while you are there.

Love the place at Sala Equis

Housed in the final X-rated cinema in Madrid, the famed Alba Cinema, Sala Equis is converted into a well known cocktail bar and cultural middle. Divided into three zones and housed in a former mansion, it has space for you to take a look at and a lot to do.

The major region, the Sala Plaza, with its big monitor and bar, delivers a assortment of unique foods. You can loosen up on picket benches, lounge chairs and even swings as you chat with close friends and locals alike.

Finally, the cozy 55-seat cinema presents every thing from horror and sci-fi classics, to present day blockbusters. They have a substantial rotating schedule posted every thirty day period (no videos on Mondays however). Examine out their website to see what’s playing.

Eat filthy at La Pollería and La Coñería

Distinctive and tasty ice cream treats? Rely me in.

“Wait around, what am I wanting at?” is a usually heard sentence as people get there at possibly La Polleria ice cream shop or its close by sister ice product store, La Coñería.

La Polleria is a racy ice product store in Madrid that was so prosperous its first year that it had to go to a bigger location and then spawned a “sister” variation just down the avenue just has to be fantastic.

With both male (polofres – a perform on slang male genitalia and waffles) and female (coñofre – a enjoy on slang feminine genitalia and waffles), they’re each a substantial hit and there are lineups at both of those places each day. With the polofres on a stick and the conofres split with an ice cream in the center, you will not only get a chuckle but a delicious ice product treat as perfectly.

Examine your senses at Ikono

Ever really feel like you cannot touch this or participate in with that?

Even though museums are terrific sites to increase the head, most just let you use your eyes to acquire it all in. 5 unique senses indicates five diverse areas at Ikono that push your senses into the future realm.

From rooms filled with balls to rooms stuffed with scents, Ikono can take about an hour to stroll via and is chock full of photographic times, so carry your cellphone or a digicam.

Wander by the Prado Museum

The Prado Museum in Madrid is not only the largest museum in Madrid, it’s also viewed as 1 of the premiere museums of the entire world.

The Prado Museum is housed in a gigantic neo-classical building constructed in 1785 and is some thing to see on its own.

Whether or not you’re an inspiring art university student or just delight in paintings you can see some of the very best collections of Goya, Bosch, El Greco and Velazquez listed here, as properly as Spanish Romanesque murals and Gothic altarpieces. You can even find works from the Italian Renaissance with masterpieces by Titia, Botticelli, Rafa and Caravaggio.

Get in Madrid’s Street Art

Madrid is not exceptional in its road art. What sets Madrid’s street art aside from the rest is the quality and sheer dimension of many of these large art pieces. From a wall of 150 painted CCTV cameras symbolizing Huge Brother is seeing, to the charming (and functional) Sombrerete sundial, there are murals and road art found all throughout Madrid.

For a brief roundup of some the most very well identified avenue art in Madrid, test out this write-up.

Go to a Flamenco Present

Whilst southern Spain lays declare to the Flamenco origin, Madrid is frequently considered the capital city of Flamenco. The greatest and most theatrical flamenco reveals in the state simply call the city household, and there are many flamenco shows happening all-around the metropolis on any specified night time.

With the hypnotic dance, haunting vocals, Spanish guitar and rhythmic defeat of the castanets, flamenco dancing is fascinating to watch and a distinctive experience to delight in.

Regardless of whether you catch it in a tablao (a flamenco bar) like the ever well-liked Corral de la Morería (opened in 1956) or Villa Rosa (to start with opened in 1911) or even occur to be in the city for the duration of one of the lots of Flamenco festivals such as Flamenco Real, Flamenco Madrid or the end of the yr Suma Flamenca, you’re in for a authentic handle if you have by no means expert flamenco firsthand.

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Get spooked at the Chamberí Ghost Station

1st opened in 1919, the Estación de Chamberí was just one of Madrid’s primary metro stations. Positioned in between the Bilbao and Iglesia stops on the Blue Line, this former subway station was shut for many years, but could nonetheless be noticed by travellers as they zipped by on the tracks.

With a long history, which include furnishing shelter from the lethal bombing campaigns and artillery assaults of the Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War, the station was inevitably reopened as a museum named Andén (Platform Zero in English).

It features a fully restored Chamberí station, finish with turnstiles, previous ticket places of work, maps and a movie about how the Metro was initially designed.

The emphasize of the Anden museum is definitely the superbly reconstructed initial ads all along the metro platform. Most are composed of vivid coloured tiles, just as they ended up again when it 1st opened in 1919.

Admission is cost-free, having said that there is usually a line to get in.

Eat at the oldest cafe in the world, the Sobrino de Botin

Marked in the Guinness Reserve of Information as the oldest continuously operated cafe in the entire world, the Sobrino de Botin (Nephew of Botin – so named by the nephew of the unique owner) has served foodstuff for properly more than two hundreds of years.

It is so old that when it was 1st opened, patrons actually brought their very own foods for the house owners to cook dinner up and serve.

When the most noteworthy point about this cafe is definitely its age, it has stored to its Spanish roots. Complete suckling pig, faithfully prepared in an old brick oven, is still the dining places most common dish and the reason locals still flock to it nowadays.

Go macabre at the Reverte Coma Forensic Museum

If you enjoy the macabre as very well as grisly oddities, you will discover the Reverte Coma Forensic Museum fascinating. Housing in excess of 1,500 macabre oddities, ranging from severed heads from executions, dissected fetuses, deformed skulls of distinct peoples, diseased bones, mummies, 800 skeletons in addition a few torture gadgets and a serious employed garrote.

It is certainly not for the faint of heart, however if you are fascinated in the forensic and paleopathology sciences, or have a true fascination with the subject make any difference, it’s value a glance.

Most of these merchandise are housed in the corridors of the huge Faculty of Medicine making at the Complutense College in Madrid for you to see. Mainly established up for pupils, you can arrange a check out by phoning in advance or calling the university immediately.

Get missing in the Museum of Illusions

When is a little something not as it appears?

When it’s in Madrid’s Museum of Illusions. This more recent museum plays on optical illusions to help idiot your brain. Making use of methods like forced perception and optical illusion, you are going to come across upside down rooms, hardly ever ending corridors, 3D stereograms and substantially extra.

Most rooms are established up a to trick your thoughts into seeing, or in some situations, not seeing what is proper in entrance of you. In either circumstance, bring your camera, mainly because some rooms at the Museum of Illusions need to be photographed to see their true potential.

Visit a true Crystal Palace

The Palacio De Cristal in Madrid’s large Parque de Retiro is unquestionably some thing unusual. While palaces are commonplace in Europe, what makes the Palacio De Cristal exclusive is that it is nestled in the coronary heart of the park, and is far more large vacant space somewhat a genuine palace.

Completed in 1887, the ornate glass and steel greenhouse sits on the shore of the lake in Retiro Park and was designed strictly as a room to exhibit arts and greenery in a loving baroque style. In excess of 130 yrs later on, the constructing is nonetheless spectacular and supposedly appears to be great in the slide as the foliage starts turning.

Meet your eventual overlords at The Robot Museum

Really like robots? Who doesn’t?

Worried they’ll one day enslave us? Me way too, but that doesn’t signify that I do not come across them interesting. Madrid has one particular of the greatest collections of robots about the entire world, and you can see and interact with some at the Robot Museum.

Started in 2013, the museum pays homage to the two the early times of robot creation, what’s occurring out there now, and what could exist tomorrow. From humanoid replicas, to robotic toys and robotic animals, to replicas of the renowned Star Wars androids, and the worlds smallest robot, EMROS, the Robotic Museum in Madrid showcases them all.

Exceptional Matters to do in Madrid Spain

Whether you are heading to Madrid for a vacation, traveling into Madrid as a cease to someplace else, or materialize to stay in the city, there is a lot to see and do at all hours of the day and night time.

Loaded with eating places, leisure complexes, artwork studios, world course museums, much more parks and squares than most comparably sized towns could desire of as effectively as more than enough markets and retailers to make your wallet cry, Madrid is a definite earth course metropolis crammed with art, audio and mother nature. So no matter whether you’re in Madrid with your children, as a few or likely it solo, appreciate your journey!

Do you have something to increase to our listing! Let us know in the remarks!