As I’ve mentioned before, my most recent visit to Madrid was very different to the last one: where nearly 10 years ago I arrived thanks to Eurail from Lisbon , this time I arrived by plane from Bogotá; rather than a physical guide, I had Google Maps on my Smartphone; the main purpose of this trip was receiving a prize (the best travel blog in the Americas) rather than for business; and, most importantly, this time I only had a couple of days to explore the city instead of nearly two weeks last time. I had just a 48 hour weekend to make the most of the city and enjoy the best it had to offer.
The historic center of Madrid and the surrounding area is in a relatively small and easily walkable radius, but with time constraints forcing me to make the most of every minute to achieve my two main objectives and also give me time to get lost in medieval streets, browse in local shops local and eat the mandatory tapas with draft beer in Plaza Mayor, these goals were coming up with a route that would allow me to visit various bookstores and antique shops that I had already researched, and also give me time to visit El Rastro on Sunday, without being in too much of a hurry!
The Hop-On Hop-Off buses are an excellent alternative to give you a general overview of the city and then decide for yourself which spots you are really interested in, unlike traditional city tours in Spain where you are in the hands of the guides, and may have to see many places which don’t interest you. The service consists of a double-decker bus that stops at tourist spots, with guides describing the sites as you pass them, and that you can get on and off throughout the day for a set fee. There are various companies and franchises of varying quality that offer this type of transport, in my case I opted for Madrid City Tour, who have ticket booths in kiosks and souvenir shops throughout the city.
I bought a ticket for 25 Euros for two days ( one day costs 21 ) and on Saturday, during the tour, I focused on tracing a route taking in the most important stops marked on the above Google Map, almost all in or around the Las Letras neighbourhood. After going all around Route 2 or the extended route (approximately 1 1/2 hours), I decided that my stop-off points were going to intersect with those on Route One, the more traditional route, when I realized, with a bit too much excitement, that the buses also contained WiFi.
The buses stop at all stations at intervals of 8-15 minutes from 9 am-10 pm in high season and in low season, when I visited, from 10 am to 6 pm, so it’s important, if you’re planning to see the city in this way, to start early to give yourself plenty of time to enjoy each stop on the complete tour.
In upcoming posts I will write in more detail about the destinations and places that I discovered thanks to the Hop-On Hop-Off bus, but I will just add that, thanks to the time I saved, I was able to check-off all the places in Madrid that I had on the list I prepared in Bogota.
JL
otobusimorgil on
Thanks for the post, we would love to travel in Madrid in the future!