15 Unique, Quirky and Cool Things to do in Madrid

Planning a excursion to Madrid and not absolutely sure where to start?

We expended times scouring the net for exclusive things to do in Madrid effectively before we landed in Spain’s biggest town and capital. Madrid has stood for around 1,100 a long time, so you know there have to be a great deal of things really worth checking out.

Turns out there are hundreds of quirky and strange matters to do in Madrid! At the time you have viewed the touristy hotspots, like examining out the sprawling Parque del Retiro or the remarkable Royal Palace of Spain, you could possibly be crave some a lot more concealed factors to do in Madrid.

The 1st time we visited Madrid, we understood there have been various have to see and do activities in this still developing metropolis, however even again then we didn’t realize how quite a few enjoyable points there have been to do in this lively metropolis.

Whether you are just stopping in Madrid as a setting up stage for a lengthy road trip in Spain and Portugal or taking a Madrid to Barcelona educate journey, know that Madrid has a great deal of matters to see and do.

Unique Things to do in Madrid

Be part of us for 15 exclusive matters to do in Madrid.

Try to eat Curros con Chocolat at San Ginés

Though curros con chocolat (churros with a mug of thick chocolate) surely is not one of a kind in Spain, we’ve however to see a further Spanish city that does this mixture so perfectly.

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

A favorite late night halt (especially common with just after the bar patrons), the chocolate is so thick that even though it is served in a mug, excellent luck consuming it. Built mainly for dipping the scrumptious fried churros (yummy deep-fried batter sticks lined in cinnamon and sugar), it’s not anything to be missed, and was a spotlight on our 1st vacation to Madrid.

Explore a piece of Egypt at The Templo de Debod

What can be additional exclusive than possessing a authentic, 2200 year outdated Egyptian temple in your town?

The Templo de Debod was an Egyptian reward as many thanks for aiding Egypt offer with preserving artifacts and monuments when they designed the Aswan Dam. Relatively than obtaining the temple destroyed, it was torn down brick by brick and then rebuilt to exacting detail in Madrid.

The Templo de Debod was originally created to honor both the god Amun and the goddess Isis, and sits in the center of Madrid, Spain, in Parque de la Montaña, shut to the Royal Palace. You can stroll the grounds anytime for free, however there is a value to enter the primary building.

Get surreal at The Reina Sofia Museum

What tends to make the Reina Sofia Museum exclusive has more to do with what’s in it relatively than what it is.

Loaded with distinctive paintings and sculptures, together with surrealist paintings by artists like Picasso and Dali, you can devote hrs strolling from one chamber to another surrounded by exclusive will work of art.

The Reina Sofia Museum is also very well regarded for how they team their collections.

From their avant-garde selection, to eclecticism, all to way to their apparatus collection, every single home retains a narrative that blends paintings, sculptures, posters, films and tunes jointly in a way that leaves you pondering extended right after you’ve left the museum.

If you are likely, make absolutely sure to examine out Pablo Picasso’s ‘Guernica’, deemed 1 of the most powerful anti-war paintings in history, and one you really do not want to pass up though you are there.

Take pleasure in the house at Sala Equis

Housed in the past X-rated cinema in Madrid, the famed Alba Cinema, Sala Equis is converted into a popular cocktail bar and cultural center. Divided into a few zones and housed in a previous mansion, it has place for you to examine and a lot to do.

The most important region, the Sala Plaza, with its huge display screen and bar, delivers a range of various foods. You can unwind on picket benches, lounge chairs and even swings as you chat with mates and locals alike.

Lastly, the cozy 55-seat cinema provides every thing from horror and sci-fi classics, to modern day blockbusters. They have a enormous rotating routine posted each individual thirty day period (no videos on Mondays even though). Check out out their web page to see what’s enjoying.

Take in filthy at La Pollería and La Coñería

Exclusive and delicious ice product treats? Depend me in.

“Wait, what am I seeking at?” is a usually read sentence as individuals arrive at possibly La Polleria ice product shop or its nearby sister ice product store, La Coñería.

La Polleria is a racy ice cream shop in Madrid that was so prosperous its to start with year that it experienced to move to a even bigger location and then spawned a “sister” edition just down the road just has to be very good.

With both male (polofres – a participate in on slang male genitalia and waffles) and feminine (coñofre – a engage in on slang woman genitalia and waffles), they’re both of those a large hit and there are lineups at both equally locations each day. With the polofres on a adhere and the conofres break up with an ice product in the center, you’ll not only get a chuckle but a delicious ice cream deal with as properly.

Explore your senses at Ikono

At any time truly feel like you just can’t touch this or engage in with that?

Even though museums are good sites to expand the thoughts, most just let you use your eyes to get it all in. 5 different senses indicates five diverse areas at Ikono that press your senses into the next realm.

From rooms crammed with balls to rooms loaded with scents, Ikono requires about an hour to stroll via and is chock complete of photographic times, so provide your telephone or a digicam.

Wander through the Prado Museum

The Prado Museum in Madrid is not only the most important museum in Madrid, it’s also regarded as 1 of the premiere museums of the planet.

The Prado Museum is housed in a gigantic neo-classical making built in 1785 and is anything to see on its own.

No matter whether you’re an inspiring artwork university student or just appreciate paintings you can see some of the most effective collections of Goya, Bosch, El Greco and Velazquez in this article, as properly as Spanish Romanesque murals and Gothic altarpieces. You can even find performs from the Italian Renaissance with masterpieces by Titia, Botticelli, Rafa and Caravaggio.

Acquire in Madrid’s Street Artwork

Madrid is not exceptional in its street artwork. What sets Madrid’s road artwork aside from the relaxation is the high-quality and sheer sizing of a lot of of these large artwork pieces. From a wall of 150 painted CCTV cameras symbolizing Huge Brother is watching, to the charming (and practical) Sombrerete sundial, there are murals and street art located all across Madrid.

For a quick roundup of some the most nicely recognized road artwork in Madrid, check out out this report.

Go to a Flamenco Exhibit

Even though southern Spain lays assert to the Flamenco origin, Madrid is frequently regarded the cash metropolis of Flamenco. The most significant and most theatrical flamenco reveals in the state connect with the city residence, and there are various flamenco displays occurring all around the metropolis on any provided night time.

With the hypnotic dance, haunting vocals, Spanish guitar and rhythmic conquer of the castanets, flamenco dancing is fascinating to view and a one of a kind experience to love.

Whether or not you capture it in a tablao (a flamenco bar) like the ever popular Corral de la Morería (opened in 1956) or Villa Rosa (to start with opened in 1911) or even transpire to be in the metropolis throughout one of the numerous Flamenco festivals such as Flamenco Genuine, Flamenco Madrid or the finish of the 12 months Suma Flamenca, you’re in for a genuine handle if you’ve by no means professional flamenco firsthand.

Get spooked at the Chamberí Ghost Station

1st opened in 1919, the Estación de Chamberí was one of Madrid’s initial metro stations. Situated among the Bilbao and Iglesia stops on the Blue Line, this previous subway station was closed for decades, but could nevertheless be witnessed by travellers as they zipped by on the tracks.

With a extended historical past, like delivering shelter from the lethal bombing campaigns and artillery assaults of the Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War, the station was sooner or later reopened as a museum named Andén (System Zero in English).

It functions a totally restored Chamberí station, complete with turnstiles, aged ticket places of work, maps and a movie about how the Metro was initially created.

The highlight of the Anden museum is undoubtedly the superbly reconstructed first advertisements all alongside the metro platform. Most are composed of shiny colored tiles, just as they had been again when it initially opened in 1919.

Admission is cost-free, however there is generally a line to get in.

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

Marked in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest continuously operated cafe in the world, the Sobrino de Botin (Nephew of Botin – so named by the nephew of the unique proprietor) has served food for properly about two generations.

It is so aged that when it was to start with opened, patrons actually brought their possess foods for the entrepreneurs to prepare dinner up and serve.

While the most notable factor about this restaurant is of course its age, it has held to its Spanish roots. Entire suckling pig, faithfully organized in an previous brick oven, is still the dining places most preferred dish and the rationale locals still flock to it these days.

Go macabre at the Reverte Coma Forensic Museum

If you delight in the macabre as well as grisly oddities, you will come across the Reverte Coma Forensic Museum interesting. Housing over 1,500 macabre oddities, ranging from severed heads from executions, dissected fetuses, deformed skulls of distinct peoples, diseased bones, mummies, 800 skeletons as well as a handful of torture gadgets and a true utilised garrote.

It is undoubtedly not for the faint of coronary heart, nonetheless if you are interested in the forensic and paleopathology sciences, or have a correct fascination with the issue make a difference, it is worthy of a appear.

Most of these merchandise are housed in the corridors of the enormous College of Medication creating at the Complutense College in Madrid for you to see. Primarily established up for learners, you can manage a take a look at by phoning in advance or calling the college right.

Get misplaced in the Museum of Illusions

When is something not as it appears?

When it’s in Madrid’s Museum of Illusions. This newer museum plays on optical illusions to enable fool your intellect. Utilizing methods like forced perception and optical illusion, you are going to come across upside down rooms, hardly ever ending corridors, 3D stereograms and significantly more.

Most rooms are set up a to trick your thoughts into viewing, or in some circumstances, not observing what’s correct in front of you. In either scenario, provide your camera, mainly because some rooms at the Museum of Illusions have to have to be photographed to see their legitimate probable.

Pay a visit to a authentic Crystal Palace

The Palacio De Cristal in Madrid’s large Parque de Retiro is unquestionably a little something unconventional. Although palaces are commonplace in Europe, what makes the Palacio De Cristal specific is that it is nestled in the coronary heart of the park, and is much more big vacant room instead a accurate palace.

Completed in 1887, the ornate glass and metal greenhouse sits on the shore of the lake in Retiro Park and was developed strictly as a room to show arts and greenery in a loving baroque model. In excess of 130 many years later, the creating is even now beautiful and supposedly looks amazing in the drop as the foliage begins turning.

Satisfy your eventual overlords at The Robot Museum

Love robots? Who doesn’t?

Frightened they’ll just one day enslave us? Me far too, but that does not mean that I do not come across them intriguing. Madrid has just one of the premier collections of robots all over the globe, and you can see and interact with some at the Robot Museum.

Established in 2013, the museum pays homage to equally the early days of robotic creation, what’s taking place out there these days, and what may perhaps exist tomorrow. From humanoid replicas, to robotic toys and robotic animals, to replicas of the famed Star Wars androids, and the worlds smallest robotic, EMROS, the Robotic Museum in Madrid showcases them all.

Exceptional Things to do in Madrid Spain

No matter whether you are heading to Madrid for a holiday vacation, flying into Madrid as a quit to someplace else, or transpire to live in the metropolis, there’s plenty to see and do at all several hours of the working day and night time.

Filled with restaurants, leisure complexes, art studios, environment class museums, extra parks and squares than most comparably sized metropolitan areas could desire of as properly as enough marketplaces and outlets to make your wallet cry, Madrid is a definite entire world class town filled with artwork, music and character. So irrespective of whether you’re in Madrid with your youngsters, as a pair or going it solo, take pleasure in your trip!

Do you have just about anything to add to our record! Allow us know in the remarks!