Spain’s capital is entrancing, and flights to Madrid are perfect for anybody wanting to sample beauty, history and passion.
In the centre of town on the old main road Gran Via, you’ll find great shops, excellent tapas restaurants and refined hotels, but most enticing of all, traditional flamenco dancing clubs. Take a walk to the west and visit the Palace Real with its large beautiful gardens – watch out for entry queues though as it can be very popular on sunny days.
Many art lovers book cheap flights to Madrid and for good reason. The area around the Botanical Gardens is home to three major art museums: the Reina Sofia, the Thyssen-Bornemisza, and the Museo del Prado. Here you’ll see works by Dali, Goya, Valázquez, Caravaggio, Rubens, and Picasso’s Guernica, his famous and haunting masterpiece about the Spanish Civil War.
Just outside Madrid are a number of other fascinating attractions. To the northwest is El Escorial, a large monastery in the mountains listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Just past it is the Valley of the Fallen, where you’ll find a cathedral carved out of a mountain with a phenomenal giant cross sitting on top of it. This memorial to soldiers killed in the Spanish Civil War is also the burial place of General Franco. To the south west of Madrid is Toledo, a medieval walled city that is at its most beautiful during late spring and famous for its large collection of art by El Greco.