Cultural capital thanks to its excellent collection of museums and monuments linked headquarters to the Crown of Spain, Madrid shows the city visitors as a strong, modern, cosmopolitan and welcoming. The joy of living, quality and variety of restaurants and cultural activities of the Spanish capital are an ever-increasing tourism focus.

Photography by *Harres*

The visitor, upon landing in Barajas, faces a wide range of activities to develop in this metropolis of over three million inhabitants and boredom does not enter his vocabulary. Madrid lives on the street and is open, dynamic, is renewed in the center and creates new jobs and development districts. Your offer is abundant and quality hotels and self depend on the tourist economy, there are really friendly hotels in the heart of quality, such as Lope de Vega or the Western Santo Domingo, four-star hotel, with rooms from 110 euros per night . Also abundant three-star hotels in Madrid with an excellent value for money.

The metro is the quickest and safest way to travel between different parts of the city. Taxis can be highly recommended for short trips through downtown or night shifts. In a week you can plan more comprehensive than optimal excursion in Madrid.

We begin our tour with a visit the Palacio Real, the eighteenth century, neoclassical and once home of the Hapsburgs. It is one of the best in Europe for its excellent preservation and libraries.

Photography by puroticorico

Then we drive to the Plaza Mayor square, the main urban setting of the seventeenth century Spain, to finish our inaugural tour with a visit to the Theatre Royal neoclassical before starting the tour of three museums in the capital of reference: The Prado, Reina Sofia and Thyssen.

The three art galleries line the Paseo del Prado. It is impossible to enjoy them in 24 hours, although we dispense our efforts in the following days we have left. El Prado, one of the best museums in the world, brings large rooms devoted to Velazquez, Goya, El Greco, Zurbarán, Murillo, Titian and other big names in European painting. For its part, the Reina Sofía is proud to host between his stay at Guernica, one of the most recognized of the great Pablo Picasso.

It is also essential in Madrid visiting its monumental gates of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

• La Puerta del Sol, in the heart of the capital, home to the kilometer zero of the radial roads of the Spanish.

• La Puerta de Alcala, (Independence Square) is perhaps best known, a recognized symbol of the city. Its construction was ordered by King Carlos III in 1778.

Photography by silvina_v

• La Puerta de Toledo, is the nineteenth century, in 1827, and commemorates the victory of the people of Madrid on the French invaders. Two other monumental gates are out of St. Vincent and the Iron
To walk outdoors is nothing better than to move towards the large urban park in the city, the Retiro, which occupies a large rectangle in the center of Madrid.

It is seen also essential to keep the buildings inside (Crystal Palace, Palacio de Velazquez, Astronomical Observatory), monuments (a Alfonso XII, the Fallen Angel, unique in the world dedicated to the devil) for his botanical quality and the animation of your pond environment. Another great natural area located on the right bank of the River Manzanares is the Casa de Campo.

The shoppers have their living space in the so-called Golden Mile of Madrid in the Salamanca district or at the very heart of the capital. The cuisine and nightly entertainment is also abundant and diverse.