We spent days scouring the web for unique things to do in Madrid well before we landed in Spain’s largest city and capital. Madrid has stood for over 1,100 years, so you know there have to be plenty of things worth checking out.

Turns out there are hundreds of quirky and weird things to do in Madrid! Once you’ve seen the touristy hotspots, like checking out the sprawling Parque del Retiro or the amazing Royal Palace of Spain, you might be crave some more hidden things to do in Madrid.

The first time we visited Madrid, we knew there were several must see and do activities in this still growing city, however even back then we didn’t realize how many fun things there were to do in this vibrant city.

Whether you’re just stopping in Madrid as a starting point for a long road trip in Spain and Portugal or taking a Madrid to Barcelona train trip, know that Madrid has plenty of things to see and do.

Unique Things to do in Madrid

Join us for 15 unique things to do in Madrid.

Eat Churros con Chocolat at San Ginés

While churros con chocolat (churros with a mug of thick chocolate) definitely isn’t unique in Spain, we’ve yet to see another Spanish city that does this combination so well.

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

A favorite late night stop (especially common with after the bar patrons), the chocolate is so thick that even though it’s served in a mug, good luck drinking it. Made mostly for dipping the delicious fried churros (yummy deep-fried batter sticks covered in cinnamon and sugar), it’s not something to be missed, and was a highlight on our first trip to Madrid.

Explore a piece of Egypt at The Templo de Debod

What can be more unique than having a real, 2200 year old Egyptian temple in your city?

The Templo de Debod was an Egyptian gift as thanks for helping Egypt deal with preserving artifacts and monuments when they built the Aswan Dam. Rather than having the temple destroyed, it was torn down brick by brick and then rebuilt to exacting detail in Madrid.

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

Get surreal at The Reina Sofia Museum

What makes the Reina Sofia Museum unique has more to do with what’s in it rather than what it is.

Get tickets here.

Filled with unique paintings and sculptures, including surrealist paintings by artists like Picasso and Dali, you can spend hours walking from one chamber to another surrounded by unique works of art.

The Reina Sofia Museum is also well known for how they group their collections.

From their avant-garde collection, to eclecticism, all to way to their apparatus collection, each room holds a narrative that blends paintings, sculptures, posters, videos and music together in a way that leaves you thinking long after you’ve left the museum.

If you’re going, make sure to check out Pablo Picasso’s ‘Guernica’, considered one of the most powerful anti-war paintings in history, and one you don’t want to miss while you’re there.

Enjoy the space at Sala Equis

Housed in the last X-rated cinema in Madrid, the famed Alba Cinema, Sala Equis is converted into a popular cocktail bar and cultural center. Divided into three zones and housed in a former mansion, it has space for you to explore and plenty to do.

The main area, the Sala Plaza, with its big screen and bar, offers a variety of different foods. You can relax on wooden benches, lounge chairs and even swings as you chat with friends and locals alike.

Finally, the cozy 55-seat cinema offers everything from horror and sci-fi classics, to modern blockbusters. They have a huge rotating schedule posted every month (no movies on Mondays though). Check out their site to see what’s playing.

Eat dirty at La Pollería and La Coñería

Unique and tasty ice cream treats? Count me in.

“Wait, what am I looking at?” is a commonly heard sentence as people arrive at either La Polleria ice cream shop or its nearby sister ice cream shop, La Coñería.

La Polleria is a racy ice cream shop in Madrid that was so successful its first year that it had to move to a bigger location and then spawned a “sister” version just down the street just has to be good.

With both male (polofres – a play on slang male genitalia and waffles) and female (coñofre – a play on slang female genitalia and waffles), they’re both a huge hit and there are lineups at both places every day. With the polofres on a stick and the conofres split with an ice cream in the middle, you’ll not only get a chuckle but a tasty ice cream treat as well.

Explore your senses at Ikono

Ever feel like you can’t touch this or play with that?

While museums are great places to expand the mind, most just let you use your eyes to take it all in. Five different senses means five different spaces at Ikono that push your senses into the next realm.

From rooms filled with balls to rooms filled with scents, Ikono takes about an hour to walk through and is chock full of photographic moments, so bring your phone or a camera.

Walk through the Prado Museum

The Prado Museum in Madrid is not only the biggest museum in Madrid, it’s also considered one of the premiere museums of the world.

Get tickets here.

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

Whether you’re an inspiring art student or just enjoy paintings you can see some of the best collections of Goya, Bosch, El Greco and Velazquez here, as well as Spanish Romanesque murals and Gothic altarpieces. You can even find works from the Italian Renaissance with masterpieces by Titia, Botticelli, Rafa and Caravaggio.

Take in Madrid’s Street Art

Madrid isn’t unique in its street art. What sets Madrid’s street art apart from the rest is the quality and sheer size of many of these large art pieces. From a wall of 150 painted CCTV cameras symbolizing Big Brother is watching, to the charming (and functional) Sombrerete sundial, there are murals and street art found all across Madrid.

Get tickets to a street art tour.

For a quick roundup of some the most well known street art in Madrid, check out this article.

Go to a Flamenco Show

While southern Spain lays claim to the Flamenco origin, Madrid is often considered the capital city of Flamenco. The largest and most theatrical flamenco shows in the country call the city home, and there are several flamenco shows happening around the city on any given night.

With the hypnotic dance, haunting vocals, Spanish guitar and rhythmic beat of the castanets, flamenco dancing is fascinating to watch and a unique experience to enjoy.

Whether you catch it in a tablao (a flamenco bar) like the ever popular Corral de la Morería (opened in 1956) or Villa Rosa (first opened in 1911) or even happen to be in the city during one of the many Flamenco festivals such as Flamenco Real, Flamenco Madrid or the end of the year Suma Flamenca, you’re in for a real treat if you’ve never experienced flamenco firsthand.

Get spooked at the Chamberí Ghost Station

First opened in 1919, the Estación de Chamberí was one of Madrid’s original metro stations. Situated between the Bilbao and Iglesia stops on the Blue Line, this former subway station was closed for decades, but could still be seen by passengers as they zipped by on the tracks.

With a long history, including providing shelter from the deadly bombing campaigns and artillery assaults of the Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War, the station was eventually reopened as a museum named Andén 0 (Platform Zero in English).

It features a fully restored Chamberí station, complete with turnstiles, old ticket offices, maps and a film about how the Metro was originally built.

The highlight of the Anden 0 museum is undoubtedly the beautifully reconstructed original ads all along the metro platform. Most are composed of bright colored tiles, just as they were back when it first opened in 1919.

Admission is free, however there is often a line to get in.

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

Marked in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest continually operated restaurant in the world, the Sobrino de Botin (Nephew of Botin – so named by the nephew of the original owner) has served food for well over two centuries.

It’s so old that when it was first opened, patrons actually brought their own food for the owners to cook up and serve.

While the most notable thing about this restaurant is obviously its age, it has kept to its Spanish roots. Whole suckling pig, faithfully prepared in an old brick oven, is still the restaurants most popular dish and the reason locals still flock to it today.

Go macabre at the Reverte Coma Forensic Museum

If you enjoy the macabre as well as grisly oddities, you will find the Reverte Coma Forensic Museum fascinating. Housing over 1,500 macabre oddities, ranging from severed heads from executions, dissected fetuses, deformed skulls of different peoples, diseased bones, mummies, 800 skeletons plus a few torture devices and a real used garrote.

It’s definitely not for the faint of heart, however if you are interested in the forensic and paleopathology sciences, or have a true fascination with the subject matter, it’s worth a look.

Most of these items are housed in the corridors of the immense Faculty of Medicine building at the Complutense University in Madrid for you to see. Mostly set up for students, you can organize a visit by phoning ahead or contacting the university directly.

Get lost 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 help fool your mind. Using tricks like forced perception and optical illusion, you’ll find upside down rooms, never ending corridors, 3D stereograms and much more.

Most rooms are set up a to trick your mind into seeing, or in some cases, not seeing what’s right in front of you. In either case, bring your camera, because some rooms at the Museum of Illusions need to be photographed to see their true potential.

Visit a real Crystal Palace

The Palacio De Cristal in Madrid’s huge Parque de Retiro is definitely something unusual. While palaces are commonplace in Europe, what makes the Palacio De Cristal special is that it’s nestled in the heart of the park, and is more large empty space rather a true palace.

Finished in 1887, the ornate glass and steel greenhouse sits on the shore of the lake in Retiro Park and was designed strictly as a space to exhibit arts and greenery in a loving baroque style. Over 130 years later, the building is still stunning and supposedly looks awesome in the fall as the foliage starts turning.

Meet your eventual overlords at The Robot Museum

Love robots? Who doesn’t?

Scared they’ll one day enslave us? Me too, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t find them fascinating. Madrid has one of the largest collections of robots around the world, and you can see and interact with some at the Robot Museum.

Founded in 2013, the museum pays homage to both the early days of robot invention, what’s happening out there today, and what may exist tomorrow. From humanoid replicas, to robotic toys and robotic animals, to replicas of the famous Star Wars androids, and the worlds smallest robot, EMROS, the Robot Museum in Madrid showcases them all.

Unique Things to do in Madrid Spain

Whether you’re heading to Madrid for a vacation, flying into Madrid as a stop to someplace else, or happen to live in the city, there’s plenty to see and do at all hours of the day and night.

Filled with restaurants, entertainment complexes, art studios, world class museums, more parks and squares than most comparably sized cities could dream of as well as enough markets and shops to make your wallet cry, Madrid is a definite world class city filled with art, music and nature. So whether you’re in Madrid with your kids, as a couple or going it solo, enjoy your trip!

Do you have anything to add to our list! Let us know in the comments!

I have to admit that I was a bit uncertain about what to do with my little kids (ages seven and four) in Madrid. And with a week to spend, well, honestly, I was wondering how many museums and cathedrals my two little ones could take.

While Madrid offers a lot in the way of amusement parks (even one by Warner Brothers!) and specialized children’s activities, I wanted to enjoy the finer things with my little ones in tow as well. Turns out, taking in the art, food and architecture of Madrid with the family wasn’t all that daunting after all.

Here are my top takes on fun family activities in Madrid that won’t leave you stuck in amusement parks and toddler playgrounds:

Visit the Reina Sofia

Smack dab in central Madrid, the Reina Sofia museum is a great choice of parents with little ones. It’s a lot livelier than most stuffy museums. Our kids loved the surrealist paintings of artists like Picasso and Dali, and really enjoyed getting close to many of the sculptures.

The Reina Sofia museum is set up as a series of small exhibits in rooms off a large central hallway. The hallways are wide and make great spaces for the kids to burn off a little steam in between checking out the exhibits.

Important Tip! There are no ropes at the Reina Sofia to keep little hands away from the priceless artwork. After I stopped asking myself “what the hell were they thinking?“, I made sure I had a tight grip on my kids. The staff will also remind you if you forget.

I’d recommend no more than an hour or two at the Reina museum with little ones, depending on your patience and your kids’ need to run free. Check the Reina Sofia’s website for a generous selection of days and times with free admission. Regular prices are 6 Euro for adults and free for kids under 18.

Go for a walk in Centro

Cars aren’t allowed in a good chunk of Madrid’s centro, making the city center the perfect place to go for a walk. There are, quite literally, at least a dozen squares in central Madrid, all connected by pedestrian only streets, or at the very least, streets with wide sidewalks, which are fantastic for traversing with children. Start with Plaza de Oriente, the Royal Palace (Palacio Real de Madrid), lively and contentious Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor and Plaza de España.

Don’t miss the playground beside Plaza Oriente, which is complete with swings, slides and climbing apparatus for slightly older kids (perfect for our seven year old Cole, who’s half boy, half mountain climber).

If your little ones aren’t walking yet (or can’t walk long stretches) a stroller is an absolute must in Madrid. You may struggle a little bit with the stroller on the metro escalators, but Madrid is a walking city. Even our four year old, Jordan, who walks untold kilometers without needing to be carried, folded under the pressure of all of the walking we did in Madrid, leaving Charles and I toting a tired preschooler around the streets.

Enjoy a glass of wine (or a cervesa) and a tapa

Decidedly unlike pubs or bars in North America, where children are never allowed, Spain’s tapas bars are often quite comfortable with having your children accompany you for a glass of wine or a beer.

Traditionally, you’ll get a small tapa (snack or appetizer, in North American terms) with each wine or beer. Tapas can vary from a simple dish of olives or bread, to hot dishes like paella, seafood or serrano ham (if you’re lucky).

One of our favorites places we ate was at the kid friendly Casa Mingo. Casa Mingo specializes in traditional cider (sidra) brewed in Northern Spain. Charles swears their succulent roasted chicken was some of the best he’s had in a very long time. There are plenty of tables and other families in the generously sized restaurant area. The con? It’s a long 20 minute walk from Plaza Oriente so a bus or taxi might not be a bad idea.

Churros Con Chocolate

One of our favorite traditions in Madrid was enjoying churros con chocolate.

Melted chocolate is served in small coffee cups, with long strips of lightly fried dough called churros. You eat the churros by dipping them in the thick hot chocolate. It’s every bit as decadent and delicious as you imagine. For a change of pace, try the porros, which are larger than churros and have slightly different texture.

Spaniards traditionally eat churros con chocolate for breakfast (have I mentioned how much I love Spain for this?), but we found them a bit to heavy and sweet for so early in the morning.

We loved Madrid’s famous San Ginés (in business since 1894) but found the chocolate a bit too dark for us. If you’re milk chocolate lovers like us, check out the Maestro Churrero Chocolateria.

Looking for a great place to stay in Madrid? Check out the very best of Madrid’s hostels!

Does all this seem like too much work?

If you’re looking for a little help getting around, Viator offers some fantastic tours in and around Madrid.

There’s a Madrid City Hop-on Hop-off Tour, a scooter tour, a Madrid Tapas and Wine-Tasting Tour.

If you find yourselves in Madrid and are trying to cater to everyone’s cultural needs, check out the map below, which lists the places I’ve mentioned:

What I do know, however, is that no people seems to cherish their public squares quite as much as the Madrilenos. With dozens of these plazas scattered throughout the city, it never takes long to find one. To be honest, even the streets of Madrid and the miles of pedestrian only walkways seem to be busy at all hours of the day and night. Mornings are the calmest times in the city only because the all night party goers have finally called it quits and are grabbing a much-needed rest before they get up and do it again.

The squares of Madrid definitely hold a special place in the hearts of the people. Plazas are not only some of the top tourist locations in the city, but they are also the areas locals use to meet, greet, people watch, voice their opinions, eat, drink and be social. Plazas are definitely the main vocal point of a proud nation and anytime the city sees unrest you can be assured that it all started in one of the main squares.

We definitely noticed a heightened police presence in most of the major squares and, considering the unrest of the people in response to Spain’s recent economic troubles, you can be sure that more mass gatherings are on the horizon. We actually heard there were mass protests while we were in the city, but we didn’t even realize it until we had already left the city on our Portugal adventure.

Regardless of the problems, Madrid’s main squares are some of the nicest areas of the city and are generally much cleaner than you would expect considering the amount of people the plazas witness on a typical day. Whether surrounded by ancient historical buildings, budding trails and parks, or by some of the grandest buildings of the city, you can always be guaranteed of two things. One is that a statue of a significant historical figure will be near the center and the other is that there will be a large group of people. Most of the time, a square will also include a few restaurants or bars with outside tables and some local entertainers, including someone dressed up in a costume hoping for your loose change when your kids take a liking to them.

We got so caught up in the spirit that more than once we found ourselves still standing around a square long after we had seen everything the plaza had to offer. There’s something about the squares in Madrid that make it seem right for you to stand around, talk to a few passersby’s, watch an impromptu magic act, eat some pastries from the corner shop and generally partake in the shared experience of being in a shared space with others that are there for their own reasons. It is a way of connecting to others without actually having to go out of your way to do it.

We definitely enjoyed visiting the different plazas on our daily walks around the city. Staying right next to Puerta del Sol and only a few streets over in different directions from Plaza Mayor, Plaza Oriente and Plaza de Espana, even the kids seemed to enjoy them and we had to pull them away on several occasions as the shared exuberance and excitement of the people infected them. It also never hurt that even though there were always people in the squares there was always room for them to run and play. After spending almost a week in the city center, they loved the opportunity to stretch their little legs.

For sure one of our greatest memories of Madrid will be its many plazas and squares. One of our favorites was the Plaza Oriente with its gorgeous Palace background, beautiful gardens, children’s playground and wide open spaces.

Do you have a favorite plaza or square that you loved hanging around on your travels? Lets us know in the comments.

It’s our first trip to Spain and Portugal, and we’re finding ourselves caught up in a whirlwind of visits to lovely local bakeries and wandering through seemingly endless city plazas full of history and monuments. We spent our first week in Madrid adjusting to the seven hour time change and touring its cobblestone streets.

On our last day in Madrid, we rented a car, made sure we’d processed our international driver’s permit, and are slowly driving over three weeks across Spain and along the Portuguese coast. From Madrid, our first stop was the beautiful mountain town of Avila, Spain, where we walked along the medieval fortress walls and experienced a quieter side to life. From there, we took a short drive to the university town of Salamanca, with wide streets perfect for walking, and took refuge from the chill and even snow next to looming cathedrals and trendy cafes.

After Salamanca, we veered West across the border to the warmer city of Porto, Portugal, a city so picturesque and quirky that I swear it’s impossible to take a truly bad photo.

After port tours and boat rides along the Douro River, we headed south and I’m now writing this from Lisbon, Portugal. We’re right in the heart of this charming city, in the Bairro Alto district, with steep, crazily vertical cobbled streets that are hundreds of years old and dodging century-old trolley cars careening through the twisty cobblestone roads.

From our window, we can see people walking at all hours of the day along streets so narrow that you can touch the walls on both sides of the buildings if you roll your car windows down! Driving is crazy down here and we now understand why most of the cars are tiny and trains are so popular.

After Lisbon, we’ll be driving to Portugal’s Algarve region, before turning inland to the orange blossoms of Seville and eventually the beaches of Malaga, Spain.

We’ll write more about our trip in the next few weeks, when we settle down for a while. We’re hoping to rent a villa in one of the white villages in Andalusia, Spain, and catch up on some school work for the kids and write a backlog of posts for us.

In the meantime, we’re sharing photos and some of the fun things that we’re doing (along with some of our travel mishaps) on our Facebook page and Twitter.

Be sure to leave us some travel tips!

Our road trip route through Spain and Portugal: