Are you running out of holiday days? No worries, let me help you. What you need, is a bit quality time in one of Europes beautiful capitals. Would you agree? What about a Madrid trip? That would be an excellent choice!

All you need is a weekend- no need to beg for any extra days off.

Back in 2016 I went with 3 friends to Madrid. We booked our hotel and flights just five weeks before departure. So it didn’t leave us with much to plan out the rest. One of the reasons I love to go on a city adventure is the fact that you don’t need to plan a lot. Especially if you’re working 40hr+ a week and just want to escape for a while.

TIPP! What I always do is treating myself to a Marco Polo travel guide, which is the perfect guide for all my short-/ city trips.

After the purchase you’ll get even more excited about your upcoming trip. Up front you can familiarise yourself a bit with the city and you have the best reading during the flight. Three birds with one stone- love it!

How to get to and around Madrid

Flights

Take a look at the following flights as an example to show you, how easy and cheap it could be. Spend a whole weekend without using any holiday days at all.

With Easyjet from Bristol every Friday night at 5:40pm and back every Sunday night at 9:45pm from £66.98 return.

With Ryanair from Stansted every Friday night at 6:00pm or at 8:20pm and back every Sunday night at 6:25pm from £29.30 return.

Metro (the Underground)

The best and cheapest way to get from “Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suárez Airport” to the city centre is always the Metro.

In addition of a cheap ticket, you’ll get a great first impression of a country and the locals. Check out the Metro Map here. All lot of tourists always use taxis where ever they travel, instead of public transport. Out of different reasons I try to avoid private transport wherever I can. It’s so much more fun, cheaper and often even quicker to use the bus, train or the metro.

Hotel choice for your Madrid trip

You want to use your limited time in the best way, therefore it comes more than handy to choose a hotel right in the centre. I know they could be a bit more expensive but worth the money in the long run. Believe me! Just think about all the money you’ll spend on transport to get from your accommodation on the outskirts to the centre and back. Multiplied by three days plus travelling to and from the airport. You see, worth in the long run.

My recommendation is the Toc Hostel Madrid. It has a 9.0 (Superb) rating on booking. Right on your doorstep you’ll find endless restaurants, bars, nightclubs and shopping options right on the doorstep. You couldn’t stay more central. The hostel has clean and modern rooms, a super cosy bar with a pool table and a Starbucks just opposite. It’s just around 200m to the Metro station “Sol”. Right in front of the hostel the active kind of person finds a bike rental station as well.

It’s essential to use your time wisely, while spending just a couple of days somewhere and you want to stroll around and explore as much as you can. There are 2 reasons I prefer to book my hotels without breakfast.

1. The night(s) could get much longer or and heavier than expected. Probably fighting against a hangover and simply want to a have a laying or can’t be bothered for breakfast at the buffet (before 10am) at all.

2. I prefer to taste the local food in a cosy café, instead of eating the ever same “international” breakfast at the hotel.

Madrilenians are full of vitality and they love the life on the streets.  You easily get lost in little alleys with unique cafes, restaurants and shops. It’s super easy to forget that you’re in the capital of Spain. Besides all the large city attractions you’ll find first and foremost one of the best Mediterranean flairs in Europe.

Often enough I’m getting too excited and forget to take a deep breath, while spending time in buzzing capitals. Madrid is so different to any other capital city. The lifestyle there is amazingly laid back and the city was able to ground myself in a way no other capital did before.

I must admit I’m not the biggest fan of sights and you won’t see me getting exited about visiting a museum. It may sounds simple, but I choose a Hop on Hop off tour during the Madrid trip instead. There’re many reasons for this. These tours come extremely handy. They’ll save you a lot of time, are a fairly cheap way to get around and you can spend much more time seeing sights you really want to explore and skip the ones you’re not keen about.

La comida (the food)

Cañas y Tapas is a super cute Tapas bar called and is just opposite of the Toc Hostel Madrid. You just need to love Tapas, because you don’t need to decide for just one dish. Instead you can choose many little dishes and satisfy all your taste buds.

MiniBAR a quirky little place with the most delicious Tinto de Verano (wine mixed with lemonade and water) and fresh finger food. Another highlight are the colourful paintings all over the walls.

Viva nocturna (the nightlife)

As soon the sun sets and all the locals are finishing work. Everyone is leaving their homes to meet in cafes and restaurants with friends and the family outside. Madrid gets wonderful lively later in the evening and again the majority will be on the streets chatting, drinking and enjoying this stunning city.

Joy Eslava is a popular nightclub, which was once a theatre. It’s my favourite club in the whole world. Find out why here. It has a stunning ambience and great “VIP” boosts on the 3^rd floor. Watch out for the promoters around the clubs, who will offer special deals and skip-the-line tickets. These tickets are not always worth the money! But if the queue should be endless long they definitely come handy.

Don’t tell me you’re still pondering!?

Really? How can you resist a Madrid trip?

Get your besties together and start booking your trip to this diamond under the European capitals. It’s hard to believe that there’s anything you wouldn’t love about Madrid.

After I got you all hyped up about this unrivalled city. Check out my favourite love story of all time, which took place in Madrid.