An Unconventional Two-Day Madrid Itinerary

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This itinerary is a bit unconventional – you aren’t going to find recommendations from me on spending hours in museums or wandering through sights like the Royal Palace or the Prado. Instead, we leaned into the city’s food scene for an entire day and spent most of our second day winding down in El Retiro Park.

Madrid is sprawling so if you only have a couple of days to explore like we did, I recommend picking out a few neighborhoods and sights to focus on and leave the rest for another trip.

Here’s how our two days in Madrid went!

Our Travel Details

• Month Traveled: June
• Transportation: We took the Alvia train down from San Sebastian and used Uber & taxis to get around the city
• Hotel: Hyatt Hesperia Madrid

Where We Stayed in Madrid

Being a big city, Madrid has so many great hotel options. For our stay, however, I had two Hyatt award night certificates to use. Sadly, my certs were only good for Category 1 to 4 rooms, making options a little limited. That led us to the Hyatt Hesperia on the edge of the Chamberi neighborhood. We booked two nights here with certificates plus 15,000 in points for our third night.

I would have loved to be able to use free nights and points at the Hyatt Centric or the Thompson, which are both very central, but they were outside of my award availability. Next time!

Here’s where it gets good, though: at check in, the hotel was buzzing with people there for a conference. The front desk agent informed us they were fully booked and asked if we would be open to upgrading to a bigger room at a nominal cost to free up some of the standard rooms. We thought about it for a second and decided to go for it – we took one of the two Presidential Suites for just $150.00 per night!

I spot checked rates for the Presidential Suites at this hotel and they were going for over $5,000 per night that summer. So, I’d say we scored big time.

Presidential Suite – Worth It?

We are very much mid-range travelers when it comes to budget, so bougie at this level is generally not something we’re used to. Paying $150.00 per night for a $5K per night room? 100% worth it, without a doubt.

This suite was enormous! We had a large bedroom with a king-sized bed, separate living and dining area, a large master bathroom, and a second large half bath. The suite also came with a sizable private patio overlooking the city AND our own private hot tub. We made sure to take advantage of the patio and hot tub as much as possible during siesta hours/downtime!

Our upgrade here was a nice serendipitous moment to have at the end of our time in Spain.

Pros/Cons of this Property

• Pros: Great for Hyatt members to use award nights or points and has the potential for more affordable nightly cash rates. There is also a two Michelin-starred restaurant on site by Dani Garcia.
• Cons: Location is not the best for first-time visitors – we had to take too many Ubers/taxis vs. walking like we normally like to do (i.e. Plaza Mayor is a 45-minute walk). However, the hotel is very close to a metro station if you’re up for public transportation. I also wished there was a better restaurant selection in the immediate area.

Minor cons aside, we did have a really great stay at the Hyatt Hesperia in Madrid!

Book the Hyatt Hesperia on Hotels.com, Booking.com, Expedia or Direct

Madrid Itinerary Summary

Here’s a quick summary of our itinerary in Madrid, with a more detailed breakdown of each day to follow:

• Arrival Day: Hotel check in, dinner at Swiss Butter, early night in
• Day 1: Churros for breakfast, nun cookie search, Mercado de San Miguel, calamari bocadillos in Plaza Mayor, siesta time and an evening food tour in central Madrid
• Day 2: Lunch at Mercado de la Paz, Madrid city sights, wandering through El Retiro Park, and an unconventional dinner at a Lebanese spot

Who This Itinerary is For

• Travelers that have 3 nights and 2 full days to spend in Madrid
• People who don’t necessarily like spending a lot of time in museums or palaces
• Foodies!

Arrival Day in Madrid

We traveled to Madrid by train from San Sebastian after spending a week in Basque Country. This was mostly a travel day, since we rolled into Madrid in the mid afternoon. We checked into our hotel, went to find a late lunch/early dinner, and then spent the evening in our hotel, enjoying our private patio and hot tub before turning in early.

Arrival Day Highlights

• Checked into our hotel
• Late lunch/early dinner at Swiss Butter
• Hot tub and early bedtime

Hotel Check In

We arrived to the bustling city of Madrid after a 5-hour train ride down from Basque Country. From the Chamartin train station, we cabbed it to our hotel – the Hyatt Hesperia Madrid in the Chamberi neighborhood.

If you skipped over the summary of where we stayed, we were presented with the option to upgrade our room to the Presidential Suite at a nominal cost and we took it. How lucky are we?!

This upgrade really helped make our time in Madrid feel more relaxing. We were a little overwhelmed with being in a big city after spending a week in laid-back Basque Country, so it became the perfect spot for a respite.

Dinner at Swiss Butter

By the time we were ready for our first meal in Madrid, it was during siesta hours where Spanish restaurants tend to close for a few hours. Since we were starving, we found the closest open restaurant to our hotel – Swiss Butter, serving chicken, salmon and steak entrecote.

While it wasn’t a quintessential Madrid food experience, our dinner was quite tasty. We loved all the Spanish food we had so far during our time in Spain, but it was a nice change of pace to have some lean protein and even a salad. I had the chicken and my husband had the steak!

I also got a nice big carafe of wine and there was no way we could pass up the pain perdu as a sweet ending. We had several torrijas in Basque Country, which is Spain’s version of French toast aka the pain perdu, and became obsessed. This one was equally delicious in its own French way.

It was also at this point where I decided to book a food tour for our first full day in Madrid. I had been mulling it over before our trip and obviously right up until the day we arrived.

Maybe it was my carafe of wine or feelings of big city overwhelm, but it finally felt like the right call. I’m glad I did because it turned out to be the best thing we did in Madrid (more on that in Day 1 of this itinerary!).

Hot Tub & Relaxation

After dinner, fatigue from our travel day crept up. Rather than hitting the town on our first night in Madrid, we chose to soak up all the benefits of the Presidential Suite, i.e. the hot tub on our large patio.

When life presents you with a hot tub opportunity, you take it – even if you’ve forgotten to pack a proper swimsuit (lesson learned – always pack a spare).

We turned in early after spending some time in the hot tub so that we could be well-rested for a full day of exploring the Madrid food scene.

Day 1 – The Food of Madrid

Well rested, we were ready to hit the ground running for a full day of foodie adventures in the city! We started the day with churros, went on a hunt for nun cookies, had savory food at Mercado de San Miguel, and ate a calamari bocadillo in Plaza Mayor.

In the afternoon, we took a break at our hotel to let our food digest before heading out on an evening food tour with Devour, hopping from taverns and tapas bars to historical sights.

Day 1 Highlights

• Churros con chocolate for breakfast
• A hunt for cloistered nun cookies
• Mercado de San Miguel for lunch
• Calamari bocadillo in Plaza Mayor
• Afternoon siesta
• Evening food tour in central Madrid

Churros con Chocolate

Churros dipped in chocolate for breakfast? Say no more. Churros con chocolate is a popular breakfast for Madrilenos, and they aren’t the kind of churros you find in America. Rather than coated with cinnamon and sugar, Spanish churros are served plain and typically with a cup of thick, rich hot chocolate!

We made our way to Chocolateria San Gines, which is arguably the most famous churreria in Madrid. It’s also very centrally-located to other sights and food spots. If you can only make it to one while in Madrid, this is a good pick.

We savored every bite of churro dipped into their delicious chocolate. When the churro plate was empty, I proceeded to drink the last of the chocolate straight from the cup (because it was that good!).

If you aren’t up for a cup of hot chocolate in the morning, you could get a coffee instead!

Cloistered Nun Cookies

After our breakfast, I led my husband on a little adventure to procure cookies from cloistered nuns. I think this is one of the most unique food-related activities to do in Madrid! He was a little skeptical, but it all worked out just fine.

Cloistered nuns are nuns who take a vow to live in seclusion behind the walls of a monastery. At the Monastery of Corpus Christi, the cloistered nuns are baking up a storm with all kinds of different cookies and selling them to the public!

I detail exactly how to get these cookies in my guide on essential food & drink experiences to have in Madrid if you’re curious about how to get these yourselves.

Getting our cookies was indeed the mini adventure I expected. First, you’ve got to locate the door to the monastery and then press the right buzzer for them to let you in. The nuns do not speak English, so learning a few phrases in Spanish is necessary.

Once we were inside, we made our way down a corridor to a turn table with a cookie menu. We ordered our cookies (I went with the half portion of the galletas, which are their lemon cookies), placed my money on the turn table, and out came our cookies!

At no point do you see any of the nuns. Being cloistered, they don’t show their faces in public.

The cookies were just okay on their own (a little dry), but better with a drink like coffee or tea (and even with a glass of scotch – yes, we tested this).

Overall, it was a super interesting and mildly challenging experience. I’d definitely do it again to try some of the other cookies like the Nevaditos covered in powdered sugar!

Mercado de San Miguel

Enough sweets! After our nun cookie adventure, it was time for something savory for lunch. We headed around the corner from the monastery to Mercado de San Miguel to check out what the different food vendors had to offer.

Europe is such a fantastic place for food markets in so many countries – I try to visit one whenever we can! In Madrid, there are several scattered about the city but Mercado de San Miguel is the most popular (also the most touristy and expensive).

This market was bustling – packed with people mid-day even on a Wednesday. We wandered around to take a peek at what might curb the appetite and settled on Arzabal for some pintxos and patatas bravas (the first and only bravas dish we got to try in Spain).

The market is also a great spot to try a glass of vermouth, a classic appertif that is very popular in Madrid. When we were in Basque Country, we had a vermouth based-cocktail called a marianito, but wanted to try it straight up too. I’m a fan!

Calamari Bocadillo in Plaza Mayor

Moving on to another traditional Madrileno meal, we stopped at Bar La Campana for their famous bocadillo de calamares – which is pretty much just fried calamari rings stuffed into a crusty bread roll.

The line for dine-in was long, so we decided on taking our sandwich to go. Service was super quick for takeout and within minutes, we had our bocadillo in hand. We headed into Plaza Mayor to grab a seat and people watch while we chowed down on our sandwich, which I think was the better choice versus sitting in a stuffy restaurant.

Afternoon Siesta

Before we arrived in Spain, I kind of balked at the idea of enjoying downtime in the afternoons like the Spaniards do. After being in Spain, I get it – especially in the summer when the heat of the day creeps up. After stuffing our faces for a few hours, a siesta was very much needed.

And when I say siesta, it doesn’t necessarily mean you need to take a nap (although if you do, cool). We just enjoyed the air conditioning and some time in our hot tub to let our food digest before our evening activities (aka more eating).

An Evening Food Tour

Our evening activity and all around highlight of our entire time in Madrid was a food tour with Devour Tours. We did the Tapas, Taverns and History tour, which took us through central Madrid with a cool group of people (three airline pilots, a family who just came from walking the Camino de Santiago, and a solo traveler from Jordan).

We sipped on vermouth, tinto de verano, cider, and local wine while eating delicious foods like fried bacalao fritters (my absolute favorite thing we ate in Madrid), chorizo-stuffed mushrooms, padron peppers, Asturian tortilla, and sizzling garlic shrimp, among other things.

In between our foodie stops, we passed by iconic Madrid sites like Plaza Mayor, the Royal Palace, and the stunning Cathedral of Santa María la Real de la Almudena learning about some of the history and architecture of the city.

Madrid by evening is much more pleasant than the chaos and heat of a summer day! I felt so relaxed wandering with our group and knowing that our guide was taking care of ordering our dishes at each spot. That meant we could just focus on enjoying the food and company rather than the stress of figuring out what to order.

Day 2 in Madrid

We took our second full day in Madrid slow, starting with lunch at Mercado de la Paz and then a nice city walk over to El Retiro Park, where we spent the rest of the afternoon. Since we had an early flight the next day, we had an early dinner at a nearby Lebanese restaurant (darn those siesta hours again!) and that ended our time in Madrid.

Day 2 Highlights

• Lunch at Mercado de la Paz
• Walk to El Retiro (with stops at Julia Sculpture by Jaume Plensa, Monument to the Discovery of America, and Puerta de Alcala)
• El Retiro Park
• Lebanese dinner

Mercado de la Paz

After a lazy morning, we skipped breakfast in favor of lunch at a market. My original plan was to have lunch at StreetXo but we didn’t get going in time to make it to queue up (it’s a popular spot). So, we went with my second choice – another food market!

Mercado de la Paz made the most sense since it was closest to El Retiro Park. I figured it would be easy to walk off our lunch while making our way to the park.

Once inside the market, we chose Perillan (which sadly closed since our visit). It was nice and quiet in this market – much less chaotic than Mercado de San Miguel! We feasted on octopus with mashed potatoes, crispy fried artichokes with cheese, and little Gilda puffs washed down with Mahou beer.

From there, we passed by the very interesting Julia Sculpture by Jaume Plensa (basically a giant head – you can’t miss it) and the Monument to the Discovery of America.

And just before heading into the park, we stopped for a quick pic at Puerta de Alcala, which is located near the north-eastern entrance to El Retiro. The Puerta de Alcala is built in the neoclassical architecture style and is one of the most recognizable landmarks of Madrid!

El Retiro Park

Our entire afternoon was dedicated to wandering around El Retiro Park, which is just massive. El Retiro is home to numerous monuments, statues, gardens, magicians/performers, and even peacocks! We were there for hours and didn’t even cover half the park.

I absolutely love visiting parks in big cities. They’re a place where slow wandering is acceptable in the midst of chaos. With cars honking and zooming around city streets and crowded tourist sites, a park offers refuge and a place of peace.

One of my favorite spots was the Estanque Grande del Retiro – a large artificial lake where people were paddling around in rental boats with a backdrop of the Monument to Alfonso XII.

We also made it to the Crystal Palace, though it was under renovation when we visited and not expected to reopen until sometime in 2027. They do at least have some have art installations up to make the construction more aesthetically pleasing.

There’s also a pond in front of the palace with geese waddling around and turtles poking their heads out and sunbathing on the steps and rocks.

Cecilio Rodríguez Garden

One spot in El Retiro I knew we had to visit was the Cecilio Rodriguez Garden to see the peacocks! They are everywhere in this section of the park. You’ll know when you’re getting close to them when you hear their distinctive calls.

You can find the peacocks simply strolling around or resting in planters, on top of buildings, and even up in the trees!

The peacocks aren’t bothered by all the humans around, but you should still give them some space when you visit. Don’t rush towards them and use zoom on your phone or cameras to get a nice picture. One thing that really irks me is when people have a lack of respect for wildlife and that goes for the peacocks here too.

Florida Park Sangria

After our peacock viewing, it was time for a drink. We headed over to The Gallery at Florida Park, a tapas bar located within the park, for something refreshing to beat the afternoon Madrid heat.

We ordered a pitcher of white sangria, which also came with a bowl of olives and pickled onions, and it was the perfect break to help us get through our remaining time in the park.

Some other points of interest that we happened by during the rest of our park wanderings included the Monument to Alfonso XII on the backside of the lake, a small old “zoo” where they used to keep exotic animals captive (thankfully, that’s a thing of the past) and the pink Casita del Pescador (Fisherman’s House).

Like I mentioned earlier, I think we barely covered a third of the park in the time we had. If we return to Madrid on a second visit, I would love to see the Rose Garden, the Royal Observatory of Madrid, and the Parterre Garden areas.

Lebanese Dinner

We had to grab dinner early on our last day in Madrid since we had an early morning flight out. Again, we were stuck finding something open during siesta hours!

We tried to find a Spanish restaurant for dinner but struck out and ended up at a nearby Lebanese spot just to get some sustenance. It was super good, although maybe spicy Lebanese food and hummus isn’t the smartest idea if you’re flying out the next day 😉

Goodnight from Madrid!

And that’s how our time in Madrid went! It may have been a little unconventional, but I was at least happy with the amount of Spanish food we got to consume during our short time in the city.

Would we go back? Definitely. I’d do things a little differently, of course – like stay closer to the center of the city. We’re also a lot a lot more comfortable with tapas bar hopping now that we have an expert food tour under our belts. There’s a lot of green flags left on my Google map to turn from “Want to Go” to “Favorites!”

Have you been to Madrid? What do you think we should add for a return visit? And more importantly, where should we eat?

Read Next:

• Essential Food & Drink Experiences to Have in Madrid, Spain
• Visiting Basque Country? Check out my posts on Bilbao and San Sebastian