We spent a few nights in Madrid en route to South America. Transatlantic flights to Latin America were much cheaper from Madrid, and we had both been to Spain many times before on family holidays but not to Madrid so it was an ideal chance to spend a few days exploring the city, albeit while sticking to our South American backpacking budget of £50 per day! Madrid is a bustling modern city and a major European capital, prices are high and so it is not an easy place to visit on a budget. Finding accommodation within our price range was difficult, we ended up staying in a tiny Airbnb near Callao. We found this was a great location from which to explore, as we could get to everywhere in the city centre on foot. We also had to severely limit what we did in Madrid to avoid breaking the bank before our main South America trip had even begun! Despite this, we were able to see many of the main sites in central Madrid and have a good time here while just about remaining within our budget. This just meant skipping indulging on the copious amounts of tapas and wine that Madrid is known for.

Catedral de la Almudena

Activities

• Free Walking Tour of city centre booked through Guruwalk. Guruwalk tours are tips-based (usually $10 or equivalent) and highly recommended as an orientation and basic overview of a city, in this case we were able to see many of the major landmarks and learn a lot about the history of the Madrid for a relatively cheap price.
• Royal Palace of Madrid – it is possible to go inside and look around the palace, there was a bit of a queue but it moved quickly and we found that the palace was a worthwhile activity that was just about affordable on our shoestring budget!
• Boating at Retiro Park – Retiro Park is a large, relaxing park in the city centre, we enjoyed taking boats on the lake and exploring and resting in the park.
• Self-guided walking tour with GPSmyCity – we love using the self-guided tours on GPSmyCity as a cost-effective (literally free) aid when exploring a city.
• Prado Art Gallery – we thoroughly enjoyed the disturbed art of Goya. The gallery is free to enter between 4pm and 6pm, we visited at this time on each of our three evenings in Madrid and were able to see the whole gallery for free!

Boats ‘n’ Oars

Foodie Places

• Pez Tortilla – cheap eatery with still-runny, delicious Spanish omelette. We especially loved the parmesan Spanish tortilla. When we first came here we were a bit confused about how to order as this place was packed with locals and you had to order at the bar.
• Bocadillos Oink – lovely ham baguettes – super authentic and cheap!

Unfortunately we couldn’t really afford to eat out much in Madrid and remain within our budget – no tapas for us this time! This meant a couple of homemade sandwiches and pasta meals in our tiny Airbnb. This is the reality of life on the road sometimes, we had a 7 month trip ahead of us in a different continent and didn’t want to blow all of our funds before we had even really started!

Yum!

Overall we found that our time in Madrid was fulfilling and that we were able to get a lot done in two-and-a-half days despite our shoestring budget. Most importantly, we managed to remain within our budget despite Madrid’s first-world prices and infrastructure, a big change from our next destination in Cuba!