We love love loved Madrid! We flew there from Copenhagen on June 30th and stayed two nights and almost exactly 48 hours before taking the train to Murcia for the month-long artist residency. We had a great time during our short stay there and felt that we saw quite a bit while keeping it budget-friendly. We thought it might be helpful to break down exactly what we did and how much we spent for anyone who might be interested!
Accommodations
We stayed at Room007 Ventura Hostel, right in the heart of the city. The location could not have been better! We were within walking distance of the main train station Atocha, which we arrived at on the way in by the Airport Express bus and which we left from on the way out. We were also within close walking distance of the major sights and museums including the Museo del Prado, the Museo Reina Sofia, Palacio Real, the Almudena Cathedral, Plaza Mayor, Puerta del Sol, countless bars, restaurants, and shops, and several large parks we didn’t get the chance to explore. But maybe the best thing about the location was that there was a vegetarian restaurant right across the tiny cobblestone street! More on that under Food & Drink.
The hostel itself was very nice and new. We were staying in a room with 4 beds (2 bunkbeds) that had a washroom and shower in the room, which was great. There was air conditioning, wifi, and lockers big enough to fit not only our valuables but most of our belongings. There were also several common areas including a rooftop terrace, an indoor bar, and a patio bar. There was an event hosted on the roof our first night there with free sangria and drinking games. A 2€ breakfast was served in the bar each morning, which was small but did the trick; we opted for toast with tomato and olive oil and a tea or coffee.
Free (and free-ish) Sights
The Prado and Reina Sofia museums are large, famous galleries that we had to check out! There’s an entrance fee most of the time, but both are free during the last two hours each night. It’s best to show up 10-15 minutes early because there’s a pretty hefty line to get in, but it moves quickly once they open the doors. Although the museums were pretty busy during that time we didn’t find them overwhelming, so we’d definitely recommend going then if you’re on a budget. We checked out the Prado on our first night from 6-8pm and the Reina Sofia on our second night from 7-9pm.
On our second day we also attended the “free” walking tour provided by the hostel, which runs every day. Although this isn’t something we’d normally do – cramming all the major sights into our travels isn’t really our style – it was a great option for us since our stay in Madrid was so short. There were lots of people on the tour, with pickups at 3 hostels, but we stopped in many places and the guide provided a lot of historical context. I put “free” in quotation marks because although it’s advertised that way it’s actually tip-based, and the tour guide emphasized at the beginning and the end of the tour that her salary is entirely dependent on our tips. We still thought it was worth it for a 3 hour walk around the city and a lot of history, so we left a pretty decent tip (our roommates left 3€ for the two of them and thought we were crazy, so it all balances out).
Food & Drink
Food and alcohol is so affordable in Spain, especially compared to Norway and Denmark, our previous two destinations. Luckily for us there was a great vegetarian restaurant, Artemisa, right by the hostel that we went to on our first day, and although we intended to try a couple places we couldn’t resist going back again on the second day! They were open for lunch from 1:30-4pm and had a great menú del día for 11.90€ each with two large courses plus bread, dessert or coffee, and beer or wine. We went around 3pm both days and the portions were so big we had to take our leftovers back to the hostel, which meant we had a snack for later and didn’t have to buy anything else! We bought some beer from the corner store for both of our nights hanging out on the hostel rooftop, which was a very affordable way to have some drinks and meet new people.
Total budget for two people
Accommodations:
– Room 007 Ventura Hostel (two beds for two nights): $136 CAD
Everything else:
– Transport (Airport Express to Atocha train station for two): 10€
– Artemisa Restaurant Day 1 (two menú del días): 26€
– Beer Day 1 (6-pack of cans): 4.80€
– Breakfast Day 2 (for two): 4€
– “Free” walking tour Day 2 (tip-based): 15€
– Artemisa Restaurant Day 2 (two menú del días): 25€
– Beer Day 2 (4 tall cans): 4€
– Breakfast Day 3 (for two): 4€
– Snacks for the train (fruit & nuts): 2.30€
Total: 95€ for all food, drink, and sightseeing for two people for 48 hours
We think that 95€ (approximately $135 CAD according to an online currency converter) for all our food & drink (including two large restaurant meals with alcohol) and sightseeing for two people for 48 hours is pretty good! That’s about $270 CAD including our accommodations. There are certainly ways we could have made this stay even less expensive, like staying in a dorm with more beds or couchsurfing, and by not going out to eat at the restaurant twice, but it could also have been much more expensive if we’d stayed at a hotel, gone to the museums during the day, and gone out for drinks. We figure that since we spent all this money getting to this side of the world, we’d hate to go home with any regrets if we fretted over saving every penny. When in Madrid!
We hope this helps to give an idea of what it can cost in terms of accommodations, food & drink, and sightseeing to visit Madrid or a similar city!
Live Well, Do Stuff 