See the very best that Madrid has to offer on this VIP walk through city’s historic center with a local expert guide. Start with early entrance tickets to the Royal Palace, then enjoy a full tour of the historic city center with stops at the most famous monuments and plazas and tapas tasting at one of the city’s most iconic authentic markets. End your day atop the city’s most stunning 360 degree viewpoint. 

You’ll start near Madrid’s jaw-dropping Royal Palace where you’ll meet your guide and small group in the beautiful Plaza Oriente. Enter the Palace a full hour before the general public and explore opulent interiors gilded in riches from the Spanish conquest of the Americas and decorated with paintings by Caravaggio, Goya, Velázquez, and more. Your guide will tell you the history of the palace and the immensely powerful royal dynasties that once called it home.

Leaving the palace, you’ll step off the normal tourist trail and into Barrio de la Morería, where the city’s Muslim roots are still visible, and end up in one of the largest authentic food markets in the city, the Mercado de la Cebada. Enjoy a crash course in Spanish food culture as we take you to our favorite stall to taste wine, olive oils, and small plates and learn why the Spanish custom of tapas is one of the country’s most treasured institutions. 

The medieval streets of central Madrid await you next as you and learn how the city went from being an outpost of the Moorish empire to a center of Catholic power in Europe. Along the way, you’ll stop in the jaw-dropping Plaza Mayor, where heretics were once burned at the stake, and the Puerta del Sol, the focal point of the modern city. 

Before you go, we have a final surprise. Popping into the lobby of the nearby Circulo de Bellas Artes, your guide will take you up to the rooftop terrace which affords the best  jaw-dropping view over the entire city.  From there they’ll point out the different neighborhoods of the city and give you plenty of recommendations for what to see, do, and eat during the rest of your stay. 

Gratuities to guides are appreciated but never obligatory.