High-Speed Train to Madrid with Prado Museum Tour

This is a ripoff and complete waste of time and money. You spend 7 hours on train and guided walking tour for 3 hours!!! and you are on your own after that. They charged $900 per person for this tour! It is a ridiculous tour and should be stopped

Madrid, a beautiful city. If you want to know or start to know Madrid, nothing better than staying in a central neighborhood. I like being near a favorite attraction. Since every day I'll stop by and I won't be left wanting to go again. Then, one neighborhood per day is recommended. on foot if it is handy.Madrid is very comfortable and transports too. Getting around is easy and inexpensive within the city. Museums are beautiful and there are free days not to spend. They're so big and so big to see that you'll still get tired. It is good to go and see something that especially interests you.For example if I read about Las Meninas, seeing the picture will be more interesting. Eat tortillas with or without onions are very rich.There are famous places .but to know which is the best, you have to live in Madrid.It is like pizza in BSAS, anywhere you eat well ,but you will like one more than the other .. so do not calculate so much. enjoy walking and shopping in Lefti, Zara,Primark,Cote Ingles...and in other stores. If the budget is low, the Carrefour ,Dia or other Mercadona market is the best! will save you from the prices" tourists. Get lost in the city, Go to Chueca, the letters Sun, walk and walk , and on Sunday the Trail to buy even one thing.Take photos, but just to remember what you saw.The rest is to look If there is sun, enjoy is the best sun I felt.

This tour starts in Barcelona at the Sants train station early in the morning. You will be sent tickets the day before and have to find your train and check into security @30 minutes before departure. The high speed train ride is smooth...and we reached speeds up to 300 km per hour. At the Madrid Atocha Station, our guide Natalia met us at the train station. Our train was a tad bit late, and came in a different track than expected, but we eventually found Natalia. We walked over to the Prado Museum, less than a mile away. It was raining, and Madrid is not really made for lots of rain, so drainage was slow. So if there is rain in the forecast,bring an umbrella and waterproof shoes. The museum is quite large, so we focused on paintings going back centuries - Spanish painters like Goya. Natalia explained the life of the artists, as well as the possible meanings of the paintings. We stayed at the Prado for an hour to two hours. We then took left and walked through the city center of Madrid for a few hours, stopping at some of the governmental sites, historic restaurants, historic shops, and city architecture and sites. Natalia explained the significance of these sites and how they played into the success of Madrid over the years. We ended at a city marketplace and bid Natalia farewell. We had about 2 -3 hours to walk back to the Atocha Train Station, which allowed us time to eat, take photos, or buy interesting souvenirs along the way. Our tickets for the train were for the early evening. We boarded the train and spent the last 2.5 hours of the tour speeding back to Barcelona at 300 km per hour. Overall, we enjoyed this tour immensely. We got to ride a high speed train, see the antiquities of Spain as explained by Natalia, either in art or architecture, spend time exploring on our own, and sampling Spanish cuisine.

Me and my family enjoyed Natalia’s wonderful tour guide today (Oct 7, 2024). She was courteous and also very knowledgeable in, for example, the background and stories behind all the great art works/paintings shown at the museum. Definitely, I gave her a 5-star, I recommend her and also the tour - if you like arts. BTW: With Natalia’s help, I was glad that there was no disconnect for my family to reach the meeting place, given that we have never been to Spain, never took the fast train or anything in Spain, don’t know any Spanish, and the tour was just on the 2nd day after our arrival to Spain. Thanks so much to Natalia.

Had a great time with Natalia and our group. We went to the museum and Natalia was really knowledgeable about the artwork and the history of each painting and of course the artist. We learned details of the artwork and artist and the history that was happening at the time. After that we took s walking tour to Madrid which we saw important places of Madrid including the royal palace. Overall great experience definitely recommend.