Royal Palace & Prado Museum Guided Tour

Lola did a great job with the tour and cover the whole 5 hrs, there is a walking tour from the palace to the museum which is also great

Lots of walking - beautiful palace and lots of history - the Museum is huge and you could spend a whole day there

We showed up early at the Naturanda tour office, as instructed. We were told that the meeting site had been moved to a distant site (not well defined site, as it turned out) and that it was our problem to figure out how to get there on time. The woman at the desk said it was Viator's problem to inform us, as we booked through them, but I seriously doubt Viator had been informed of the change. There was no apology, no help and no visible sign of concern from the Naturada staff: Their attitude was go away and don't bother us. We made the tour on time but I know of another group that missed the first two parts of the 3-part tour. Several other people asked me if I had also not received any warning about the changed starting location, so this was a common problem. Finally, our tour group was very large (about 25) and we met at the same place as another large Naturanda tour group, so there was constant confusion and mixing of the 2 groups. We got a very late start and ended up rushing through the Prado museum in probably half the intended time. Our guide, Rueben, did a great job under the cicumstances, but he is only human. We're going back to the Prado today in the hopes of seeing all the artwork we only had time to glance at on the tour. I would rate Naturanda as the the most incompetent tour agency I have ever seen, without any competition.

We took this tour on a Sunday when everything is more crowded and you go to the Prado first so no opportunity to stay longer. When booking the tour, there was no indication that the order would change - that came in an email a few days before, which some in the group never got so we had to wait for them to take a taxi across town. It would have been better to book on a weekday. There were several tours offered by this company starting at the same time and same place - no signs to help separate people - very confusing and not a good way to start. The tour guides didn't even arrive on time, much less a little early to get people set up. Our guide did not have enough listening devices for the whole group so some people had to walk next to him. Our group was the maximum size - 30, which was too big. I would have been happy to pay more for a smaller group, but honestly, if I was doing the Prado again, I'd just get the audioguide. Then we walked across to the Palace, about 1 hour. This was interesting for those who are unfamiliar with central Madrid but some people skipped this part and met us at the Palace. The tour of the Royal Palace was better because the group size didn't impede the vision of the rooms as much as the museum and the added information from our guide was good.

We did the tour with Juan Antonio and it was a great experience!! He made the tour very enjoyable, informative, and dynamic, in addition to maintaining a very positive and cheerful attitude. Delighted to have coincided! Highly recommended