Madrid city tour: all sixteen listings, four ways round the city, and what each one costs

Madrid puts its sights close together. The Royal Palace, Plaza Mayor, Puerta del Sol and the market at San Miguel sit inside a walkable square of streets; the Prado, the Retiro park and the Puerta de Alcalá sit along one axis to the east. That geography is why an outing here is rarely a whole day. It is an hour, or two, or an all-day ticket you dip in and out of.

The double-decker is the only all-day ticket. Both bus listings work the same way: three routes, unlimited stops, and you hop on and off as many times as you like. $38 says exactly that in its own description, and it is the reason this is the version most people book first. Nothing else on this page gives you a ticket that is still valid after lunch.

The tuk-tuk goes where the coach cannot. Seven listings run in electric tuk-tuks, and the argument for them is narrow streets. The oldest part of the city, the quarter built after Philip II moved his court here in 1561, is a knot of lanes that a double-decker has no way into. $57 is built around exactly that quarter, and $102 lists the historic neighborhoods, San Miguel Market, Retiro Park and the Royal Palace as its own itinerary.

On foot is the slow, close version. Five listings walk, from ninety minutes to three and a half hours. $30 goes with an official guide and takes in the Debod Temple and the Royal Palace; $46 spends three and a half hours in the historic centre, including its quaint taverns, and holds a 5.0 rating from 90 reviews. This is the version where you hear the history rather than photograph it.

The Segway is the odd one out, and it has its admirers. One listing, $28, an hour gliding through the historic centre with a local guide, rated 4.8 from 184 reviews. It covers more ground than a walk and less than a bus, and it gets you into the same pedestrian streets a tuk-tuk uses.

One listing here is not a Madrid city tour at all, and we say so. $102 is a full day of eleven and a half hours out to Cuenca, a UNESCO World Heritage city about two hours away, with the Enchanted City and the Devil’s Window. It is a fine day out and it is on this page because people book it from Madrid, but it is a day trip away from the city, not a way of seeing it.

If you have a single day: $38. Our top pick, and the review count is not close — 13,467 against 4,174 for the next one. Three routes, unlimited stops, and the description promises you can explore at your own pace and hop on and off as many times as you like. That is the one thing no other listing here offers, and it is what you are paying for.

If the double-decker is what you want but you would rather read the other listing: $38. Same fare, three city lines, panoramic views and audio commentary available in a range of languages. It holds 3.8 from 86 reviews, which is a much thinner record than the first one, so the sensible order is to check both pages and take the one whose routes suit where you are staying.

If you have an hour and want the old streets: $27. Our fare from, 4.8 from 4,174 reviews, and the second largest body of opinion on the site. A private electric tuk-tuk over the top highlights, described as ideal at the start of a trip, which is honest: an hour of this on your first morning tells you what you want to come back to on foot.

If you want longer in the tuk-tuk: $57 or $102. The first runs one to three hours with six private seats and builds its story around the quarter laid out under Philip II from 1561; the second runs one to four and names San Miguel Market, Retiro Park and the Royal Palace. $149 is the van-sized version, rated 4.8 from 35 reviews, and it adds the Habsburg and Borbon quarters, modern Madrid, the museums and the parks.

If you want to walk: $17 or $30. Ninety minutes for the first, two and a half hours for the second. The short one names Puerta del Sol, the Prado Museum and the Royal Palace and is the lowest fare on the site, though its rating sits at 3.1 from 73 reviews and you should read that before you book. The longer one goes with an official guide of the city, adds the Debod Temple, and holds 4.7 from 392.

If you want the historic centre done properly: $46. Three and a half hours, the most beautiful monuments, the quaint taverns and the history, and a 5.0 rating — from 90 reviews, so young but unbroken. For something off the main squares, $87 is two private hours in Chueca with a local guide.

If it is your group and your timing: $102, $172 or $240. The first is a private electric tuk-tuk with a storyteller guide and options to stop for tapas or visit the Prado Museum; the second runs from one hour up to a full day with photo stops; the third is two private hours on foot along the Paseo del Prado, Puerta del Sol and the Royal Palace, and it is the highest fare here. What these buy is the pace: nobody else on board, and the stop lasts as long as you want it to.

«Madrid city tour prices» and «precios de Madrid city tour». The honest range on this site is $17 to $240. The double-decker tickets are both $38; the tuk-tuks run $27 to $172; the Segway hour is $28. The gap at the top is not a better city — it is a private guide and a vehicle with nobody else in it.

«Madrid city tour tickets» and «Madrid city tour app». Every listing gathered here is booked as a ticket on its own operator page, and the voucher arrives by email; there is nothing to collect from an office beforehand. Whether a given operator also runs its own application is written on that operator page, and that page is where to check it rather than here.

«Madrid city tour reviews». Across the sixteen listings there are 20,555 of them. They are not spread evenly: $38 holds 13,467 and $27 holds 4,174, which is two thirds of everything between two listings. The highest scores sit on the small ones — $46 at 5.0 from 90, $28 and $149 at 4.8 — and the two lowest, both 3.1, sit on $17 and $240. Read the rating together with the number behind it.

«Segway Madrid city tour». One listing, $28, an hour in the historic city centre with a local guide, 4.8 from 184 reviews. It is the only machine of its kind here, and it suits people who want to cover the pedestrian centre faster than walking without sitting on a deck.

«Madrid city tour Haltestellen» and «mapa city tour Madrid». German and Spanish searchers asking the same thing: where does it stop, and is there a map? Both double-decker listings describe three routes with unlimited stops, and the route map lives on the operator page you book from. We do not reprint a stop list here, because the lines are the operator’s to change and a wrong list is worse than none.

«Ruta 1 Madrid city tour». Somebody who has already seen that the double-decker runs numbered lines and wants to know what the first one covers. Three routes is what the listing states; which numbered line suits you depends on where you are staying, and the operator page shows the lines before you pay.

«City tour Madrid telefono» and «Madrid city tour official website». Two ways of asking for the operator rather than for us. Each listing here links straight through to the company that runs it, and that is where the contact details, the timetable and the terms live. We are a comparison page, so we send you to the source instead of standing between you and it.

«Madrid Spain city tour» and «Madrid city tour Madrid Spain». Place names stacked up by somebody making sure they have the right capital. They have: everything on this page starts in Madrid, Spain, and the sixteen listings run inside the city itself, apart from the day out to Cuenca.

«City tour em Madrid para brasileiros». Portuguese-speaking visitors asking whether they will be understood. The second double-decker listing, $38, states audio commentary available in a range of languages, and every listing page names the languages its guiding is offered in before you book.

«Madrid city tour - Madrid historica». The historic city is the part most of these listings are actually about: the quarter laid out after 1561, the squares, the palace and the old taverns. $46 spends three and a half hours there, $57 drives it, and $30 walks it with an official guide.