Madrid

When you land in Madrid you can really feel that this is a powerful city. The Spanish capital was built exactly in the middle of the country, much to the chagrin of locals trying to get to the beach for their summer vacation. Yet when you visit, you won’t mind, because Madrid has everything you could want. Great hotels, restaurants, boutiques and especially museums are everywhere.

The huge historic center is great to get lost in, with neighborhoods from swanky to multicultural to alternative. People from all over Spain and all over the world have shaped the city, yet the old Madrid still asserts itself. The culture of the capital won’t be globalized away, even as Madrid proves year after year that it is one of Europe’s great cities. The city's greatness comes not in spite of but because of its deeply Spanish character, a city where the language and customs of the country are defined but also preserved. Spain is not Madrid, but Madrid is very much a microcosm of Spain.

Dining in Madrid

Madrid’s food scene once lived in the shadow of the famous tables of San Sebastián and Barcelona, but no longer. Traditionally, every indicator from press coverage to Michelin stars to chef star power tilted towards the Basque and Catalan food capitals. Madrid has asserted itself, both by developing its own cuisines and local talent to new heights and by attracting the best chefs from around Spain to the city. Today all eyes are on Madrid, firmly established as a global food city on all fronts.

The first pillar of Madrid’s food strength is the regional Spanish restaurants of the city. Madrid has long been Spain’s main internal migration destination, bringing populations to the capital from every corner of the country. This has led to the proliferation of restaurants serving the best of Spain's regional cuisines. Thus, Madrid has long been an excellent place to eat Galician, Asturian, Basque, Valencian, or Andalusian dishes. Dishes from around the country have come to form the foundation of Madrid’s cuisine.

From this traditional regional repertoire innovation has emerged. Many young chefs at the casual fine dining restaurants of Madrid’s “bistronomica” movement are working with recipes and ingredients from all over Spain. Others are blending far-flung Spanish flavors with influences from Latin America and Japan, whose cuisine has long been revered by Spanish chefs. This flood of groundbreaking new restaurants and the awards and accolades that have followed has helped draw the country’s regional stars to the capital, with top chefs like Quique Dacosta, Dani García, and Rafa Zafra choosing Madrid as the location for flagship openings.

The city’s culinary creativity has also brought about the refinement of typical Castillian dishes from the surrounding provinces. Classical Madrid cuisine pulls heavily from the carnivorous repertoire of the Spanish meseta, as seen in hearty dishes like Madrid-style tripe. But today, Madrid’s chefs are showcasing a different kind of countryside bounty. There's an exciting new native cuisine that highlights fresh local vegetables, wild products like mushrooms and pine nuts, and wild game. With a light touch and close contact with farmers, chefs in and around the capital are helping to forge a product cuisine that embraces and enhances the native. In a region where the most respected dishes once were from far away, this newfound identity has allowed locavore chefs and restaurants to define a new Madrid cuisine and reach world-class status.

What to Expect in Madrid

Madrid

What to expect

• A full-on food vacation

• Markets with traditional bars and upstart restaurants

• Destination dining

• Cocktail bars to rival any world capital

• Opulent luxury hotels

Don’t miss

• Private expert-guided museum tours

• Private wine tastings

• Deep timeless tapas bars

• High-end shopping and dining in Salamanca district

• Taste Spanish wines at Madrid’s specialized wine bars

Toledo

What to expect

• Atmospheric hilltop old town

• Monuments from Christian, Jewish and Muslim heritage

Don’t miss

• Lunch at Michelin star Iván Cerdeño for game-forward fine dining

• A panoramic driving tour around Toledo

Segovia

What to expect

• Castillian atmosphere in the Cathedral-dominated center

• Roast suckling pig (cochinillo) for lunch

Don’t miss

• The Roman aqueduct that runs through Segovia

• Fairy-tale towers and walls of the Alcázar castle

Don’t miss: Towns around Madrid

• El Escorial, Aranjuez, La Granja, Pedraza, Chinchón, Ávila

Madrid Trips

Madrid Experiences