Our epic trip through Spain in 2023 spanned a whopping 17-days. We spent months watching YouTube videos, reading blogs, and scrolling instagram to put together the best trip possible.

Now, I’m giving all my knowledge to you! We started in Barcelona, then went to Seville, Granada, Cordoba, and Madrid (where we day tripped to Toledo and Segovia). 

The first city of our trip, Barcelona, is detailed in its own blog. Be sure to start there! Here’s the quick overview before we dive in to Madrid.

• Day 1-5: Barcelona
• Day 6-8: Seville
• Day 9-10: Granada
• Day 11: Cordoba
• Day 12-16: Madrid
  • Day 12: Plaza Mayor and Barrio de las Letras
  • Day 13: Mercado de San Miguel, Gran Via, Temple of Debod
  • Day 14: Barrio de la Latina, Parque de El Retiro, The Prado
  • Day 15: Day trip to Segovia
  • Day 16: Day trip to Toledo
• Day 17: Fly home!

Day 12: Explore around Plaza Mayor and Barrio de las Letras

We arrived the night before by train from Cordoba and went straight to our hotel. We stayed at the Petit Palace Posada del Peine. Apparently, it’s the oldest hotel in Spain, dating back over 400 years. Don’t worry, the hotel doesn’t look 400 years old.

Pros: LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION. When we arrived, we thought, we’re tired… let’s just go walk around the block and see what’s here and BOOM. We walked right into Plaza Mayor. Absolutely insane. It’s also very close to the Puerto del Sol city center, where the Sol metro stop is, and next to the Mercado de San Miguel. We got a basic room and were able to open our windows out to a small patio balcony. I also never heard another person in the hotel the whole time we were there! Very quiet.

Cons: Our air conditioner was a little loud. Again, not a real problem. We were so tired every night we slept like babies anyway. And the extra boost of white noise probably helped, considering we had a street-facing room.

On our actual first day, we went straight for Chocolateria San Gines. It’s perhaps the most popular churro place in Madrid (definitely the most touristy), but BOY did we love it. It gets very crowded most mornings, so be prepared to wait for an open table during busy season. We ate here every single morning of our Madrid stay, I believe.

We then walked all around Plaza Mayor. There are so many little streets and cute shops. There was actually a HUGE coin and foreign currency market set up the day we were there. Tons of stalls selling ancient coins and cool, colorful foreign currency. I ended up buying a mixed currency packet that came with like, 100 unique bills. Pretty awesome! There are also lots of restaurants lining the Plaza. They’re pretty touristy, obviously, but we definitely had some beers at a few.

From Plaza Mayor, we walked through the Barrio de las Letras, or the Literary Quarter. It’s known for being the place where many distinguished writers of Spanish Literature lived (such as Miguel de Cervantes of Don Quixote).

A couple of highlights from this neighborhood included Brown Bear Bakery for pastries and coffees, Lola si Mola for dinner paella, and a cocktail bar that we cannot remember the name of… it was definitely on the main Calle de las Huertas, on a corner. It had an outdoor patio space that was jungle-feeling. I’m actually headed back to Madrid in a couple weeks, so I’ll see if I can find it again.

Day 13: Mercado de San Miguel, Gran Via, Temple of Debod

We had a slow start to this morning, taking a bit of time to do laundry. We did laundry twice during the trip (because we were traveling with just our backpacks) and it was so great each time. We just popped our clothes in the washers, and then snagged a beer somewhere close by. We met several other Americans at the laundromats too, which was really cool!

From laundry, we went to the Mercado de San Miguel (also, RIGHT next to the hotel). Overall, I think this was my favorite market. It was absolutely PACKED (like, completely shoulder to shoulder), so I had to step out of my comfort zone if I wanted to order anything. By the end though, I’d purchased food from several different stalls and brought them all back to Brian, who had secured us some beers and standing room at one of the market bars. Mercado de San Miguel specializes in mostly prepared foods, so you can go here to have meals (as compared to some of the other Spanish markets that are more like open air grocery stores).

From the Mercado, we took the metro from Sol to Banco de Espana so we could see the Fuente de Cibeles and the buildings that surround it.

We then walked down Gran Via. This is a super popular street with lots of shopping and food. It reminded me of New York City – huge buildings, huge billboards, lots of hub-bub. We didn’t do any shopping, but we did stop for drinks at Vermuteria Gran Clavel and I enjoyed one of the best vermuts of our trip! I highly recommend this spot. After our quick beverage break, we cut off of Gran Via and detoured to see the Palacio Real de Madrid. The views from the front plaza area are incredible!

From the Palacio, we cut up the hill to the Templo de Debod. This ancient Egyptian temple was moved from Aswan, Egypt to Madrid and now exists inside Parque Oeste. The real highlight, though, is the sunset views. Huge crowds of people gather there every evening to watch it.

Day 14: Barrio de la Latina, Parque de El Retiro, and the Prado

We started our day by walking south to explore another popular Madrid neighborhood – Barrio de la Latina. For me, the main highlight of this neighborhood is exploring Calle de la Cava Baja. This street is packed with tapas bars and restaurants. It’s the perfect place to do a tapas crawl.

We didn’t really have much else planned for the morning, so I was just looking at google maps and found Bar Muñiz. I knew we immediately had to walk there! Muñiz is Brian’s last name (and mine too, yay newlyweds!) and it’s not super common in the States. Bar Muñiz was a super small local bar. We took a quick break here for some coffee and, you guessed it, churros!

After a siesta back at the hotel, we took the metro to Retiro station, then walked through the park. We saw the Great Pond, the Palacio de Cristal, and the beautiful botanical garden. The Puerta de Alcala is also there, but it was under renovation when we walked by so we couldn’t see it. From there, we exited the park and visited the Prado. It’s SUCH a huge museum, but we enjoyed walking through it for a few hours (especially on a HOT summer day).

The next two days, we day tripped by train out to Segovia and Toledo. We felt fully satisfied having explored Madrid for 3 full days!

Day 15: Segovia

Read the full blog here!

Day 16: Toledo

Read the full blog here!

Day 17: Travel Home

Day 17 was meant to be our travel day home. We organized a taxi from our hotel in Madrid to take us to airport, where we learned weather had grounded ALL flights in NYC. They weren’t flying in planes in at all.

Luckily the employees at the Delta counter in the Madrid airport were EXCEPTIONAL. They rebooked our flight (for the next day), set us up at a hotel near the airport (Axor Barajas – I highly recommend this hotel if you need one next to the airport), and gave us meal vouchers to be used at the hotel as well.

At this point, we were pretty tired from our trip. We took a taxi to the airport hotel and just decided to stay there for the day. We walked to the nearby mall (did you know Starbucks in other countries have different items? I got this MASSIVE cake) picked up some boxed wine. We spent the whole day in bed napping, drinking wine, and watching TV. It was such a wonderful, relaxing day of recovery. We made it home the next day flawlessly!

The End!

That’s a wrap for our epic 17-day journey. It’s not an exaggeration to say this trip changed the trajectory of Brian’s and my life. Not just because we got engaged on this trip, but because we’d never tackled an international trip like this before. We learned so much about each other, about ourselves, about the world, and what we want our future to look like.

We have many more plans for future international travel, including traveling back to Spain to have our wedding ceremony!