Four days in Madrid means three in the city and one outside it. The question stops being where to go and becomes what time you can leave, because the four options do not shut their doors at the same moment.
The fourth day in Madrid is the one that fits a day trip without taking a day from the city. All four destinations with a monument you can enter close on Mondays and stop admitting visitors at different points. Patrimonio Nacional runs El Escorial and Aranjuez, whose reduced tickets are €7 and €4, while Alcalá de Henares and Buitrago del Lozoya answer to local bodies instead. The Picasso museum at Buitrago splits its day and reopens at 16:00.
Which day trip can you take from Madrid? There are four with a monument you can enter. El Escorial is €14 and admits visitors until an hour and a quarter before closing. Aranjuez is €9 and shuts its ticket office an hour before. Alcalá de Henares is €6 and Buitrago del Lozoya is free. All four close on Mondays.
The English tour that fixes the day
One of the four runs a guided tour in a language other than Spanish, and there is exactly one of them a week.
The Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso in Alcalá de Henares offers a guided visit in English on Saturdays at 2pm, one session and no more, set out in what a day in Alcalá de Henares costs. Wanting the tour in English therefore does not choose the destination, it chooses the day.
Alcalá also carries the cheapest combination of the four. The college costs €6, reduced to €4, and the Cervantes birthplace museum charges nothing at all, including its temporary exhibitions.
Taken together that is a full day of monuments for €6 a head, against €14 at El Escorial, and the difference buys nothing at all in closing time, since both shut on the same weekday.
The door closes before the building does
None of the four lets you in until its published closing time, and the gap between them is what decides a late departure.
| Trip | Admission | Last entry |
|---|---|---|
| El Escorial | €14, €7 reduced | An hour and a quarter before closing |
| Aranjuez | €9, €4 reduced | An hour before closing |
| Alcalá de Henares | €6 for the college | Set by the guided session booked |
| Buitrago del Lozoya | Free | Splits the day and reopens after lunch |
The Real Monasterio de El Escorial stops admitting visitors an hour and a quarter early, according to Patrimonio Nacional, which is the widest margin of the four and an unusual rule anywhere, covered in El Escorial tickets and last admission.
The counter-intuitive result is that a late start rules out El Escorial before it rules out Aranjuez, despite what a map would suggest. The Palacio Real de Aranjuez stays open, according to Patrimonio Nacional, until 6pm from October to March and 7pm from April to September, in Aranjuez Royal Palace tickets.
How the four days split
Day one, the museum axis, one big museum and the old centre, in one day in Madrid.
Day two, the palace axis, with the Royal Palace, the gallery and the Temple of Debod, in two days in Madrid.
Day three, the districts, with the free city museums and a viewpoint, in three days in Madrid.
Day four, the trip out, leaving in the morning and returning in the afternoon, with the destination chosen by departure time rather than by distance.
One rule orders all four. Monday closes the city museums and all four day trips, but it is the only day the four central free windows line up. If the trip contains a Monday, that Monday is day one and everything else falls in behind it.
A Sunday inside the four does the same thing in reverse. It is the one day El Rastro trades and the one day the eight state museums cost nothing rather than €3, so it belongs on the city side and never on the trip-out side.
What four days still cannot reach
Four days finish the city and only glance at the region, which is worth saying plainly before anyone tries to squeeze the mountains in.
The sierra stays out, and not for lack of hours. It has to be arranged rather than decided. The Montejo beech forest allocates places by lottery, opening at 9.30am on the 1st and the 16th of each month, in booking the Montejo beech forest. La Pedriza caps vehicles at 75 on a first-come basis, in driving to La Pedriza.
The two fail in different ways, which matters when planning. A lost lottery is lost weeks in advance and cannot be retried that day; a full car park at 75 vehicles is a question of leaving early enough. One rewards paperwork, the other an alarm clock, and neither rewards improvisation on the morning itself.
Where the ceiling of a Madrid trip sits, and why a fifth day repeats rather than adds, is in how many days you need in Madrid.
Frequently asked questions about four days in Madrid
How late can you still enter El Escorial?
Until 5.45pm from April to September and 4.45pm from October to March, because it stops admitting visitors an hour and a quarter before it closes. That is the widest cut-off of the four trips.
Which day trip should you take from Madrid?
Whichever your departure time still allows. El Escorial closes its door an hour and a quarter early, Aranjuez only an hour early, so a late start rules out El Escorial before it rules out Aranjuez.
What do the day trips from Madrid cost?
El Escorial is €14 and €7 reduced, Aranjuez €9 and €4 reduced, the Alcalá de Henares college €6, and the Picasso museum at Buitrago del Lozoya is free of charge.
Can you do a day trip from Madrid on a Monday?
No. All four destinations with a monument you can enter close that day, exactly like the three city-run museums, which is why Monday belongs to the four big central museums instead.
Is there an English-language tour on any of the day trips?
One a week. The Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso in Alcalá de Henares runs a guided tour in English on Saturdays at 2pm, so wanting it in English fixes which day the trip happens.
Three days of city, one of train, and a departure time that picks the destination better than a map does.