Madrid by High-Speed Train with Prado Museum Private Tour

This is a ripoff and complete waste of time and money. You spend 7 hours on train and guided walking tour for 3 hours!!! and you are on your own after that. They charged $900 per person for this tour! It is a ridiculous tour and should be stopped

Madrid, a beautiful city. If you want to know or start to know Madrid, nothing better than staying in a central neighborhood. I like being near a favorite attraction. Since every day I'll stop by and I won't be left wanting to go again. Then, one neighborhood per day is recommended. on foot if it is handy.Madrid is very comfortable and transports too. Getting around is easy and inexpensive within the city. Museums are beautiful and there are free days not to spend. They're so big and so big to see that you'll still get tired. It is good to go and see something that especially interests you.For example if I read about Las Meninas, seeing the picture will be more interesting. Eat tortillas with or without onions are very rich.There are famous places .but to know which is the best, you have to live in Madrid.It is like pizza in BSAS, anywhere you eat well ,but you will like one more than the other .. so do not calculate so much. enjoy walking and shopping in Lefti, Zara,Primark,Cote Ingles...and in other stores. If the budget is low, the Carrefour ,Dia or other Mercadona market is the best! will save you from the prices" tourists. Get lost in the city, Go to Chueca, the letters Sun, walk and walk , and on Sunday the Trail to buy even one thing.Take photos, but just to remember what you saw.The rest is to look If there is sun, enjoy is the best sun I felt.

This tour starts in Barcelona at the Sants train station early in the morning. You will be sent tickets the day before and have to find your train and check into security @30 minutes before departure. The high speed train ride is smooth...and we reached speeds up to 300 km per hour. At the Madrid Atocha Station, our guide Natalia met us at the train station. Our train was a tad bit late, and came in a different track than expected, but we eventually found Natalia. We walked over to the Prado Museum, less than a mile away. It was raining, and Madrid is not really made for lots of rain, so drainage was slow. So if there is rain in the forecast,bring an umbrella and waterproof shoes. The museum is quite large, so we focused on paintings going back centuries - Spanish painters like Goya. Natalia explained the life of the artists, as well as the possible meanings of the paintings. We stayed at the Prado for an hour to two hours. We then took left and walked through the city center of Madrid for a few hours, stopping at some of the governmental sites, historic restaurants, historic shops, and city architecture and sites. Natalia explained the significance of these sites and how they played into the success of Madrid over the years. We ended at a city marketplace and bid Natalia farewell. We had about 2 -3 hours to walk back to the Atocha Train Station, which allowed us time to eat, take photos, or buy interesting souvenirs along the way. Our tickets for the train were for the early evening. We boarded the train and spent the last 2.5 hours of the tour speeding back to Barcelona at 300 km per hour. Overall, we enjoyed this tour immensely. We got to ride a high speed train, see the antiquities of Spain as explained by Natalia, either in art or architecture, spend time exploring on our own, and sampling Spanish cuisine.

+4

Me and my family enjoyed Natalia’s wonderful tour guide today (Oct 7, 2024). She was courteous and also very knowledgeable in, for example, the background and stories behind all the great art works/paintings shown at the museum. Definitely, I gave her a 5-star, I recommend her and also the tour - if you like arts. BTW: With Natalia’s help, I was glad that there was no disconnect for my family to reach the meeting place, given that we have never been to Spain, never took the fast train or anything in Spain, don’t know any Spanish, and the tour was just on the 2nd day after our arrival to Spain. Thanks so much to Natalia.

Had a great time with Natalia and our group. We went to the museum and Natalia was really knowledgeable about the artwork and the history of each painting and of course the artist. We learned details of the artwork and artist and the history that was happening at the time. After that we took s walking tour to Madrid which we saw important places of Madrid including the royal palace. Overall great experience definitely recommend.

Train to and from Barcelona to Madrid was easy and fast. Laura was great. The tour of the Prado Muesum was quick and we could have stayed there all day. One guest was on a cane so the walking was a lot. We were provide a wheel chair in the museum. Laura did a good job taking us to city center in a taxi and and leading us to a great local restaurant. A map of the sites that one could see in the city center by shared pdf or print would be helpful. Thank you.

This tour was not as described. We managed to find our tour guide who rushed us through the streets to arrive at the Prado Museum. When we went to enter, she had to go and get something to let us in, and then again she disappeared. Apparently she had given instructions for us to someone in the group, when I expressed my concern on where she went and that we might have been left, her response was to ask me if I was afraid of Spanish people. No, I was concerned I would miss out on the tour we paid for. After the museum tour, which I found our guide to be very knowledgeable. We started four our walking tour, which was another race through the streets to Plaza Mayor. The guide talked to whoever could walk next to her, so if any information was given on the walk was lost on those of us in the back. We moved so fast, you were afraid to stop and take pictures. As you would be left behind. We were not shown the Mercado San Miguel, not the Royal Palace of Madrid, or Gran Via. All of which were in the itinerary.

Would not recommend this tour. You basically pay for a speed train ticket and to get into a museum. Not worth the $170+ per person.

Started the tour on our own in Barcelona at the speed train station, met the tour guide outside the train station in Madrid. We got there, waited for everyone in the group to arrive, then we started walking towards the Prado Museum, along the way we wanted to take pictures but the tour guide wouldn’t let us because we had to keep walking and we could take pictures on the way back (spoiler alert, we didn’t get to walk back that way). We got to the museum which was a 20 min walk or so, and the tickets were not ready for us, so we had to wait for the tour guide to get us tickets. Once in the museum, we walked through a few rooms, she briefly explained some art and then was on her phone through the tour. We would hear the voice messages she was playing on her phone through the microphone that would play in our ear pieces. Through the tour she also made some unnecessary comments and would often roll her eyes like she was over being around people. When the museum tour was over we walked about 30-45 mins and she dropped us off in the middle of the town square. She did not explain to the group which areas/landmarks/monuments we were walking by and was only talking to the person next to her as she was not waiting for the group to walk together. Then she left us on our own with about 2hrs of spare time to get lunch and walk 30 minutes back to the train. To be honest, this tour wasn’t worth the $185/person. I felt like I paid for a train ticket and to go into a museum which I only got to see half of. Our tour guide’s name was Cristina

visit to the museum was very good. About the walking tour - Guide was nice bu was not considerate of old people like me who can not walk that fast. Especially 40 degree days with the grade. I had to drop in the tour in the middle. Also on viator - meeting point was at Barcelona SANs however it was changed Madrid at the last minute