Free museums in Madrid: when you get in for nothing

One of the best things about living in Madrid: three of Europe''s most important museums are a twenty-minute walk from each other, and you can get into all three for free.

No student card, no booking months ahead. You go at the right hour and queue for a bit.

Inside the Prado. Photo: Schnäggli, CC BY-SA 3.0.

The big three

The Prado

Velázquez, Goya, Bosch. Free in the last hours of the afternoon, every day. It is huge: do not try to see it all. Pick two rooms, look properly, come back another day.

The Reina Sofía

Twentieth-century art and the Guernica, which is why most people go. Free evening slot; closed on Tuesdays.

The Thyssen

The easiest to see in one sitting, and the one that tells the story of painting best. One free afternoon a week.

Doing it right

• Arrive twenty minutes before the slot starts.
• Check the times on the day. They change, and they shift in summer.
• Do not go in a rush or hungry.
• Leave the big backpack at home.

The ones nobody tells you about

The Archaeological Museum, the Museum of Romanticism and the Sorolla Museum are smaller, far less crowded, and have their own free slots. The Sorolla is a house with a garden in the middle of Chamberí and is one of the loveliest things in Madrid.

The Museum of the History of Madrid, in Malasaña, is always free and never has a queue.