Madrid with children

Do you want to experience an unforgettable holiday with your children? Madrid is a perfect city to visit with children because it is lively, sunny, quirky, modern and full of things to do and see.

Take them with you to see the great attractions of the Spanish capital, such as the prestigious Prado Museum or the magnificent Palacio Real, but also carve out some time for more child-friendly attractions.

Stroll through the streets and squares of the centre, perhaps in search of historical or curious toy shops, and don’t miss the most traditional Spanish pastime: a snack of tasty tapas. For children, however, no cerveza!

Tips for visiting Madrid with children

Here is some practical information for those travelling to Madrid with children:

• Madrid is a suitable city to visit with children, but as it is very large and crowded, you should never lose sight of them.
• Children up to 4 years of age travel free on public transport, while up to 11 years of age there is a 50% discount. Many metro stations are equipped with lifts and escalators and are therefore easily accessible even if you have a pushchair with you.
• A more comfortable and safer option than public transport are the hop on hop off tourist buses that stop near the main tourist attractions and allow you to explore the city freely. Your children will have a great time admiring the city from the top of the bus, under the open sky!
• If you want to save money or if you want to avoid waiting to have dinner at Madrilenian time, which is a bit late by European standards, consider staying in a flat instead of a hotel. There is a great choice of flats in Madrid to suit all budgets.

Family-friendly Madrid attractions

Madrid is a city rich in history and culture, but also modern and vibrant, with attractions for all tastes and ages. For a list of Madrid’s most popular attractions take a look at our What to See in Madrid page. Here are the most child-friendly attractions.

Teleferico

Children will be amazed by the wonder of flying over Madrid safely inside the Teleférico cabins. The ride from Rosales or Casa de Campo station is 2.5 km long, takes about eleven minutes and allows you to admire historical buildings, parks, streets and squares 40 metres above the ground.

When you get off the Teleférico you can take a look at the digital planetarium or have a snack in the bar-restaurant with a belvedere terrace.

Retiro Park

Visiting museums and monuments is tiring and in every holiday there comes a time to take a break. The right place to relax in Madrid is the gigantic Retiro Park, the city’s green oasis.

For some healthy family fun, you could rent a rowboat and spend some time lazing around on the artificial lake in this park. Surely you have already seen it on some website or postcard: it is one of the most famous images of the city.

Wax Museum

Madrid also has its Wax Museum, perhaps less famous than the one in London but no less entertaining. There are more than 400 famous people immortalised in wax statues inside the museum. You can photograph your children in the company of Harry Potter, the Simpsons, Frodo and other fantasy characters or real people from the past and present such as kings and queens, actors and actresses, footballers and other sportsmen and women.

Two attractions inside the museum that are sure to make your children go crazy with joy are the Ice Tunnel, which will make them go to the centre of the earth or into space, and the Terror Train, which will make them travel from Jurassic Park to Star Wars.

Santiago Bernabeu Stadium

If your children are football fans, you cannot miss taking them to see one of the biggest stadiums in Europe: the ‘mythical’ Santiago Bernabeu stadium , home of Real Madrid, is one of the most visited attractions in the city.

Let your children experience the thrill of being a great champion by visiting the areas reserved for footballers, such as the changing rooms and the tunnel leading to the pitch, admiring cups, balls and shirts of great footballers in the Trophy Room or enjoying a breathtaking view of the pitch from the top of one of the towers. You can also enter the press room and the presidential balcony, just like a VIP.

Temple of Debod

How many other opportunities will your children have to see an authentic ancient Egyptian temple without going to Egypt? Madrid is one of the three lucky cities that received a temple from the Egyptian government, moved from its original location along the Nile River to avoid probable flooding.

The temple of Debod was dismantled, transported and rebuilt piece by piece in the Cuartel de la Montaña park, not far from the central Plaza de España.

Zoo

Who doesn’t love pandas, cute and funny animals? Your children will be thrilled to see one at the Zoo Aquarium, the most famous zoo in Madrid. Many other animals from all continents await them. Another zoo in Madrid is Faunia, a biological park that reproduces the natural habitats of animals.

Theme parks

Madrileños like to have fun. If for adults this means a wild nightlife for children, this has resulted in an abundance of amusement parks in the city and the surrounding municipalities.

If you want to treat your children to a day of fun during your holiday in Madrid, take them to the Parque de Attraciones, the capital’s amusement park with more than 40 attractions for all ages, or to Warner Bros Park, the theme park with characters from Lonely Tunes cartoons such as Bugs Bunny, Tweety and Silvestrino, Taz, as well as famous films such as Scooby Dooh, Police School and Superman Man of Steel.