Is Madrid worth visiting?

[heathpack]

I have been working on travel details for my Olfaction conference in Bilbao next September.

My time in Northern Spain will be limited:
Sept 6: The earliest I can fly out
Sept 15-18: conference dates Bilbao
Sept 18: Fly to London
Sept 19-20: different conference Bristol, England
Sept 21-24ish: Bristol, Bath +/- Stonehenge

I’d love to fly business class and found a reasonably priced itinerary on Iberian: Atlanta to Miami to Madrid to Bilbao.

Iberian offers a free stopover in Madrid.

So: Is Madrid worth seeing for a few days, if the tradeoff is that the Madrid days come at the expense of the same number of days in the Basque region? My sense is probably No. Except maybe to break up the itinerary since the two stops could be brutal.

If anyone recommends the Madrid stop, how many days? I was thinking maybe two, if we availed ourselves of the stopover.

Also- the most aspirational itinerary is Atlanta to Newark to Bilbao on United, Polaris. But those flights are too expensive for me to be willing to pay for, and more FF miles than I’d be willing to spend. Does anyone have insight into how to book Polaris class on United?

PS I think we’ll be able to swing Upper Class London to Atlanta on the flight home.

 

[Passepartout]

If you can swing 2 in Madrid, There's the Prado & Museo Riena Sofia to see Picaso's Guernica. It's unforgettable. We did a wonderful cooking lesson/tour/market stop at https://cookingpoint.es/ We made Sangria, Gazpacho, and Paella after gathering the ingredients at a street market.
I can't get the link to work, but Cooking Point is the name if you're interested.

Jim

 

[davidvel]

Reading your post I now recognize you are talking specifically about your trip and itinerary. But I have to say, just reading the thread title in a vacuum, I was taken aback a bit.

 

[DAman]

Yes. Stop in Madrid. I had fun wandering around there in the 1990s. Jim is spot on about the Prado too.

 

[GetawaysRus]

This was about a dozen years ago, but we made an exchange to the Marriott Playa Andaluza. We tacked on time in Madrid beforehand and then did a driving loop (Seville, Cordoba, Granada) after our timeshare stay. Those were the days of Starwood points, so we stayed at the Westin Palace in Madrid on points. We spent a total of 5 days in Madrid.

Yes, we thought the visit to Madrid was fun. Madrid itself is worth about 2 days, maybe even 3 depending on the sorts of things you like to do and how quickly you move about. Some people are "fast" travelers and some are "slow." But it's also possible and fairly easy to use it as a base and take day trips from Madrid by train. I remember enjoying a day in Segovia and a day in Toledo during those 5 days.

I no longer have the book, but I'm fairly certain that we followed advice in the Rick Steves Spain book.

We've not visited the Basque region, so I'm not able to make any comparison of the relative travel "value" of Madrid vs. the Basque region.

 

[stmartinfan]

We spent 2 or 3 nights there on a trip through Spain, because it's where we landed. Loved most of the other places we spent time, like Seville, Granada, Barcelona, but it was worth a day. Much of it feels like a big city anywhere, but it would give you a chance to get your body clock adjusted a bit and if you like art, the Prado would be worth a day.

 

[Carolinian]

YES, Madrid is well worth a couple of days.

 

[heathpack]

Well that was annoying. I found a competitive business class fare on Iberia, with the free Madrid stopover. But then the website would not allow me to book the stopover. Tripled checked by itinerary was eligible and I watched a video on their website about the booking process. Still wouldn't work, so I called Iberia. Hmm they had no idea why it wouldn't work. Said they were updating their system. Said they couldn't help me, the Madrid stopover could only be booked on the website. Told me to "keep checking".

I contacted Iberia via the section of their website dedicated to the free Madrid stopover program. No reply.

Are you kidding me? I want to book two business class tickets and the suggestion is to "keep checking" or "don't stopover in Madrid".

Two days of checking and now the business class fares are 50%-500% increased in price. And I still can't book the Madrid stopover.

So I give up- on Iberia Airlines and their false promise of a Madrid stopover. What a waste of time.

 

[wackymother]

We looooved Madrid! Loved the Prado and the Retiro, and the general big-city busyness of it. Great restaurants. And the people were very nice and welcoming. And you can see this painting!

 

[MULTIZ321]

Hi Heathpack,

If You decide to go to Madrid and while there visit the Prado Museum, one of the painter's that they have on
display there is Rosa Bonheur. I think you will enjoy her works.

Rosa Bonheur in 10 Paintings​

Rosa Bonheur in 10 Paintings

Have a look at 10 iconic paintings by Rosa Bonheur. During her career, she painted all kinds of animals in the wilderness and with humans.

www.dailyartmagazine.com

Richard

 

[Passepartout]

So I give up- on Iberia Airlines and their false promise of a Madrid stopover. What a waste of time.

I can't blame you. In our fiasco in '22 going on a river cruise in Bordeaux with pre-trip in Madrid/Bilbao, First, American canceled and booted us off our First Class seats after boarding. We were able to get Covid tests and onto BA First to Heathrow and onto Iberia First to Madrid. Regardless of BA claiming that our bags were on the plane to LHR, they didn't make it to Madrid for like 5 days!

Iberia FINALLY found and got our bags to us, but at that time, I vowed to NEVER fly Iberia willingly again.

I had hoped that our experience was a one-off, and that yours would be better, Sorry for the big waste of time for you.

Jim

 

[klpca]

Well that was annoying. I found a competitive business class fare on Iberia, with the free Madrid stopover. But then the website would not allow me to book the stopover. Tripled checked by itinerary was eligible and I watched a video on their website about the booking process. Still wouldn't work, so I called Iberia. Hmm they had no idea why it wouldn't work. Said they were updating their system. Said they couldn't help me, the Madrid stopover could only be booked on the website. Told me to "keep checking".

I contacted Iberia via the section of their website dedicated to the free Madrid stopover program. No reply.

Are you kidding me? I want to book two business class tickets and the suggestion is to "keep checking" or "don't stopover in Madrid".

Two days of checking and now the business class fares are 50%-500% increased in price. And I still can't book the Madrid stopover.

So I give up- on Iberia Airlines and their false promise of a Madrid stopover. What a waste of time.

It feels like there is so much bait and switch out there; everything has so many exceptions and disqualifications with every promotion. Our screaming deal tickets to Barcelona just got changed by Alaska and instead of a 1 hour layover in Las Vegas, the only available option involves an early flight + a 9 hour layover in Las Vegas. We aren't Vegas people at all. According to Alaska, we need to keep the same city pair, dates, and partner airline to keep our fares, or we can cancel and get a refund and start all over. Of course the new flights are a lot more expensive. We haven't decided what to do, but postponing the trip until later is on the table. It seemed too good to be true.

 

[heathpack]

It feels like there is so much bait and switch out there; everything has so many exceptions and disqualifications with every promotion. Our screaming deal tickets to Barcelona just got changed by Alaska and instead of a 1 hour layover in Las Vegas, the only available option involves an early flight + a 9 hour layover in Las Vegas. We aren't Vegas people at all. According to Alaska, we need to keep the same city pair, dates, and partner airline to keep our fares, or we can cancel and get a refund and start all over. Of course the new flights are a lot more expensive. We haven't decided what to do, but postponing the trip until later is on the table. It seemed too good to be true.

Annoying!