Hotel in Madrid

If you’re needing a break from city life, villages like Chinchón and those of the Sierra
de Guadarrama or Sierra Pobre provide an antidote to the clamour. In the sierras, you can
also leave behind the last outposts of civilisation and hike out into the wilderness and still
be back for your hotel in Madrid at night. Alcalá de Henares straddles the two experiences, with
all the life and energy of an elegant university town grafted onto a place with the intimacy
of a large village.

The royals who have always made Madrid their capital also understood that a country retreat
was sometimes necessary from all the noise of the city. From a ledge in the mountains to the
west of the city, the magnificence of San Lorenzo de El Escorial is one of the most extraordinary
palace-monasteries in Spain. South of Madrid, Aranjuez is equally eye-catching, with a stately
palace surrounded by monumental gardens that are the height of sophistication. And on any of
the day trips covered in this chapter, you’ll find restaurants where you can eat like a king.
Although you could easily stray further and make it back to your Hotel in Madrid by nightfall, you’d be
rushing to do so. For this reason, we have restricted our coverage in this chapter to places that
require no more than a two-hour round trip. We understand, however, that if you have more
time, you may wish to stay overnight in cities such as Toledo, Segovia and Ávila with their many
attractions – for this reason we’ve included a handful of sleeping options.

Toledo is a grandly austere city that once rivalled Madrid for the role of capital. Coming
here is like stepping back into the Middle Ages, into a history when Christians, Muslims
and Jews turned this into one of Spain’s most enlightened cities. Ávila , too, resonates
with history, most notably in its imposing cathedral and encircling medieval walls. The
Unesco World Heritage–listed old city of Segovia has an entirely different, light-filled
charm as it surveys the surrounding mountains from its hill-top perch. The exceptional
alcázar (Muslim-era fortress) and Roman-era aqueduct are its signature sights, but it’s also
a place where eating is an art form. Get your cheap flights to Madrid and find out the most beautifull city in Spain.