5 Reasons To Take Your Kids To Madrid Spain

By Mary Lou Mangan-Lamb

When our family decided to get away for spring break, we put our origin city and preferred travel dates into Google Flights. When Madrid came up as the cheapest destination in Europe, we decided to go for it. Having an entire week in this historic Spanish city gave us the opportunity to explore everything on our list, while also taking plenty of time to relax and enjoy the laid-back Spanish pace of life. Our boys, aged 7 and 8, enjoyed so much about Madrid too! Here are our top 5 reasons to take your kids to Madrid Spain the first chance you get:

1. The Outdoor Spaces

It seems like there’s a park or playground around every corner in Madrid. In fact, there are 40 parks within the city limits. The city is filled with plazas of all sizes and there are colorful playgrounds sprinkled throughout. The neighborhood in which we stayed, known as the Barrio de las Letras, featured two playgrounds about 75 feet apart within the same small plaza.A couple of notable city parks are Casa de Campo and El Retiro Park. Retiro Park contains a man-made lake where visitors can rent rowboats to spend some time on the water.

In addition to the parks, plazas, and playgrounds, you will find outdoor street performers all over this active city.

2. Practicing Spanish Language Skills

Our children study Spanish in their elementary school and this trip to Madrid was a wonderful chance for them to practice their language skills with native speakers. Most of the people we encountered in Madrid were able and willing to speak English, but we also made sure to speak Spanish as much as possible. As the week went on, I noticed the confidence both of our kids picked up while speaking Spanish. They allowed themselves to make mistakes and try to push forward with their limited Spanish vocabulary. They were also able to share a lot of stories about Spain with their Spanish teacher upon our return.

3. Free Museum Hours

Our children are not the most enthusiastic museum-goers, so we find ways to keep them engaged and interested when we do visit museums. We planned a couple of evenings around the free entry schedule at the Prado Museumand the Reina Sofia Museum. Free hours typically happen for a couple of hours towards the end of the day at most museums in Spain which allows you to spend as much or as little time in the museum with you kids without feeling the pressure of paying an admission price. Our visit to the Reina Sofia Museum was at 7 pm on a weekday. The line at the entrance was about 30 minutes long, but it was well worth it. We saw Picasso’s most famous work, Guernica, which was truly amazing.

One of the other child-friendly approaches we use during museum visits with the kids and we specifically used in the Reina Sofia Museum was to turn our tickets into a scavenger hunt. Each entry ticket showed a painting within the museum. After we saw Guernica, our kids went on a quest to find the four paintings on our four entry tickets. This also allowed them to practice their Spanish with employees around the museum as they sought out these works.

Although not technically a museum, the exterior of the Royal Palace is a beautiful place to explore at no cost too. There is a fee to go into the palace, a sprawling building filled with art, statues, history, and architecture. EU citizens can visit the Royal Palace for free during specific times on certain days of the week.

4. The Spanish Food

We tried all the classic foods while in Madrid: paella, potato omelets, seafood, gazpacho, Iberian ham, croquettes, etc. One of the things we noticed is that each restaurant we visited had a different appetizer. Many restaurants had menus in English, which made it easier for us to try new foods but we also continued to work on our Spanish a bit while ordering.

Our favorite culinary experience in Madrid was the churros. They’re best described as a light deep-fried dough dipped in a hot dark chocolate sauce. When we asked friends for advice before this trip, every single person mentioned churros. The ideal way to enjoy churros is in a place that makes and serves them fresh.

Also, plan to spend a little more time in restaurants than you would in the U.S. We were never rushed out of an establishment and sometimes waited an additional 10-20 minutes after asking for our bill. This helped to enjoy the laid-back Spanish environment and culture in which we were immersed for the week.

5. The Walkability

Our Airbnb was right in the middle of Madrid, which meant we were never more than a 15-minute walk from any major attraction. The neighborhood in which we stayed is called Barrio de las Letras (Literary Quarter). We walked about 8 miles every day, which allowed us to see so much of the city. Madrid has a Metro system, but we never used it because we didn’t need it. The public artwork all over the city is remarkable. Even though we walked many streets multiple times, we noticed new things on every trip.

All in all, I would highly recommend Madrid as a destination for families. Our children were able to enjoy plenty of time in parks and playgrounds, as well as new foods and the Spanish language. The people were friendly and helpful in every way imaginable.

Mary Lou Mangan-Lamb was born in Ireland and currently lives in southeast Tennessee. She has lived and worked on three continents and, along with her Michigander wife, is on a quest to share the world with their children. Their dream destinations include Iceland, Australia, the Maldives, Japan, and Ghana. Mary Lou operates a website focused on real-time, custom itineraries for Ireland, Grass in the Road. When she’s not working at her day job, you can find her tinkering with ideas to improve her website, hanging out with her family, or reading a good book. You can find Mary Lou on Facebook, Instagram and twitter.