In this guide
💡 The Short Version: The Madrid City Card is a Tourist Travel Pass with discounts, not a museum pass: €10.30 for one day to €33.40 for five, the same price as the zone A pass, and it includes no entries. The Paseo del Arte card is €32.80 for the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen-Bornemisza against €41 separately, one visit to each within a year. Go City starts at €59 for three attractions and pays only if you want the guided tours it bundles. The free windows beat all of them for the three art museums: see the free things to do in Madrid. For a bus or a tour instead, the Madrid City Tour hop-on hop-off busad is from €29.70 for 24 hours (GetYourGuide).
The passes compared
| Pass | Price | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Madrid City Card, with transport | €10.30 (1 day), €17.50 (2), €23.10 (3), €27.80 (4), €33.40 (5) | A zone A Tourist Travel Pass plus attraction discounts; no entries |
| Madrid City Card, without transport | Free | The discounts only; sign up online |
| Tourist Travel Pass (the Consorcio) | Zone A as above, plus €43.20 for 7 days; zone T from €15.40 | Transport only; see Madrid public transport |
| Paseo del Arte card | €32.80 | One visit to the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen collections, valid a year |
| Go City | Essentials from €59, Explorer from €79, All-Inclusive from €129 | A digital pass for 30-plus attractions and tours |
| State museum passes | €8 (Four Madrid Museums), €16 (Eight Madrid Museums), €36.06 (annual card) | Entry to the state house museums |
The Madrid City Card
€10.30 to €33.40 · the official card of the city · bought in person
Madrid City Council’s tourism company sells the Madrid City Card. The version with transport is bought without a booking at the council’s tourist information offices, and comes in 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 days at €10.30, €17.50, €23.10, €27.80 and €33.40. Children under 11 pay half, and children under 4 need no card. The free version without transport is signed up for online. The discounts work by showing the card’s QR code, once at each establishment, for a month from purchase.
The Palacio de Cibeles on the Plaza de Cibeles. Photo: Olexdj, Wikimedia Commons.
The transport part is a Tourist Travel Pass for zone A, activated the first time you use it and valid by calendar day, not by 24 hours. It covers the Metro in zone A, including the €3 airport supplement, the blue EMT buses but not the Exprés Aeropuerto, Cercanías zones 0 and A, and the ML1 tram. The Consorcio sells the same pass at the same price.
- Discounts on the museum and viewpoint side: the Thyssen 10%, the CentroCentro viewpoint 50%, the Faro de Moncloa observation deck 50%, €1 off the Almudena Cathedral museum, €1 off the Círculo de Bellas Artes, €1 off the Lázaro Galdiano Museum, and the Liria Palace at a reduced €13.
- Discounts on shows and tours: Teatro Flamenco Madrid 20%, the Las Ventas audio-guide tour 15% at the ticket office, and 15% off the Wax Museum.
- Queue access: the Reina Sofía lists preferential access for card holders.
- Free with or without the card: the municipal museums (the Madrid History Museum, the San Isidro Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art and Alameda Castle), San Antonio de la Florida and the Temple of Debod, which needs a reservation.
The discounts on the Thyssen (€1.40), the CentroCentro viewpoint (€2), the Faro de Moncloa (€2), the Almudena museum (€1) and the Círculo (€1) come to €7.40 if you visit all five, so the card’s value is the travel pass. At the same price, the card adds the discounts, while the Consorcio’s pass is sold in more places (Metro machines, tobacconists, the app) and also in seven-day and zone T versions.
The Paseo del Arte card
€32.80 · one visit each to the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen · valid a year
The card gives one visit to the collections of the three museums on the Paseo del Arte, in any order, plus some of the temporary exhibitions at the Prado and the Reina Sofía, and certain exhibitions are excluded. The Reina Sofía’s page puts it at 20 per cent off the three admission prices. Bought on one museum’s site, it is collected at that museum’s ticket office, and bought online it counts from the date you pick. The separate adult tickets are the Prado €15, the Reina Sofía €12 and the Thyssen €14, €41 in all, so the card saves €8.20. The Paseo del Arte card guide has the details.
The tree-lined Paseo del Prado. Photo: Tinou Bao, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
It does not beat the free windows. The Prado is free in its last two hours, the Reina Sofía free on set evenings and on Sunday, and the Thyssen free on Monday from 12:00 to 16:00, which brings the three museums to nothing for a reader who can fit them. Each museum’s page has its hours: Prado Museum tickets, Reina Sofía and the Thyssen.
Go City Madrid
Essentials from €59 · Explorer from €79 · All-Inclusive from €129
Go City sells a digital pass scanned in its app. The Essentials pass is three attractions chosen from a list, with 30 days from activation to use it. The Explorer pass lets you choose the number of attractions, also with 30 days from activation, and the All-Inclusive pass runs for a number of days with unlimited visits. An unactivated pass can be refunded within 90 days of purchase.
The list has 30-plus attractions: guided tours of the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Bernabéu, the Royal Palace with an audio guide, the Atlético de Madrid stadium tour, the Thyssen, Las Ventas, a Torres Bermejas flamenco show with a tapas menu, tapas tours, and day trips including Toledo and Segovia, Segovia and Ávila, and El Escorial and Cuelgamuros. Madrid: Go City All-Inclusive Pass with 20+ Attractionsad is listed on GetYourGuide from €79 (154 reviews, 3.1 stars).
A pass pays when its picks are guided tours you would book anyway: the guided Prado and Reina Sofía tours on GetYourGuide start at €45 and €35, and the Torres Bermejas show with a tapas menu is €59. For self-guided sightseeing the museums’ own tickets and the free windows cost less.
The state museum passes
Four Madrid Museums €8 · Eight Madrid Museums €16 · annual card €36.06
The Ministry of Culture sells passes for its state museums, sold at the museums’ ticket offices. Eight Madrid Museums is €16 for 15 days and Four Madrid Museums is €8 for 10 days, for the Museum of Romanticism, the Anthropology, Decorative Arts, Garment, Cerralbo, Americas, Archaeological and Sorolla museums. The annual card is €36.06 and adds the Prado and the Reina Sofía, with photo ID. The Sorolla Museum’s historic house is closed for restoration, with only its free extension open; the museums guide has the hours and the free slots.
The sums
Adult prices at the operators, self-guided.
| Plan | Cost |
|---|---|
| Prado, Reina Sofía and Thyssen separately | €41 |
| The same on the Paseo del Arte card | €32.80 |
| Add the Royal Palace at €18 | €59 separately, €50.80 with the card |
| The three museums in their free windows, plus the Palace | €18 |
| A three-day list of the three museums, the Palace, the Bernabéu Classic tour (€37), the Almudena museum (€8), the Círculo (€6) and CentroCentro (€4) | €114 direct, €105.80 with the card, €73 using the free windows |
| Madrid City Card for 3 days | €23.10, which is the transport |
Which to buy
- No museums, mostly walking and the Metro: a 10-trip ticket, as on Madrid public transport.
- Metro to the airport and a lot of rides: the City Card, or the Consorcio’s pass.
- The three art museums, paying: the Paseo del Arte card, for €8.20 less than three tickets.
- The three art museums, free: the free windows, with the Palace as the only €18.
- Guided tours of the big sights: compare Go City with the tours on GetYourGuide.
What to book before you go to Madrid lists the sights that need tickets, Madrid walking tours compares the walks, the bike tours and the buses, and where to stay in Madrid compares the areas. Madrid in one or two days fits the sights into days.
Common questions
Is the Madrid City Card worth it?
It costs the same as the Tourist Travel Pass in zone A, €10.30 for one day to €33.40 for five, and adds discounts at the Thyssen-Bornemisza (10%), the CentroCentro and Faro de Moncloa viewpoints (50%), Teatro Flamenco Madrid (20%) and a few others. It includes no museum entry. Buy it in person at a city tourist office.
Does the Madrid City Card include the Prado?
No. It includes no entries. The Prado is free in its last two hours; its own ticket is on the Prado guide. The Paseo del Arte card is the pass that covers the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen.
How much is the Paseo del Arte card?
€32.80, which is 20 per cent off the €41 that the Prado (€15), the Reina Sofía (€12) and the Thyssen-Bornemisza (€14) cost separately. It gives one visit to each collection within a year, and the free evening windows can beat it.
How much is the Go City Madrid pass?
Go City's own page shows the Essentials pass from €59 for three attractions, the Explorer pass from €79 and the All-Inclusive pass from €129. It lists guided tours of the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Bernabéu, a flamenco show, the Royal Palace and day trips.
What museum passes does Madrid have?
The state museums sell Eight Madrid Museums at €16 for 15 days and Four Madrid Museums at €8 for 10 days, plus an annual state museums card at €36.06. They cover house museums such as the Cerralbo and the Romanticismo, not the Prado or the Reina Sofía.
