The vast Baroque palace of the kings of Spain, with more than 135,000 square metres, the Throne Room and works by Caravaggio, Velázquez and Goya. Here you’ll find which Royal Palace of Madrid tickets to buy, the weather during opening hours, opening times and tips for your visit.
Queues and crowds → · Madrid, Spain
Weather at 5:00 PM. The castle opens at 10:00.
The ticket covers the rooms open to the public, from the Grand Staircase to the Throne Room. The Royal Kitchen is added with a combined ticket.
Our pick: the small-group tour on Tiqets, with at most 8 people and top reviews (4.9 out of 5). On a budget? The official guided tour in English costs €26, and the €18 official ticket is the cheapest way to visit on your own.
Free entry: Monday to Thursday in the last two hours (4–6 pm in winter, 5–7 pm in summer) for EU citizens and residents and Latin American citizens, at the ticket office only.
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before · 4.9 from 10 reviews
Costs more than the official guided tour (€26) because groups are capped at 8 people.
Groups of up to 30 · free cancellation up to 24 hours before · 4.5 from 26 reviews
Costs more than the official guided tour (€26), but can be cancelled up to 24 hours before.
Self-guided · non-refundable ticket · 4.5 from almost 1,700 reviews
Costs €4 more than the official ticket (€18); worth it if you prefer booking on Tiqets.
Indicative prices, checked onOctober 27, 2026: they may change: the final price is the one shown by the seller.
Perfect day
Perfect day: clear, 21 to 21 degrees, no rain.
Perfect day
Perfect day: clear, 11 to 20 degrees, no rain.
| Time | Sky | Temperature | Rain | Wind |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:00 | Fair | 11° | – | 6 km/h |
| 11:00 | Fair | 13° | – | 5 km/h |
| 12:00 | Clear | 15° | – | 4 km/h |
| 13:00 | Clear | 17° | – | 3 km/h |
| 14:00 | Clear | 18° | – | 4 km/h |
| 15:00 | Clear | 19° | – | 4 km/h |
| 16:00 | Clear | 20° | – | 4 km/h |
| 17:00 | Clear | 19° | – | 3 km/h |
The best days are Friday, October 30, Saturday, October 31 and Sunday, November 1. The rating only looks at opening hours: rain at night doesn’t spoil the visit.
Today and tomorrow the forecast is accurate hour by hour; up to day seven it is reliable on the trend; the last days give a rough idea. Updated every hour.
Today, Friday, October 30: open 10:00–18:00.
| Period | Hours |
|---|---|
| April 1 – September 30 | 10:00–19:00 |
| October 1 – March 31 | 10:00–18:00 |
Closed on January 1, January 6, May 1, and December 25.
Opening hours: Monday to Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm from October to March and 10 am to 7 pm from April to September; Sundays 10 am to 4 pm all year. Last entry is one hour before closing.
2026 closures: 1 and 6 January, 1 May and 25 December; on 24 and 31 December it closes at 3 pm. It can also close for official events.
Best time to visit: April, May and October. Days between 19 and 23°C, ideal for adding the gardens.
| Month | Average high | Rainy days |
|---|---|---|
| Jan | 10° | 6 |
| Feb | 12° | 5 |
| Mar | 16° | 5 |
| AprRecommended | 19° | 7 |
| MayRecommended | 23° | 7 |
| Jun | 29° | 3 |
| Jul | 33° | 2 |
| Aug | 32° | 2 |
| Sep | 27° | 4 |
| OctRecommended | 20° | 7 |
| Nov | 14° | 7 |
| Dec | 10° | 6 |
1991–2020 normals for the Madrid Retiro weather station: average high and days with at least 1 mm of rain. Source: AEMET, table published on Wikipedia (article “Madrid”).
The visit is entirely indoors: the state rooms, the Royal Armoury and the Royal Chapel.
An hour-by-hour crowd estimate is coming later, always marked as an estimate and with its source.
Where it is: between Plaza de Oriente and Almudena Cathedral, in central Madrid. Visitors enter from the Plaza de la Armería.
By metro: lines 2 and 5, Ópera station. By train: Cercanías, Príncipe Pío station.
By bus: lines 3, 25, 39 and 148.
Perfect day: clear, 21 to 21 degrees, no rain.
Saturday, October 31: Perfect day: clear, 11 to 20 degrees, no rain. Sunday, November 1: Perfect day: clear, 11 to 19 degrees, no rain.
The official ticket costs €18 (reduced €9, free under 5); with the Royal Kitchen €24; the official guided tour €26. On Tiqets, fast-track entry costs from €22 and guided tours from €37.
Yes: the official Patrimonio Nacional tours in English run four times a day (€26), and Tiqets sells English-language tours from €37, including a small-group option for up to 8 people.
Monday to Thursday in the last two hours of opening (4–6 pm in winter, 5–7 pm in summer) for EU citizens and residents and Latin American citizens, at the ticket office only.
Monday to Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm (October–March) or 7 pm (April–September); Sundays 10 am to 4 pm. Last entry is one hour before closing.
About 45 minutes for the rooms on your own, an hour and a half or more if you add the Royal Armoury and the kitchen.
Reliable forecasts reach about 10 days: here you get the next 10, hour by hour for today and tomorrow and as a trend after that. To pick a month, check the climate month by month.
Forecasts come from MET Norway, the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, calculated for the castle’s coordinates and updated every hour during the day and every 3 hours at night. Crowd figures are labelled as estimates, with their source.
Small-group guided tour of the Royal Palace · from €50
Forecast by MET Norway, the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, calculated for the castle’s coordinates. Forecast: MET Norway (CC BY 4.0), updated every hour. Updated: October 27, 2026.