Madrid card: museums and transportation
Madrid, the capital of Spain, is a city rich in artistic and cultural points of interest, with a good presence of museums and tourist attractions.
Choosing the right Madrid pass-the one that best suits your travel tastes-will be important in order to get good savings on the cost of tickets, plan your itinerary more smoothly, and optimize your access time to attractions by already having all your tickets with you, in fact, in a single Madrid transportation card.
Public transport in Madrid also allows people to buy cards (in different formats and solutions) to have access to all public transportation, saving money on tickets.
In this article we delve into the knowledge of cards for Madrid, also highlighting the best pairing with transportation cards.
INDEX
Madrid card review and comparison
Several types of passes, cards and passes are available for visiting Madrid, each with its own logic and convenience, to be chosen based on your vacation needs.
They should therefore first be analyzed and understood in their logic, and then you will be able to more easily figure out which one best suits your type of vacation, providing you with ample coverage and savings.
I remind you that there is almost never one pass that is absolutely better than another, but each will be more or less convenient depending on the itinerary you have planned, the time available for the vacation, and your tastes as a tourist.
In the case of Madrid, it is also interesting to consider more than one pass in combination to take advantage of the benefits offered by different cards.
Madrid, a city rich in history, culture, and artistic tradition, can be visited touristically by taking advantage of Madrid tourist passes, which are capable of optimizing savings on attractions, compared to the classic visit by purchasing full-fare tickets.
Madrid Digital Pass
The pass does not include many attractions, but it gives you a way to visit a piece of Castilian history and one of the most important museums in the world.
It also includes Hop-On / Hop-Off bus service, nice opportunity to explore and embrace the city from a tour bus, to catch the highlights in a fast and guided way.
The Madrid DIGITAL Pass thus includes:
- Visit to the Royal Palace of Madrid (quick access + digital guidebook)
- Prado Museum
- Hop-on Hop-off Bus Madrid
- 10% discount on other attractions in Madrid (via Tiqets)
The Madrid Digital Pass is a package created by Tiqets, a reliable online travel agency active in several European cities.
Buy the Madrid Digital PassMadrid Digital Pass Prices
Currently this card to Madrid costs just under €60.
It is purchased conveniently online, in Italian, paying by credit card, and receiving the pass directly electronically to your email address.
How much can you save with the Madrid Digital Pass?
Doing two quick counts and adding up the full tickets for the two main attractions (the two museums) and the value of the Hop-On / Hop-Off tour, there does not seem to be a huge savings.
The strength of the pass in this case is not strictly economic, but you weigh more on the convenience of making a one-time purchase, and taking advantage of the dedicated skip-the-line lanes for card and pass holders.
This can also save you hours of standing in line at the entrances, and personally this aspect is worth a lot, you have to give it an "economic weight."
Also-not to be forgotten-by purchasing this Madrid Digital Pass you will have access to a 10% discount on the purchase of tickets to other Madrid attractions that you would like to purchase to complete your itinerary.
Considering this aspect as well, it also comes on our side to save money.
Madrid DIGITAL Pass at a glance
It is the perfect pass for those who want to see the city's most important museum (Prado) and the royal palace where the King of Spain is staying.
Plus it gives you the opportunity to take a tour of the city on the tourist bus, and being a very large city you will get to see places you would not normally visit.
Paseo del Arte Card
The "Paseo del Arte Card" is the name of a pass for Madrid dedicated to the artistic component of the city.
In fact, it includes access to the city's 3 most famous museums, which together form what is known as the "Golden Triangle of Art"
- Thyssen Museum
- Prado Museum
- Reina Sofia Museum
Paseo del Arte is a walk along Paseo del Prado, the neighborhood where Madrid's major museums are located, with the Prado standing out among them all.
A short walk from the Paseo del Prado, just behind the museum, you can find the Parque del Ritiro, with its marvelous and distinctive Crystal Palace - with free admission.
Paseo del Arte Card prices and savings
Madrid's Paseo del Arte Card costs (approximately) €35 per single person.
The cost is not high, although-as we can see-the financial savings are not so sharp either.
The Paseo del Arte Card includes admission to:
- Prado Museum - without pass cost of admission 15€ approx.
- Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum - without pass cost of admission 13€ approx.
- Reina Sofia Museum - without pass cost of admission 10€ approx.
As you can see, we are talking about a few euros of financial savings: not bad for your pocket, but not its strong point.
Buy the Paseo del Arte CardSkip the line at Madrid museums
The real selling point of this pass is (as seen for the previous one) the ability to enter Madrid's 3 main museums-which are, moreover, always crowded with tourists-in a few minutes while avoiding the lines, thanks to the pass's "skip the line" feature.
This is invaluable, believe me!
Being able to save 1-2 hours in line, perhaps in summer with 40°, is worth 3 times the price of the pass!
Meaningful review highlighting the importance of having this pass to skip the lines at Madrid's major museums
The card is valid for one year after purchase, and also allows access to some temporary exhibitions at the Prado and Reina Sofia.
5 Museum Pass
A decidedly lesser-known Madrid museum pass is the "5-museum pass."
This is a very inexpensive pass that allows you to visit the following 5 museums within 10 days:
- Cerralbo Museum
- Làzaro Galdiano Museum
- National Museum of Decorative Arts
- Museum of Romanticism
- Sorolla Museum
These are important museums in Madrid, though not the purely tourist museums (included in the DIGITAL Pass, however).
Prices and validity card 5 museums Madrid
The cost is definitely affordable, the 5-museum pass costs only 12 Euro.
It is purchased directly on site at one of the ticket offices of the 5 participating museums.
Therefore, upon visiting the first museum, at the box office instead of asking for the standard ticket, you are asked to purchase this 5-museum card.
You have 10 days from the first activation to complete visiting the 5 museums.
Map of the 5 Madrid museums included in the card
When is the 5-museum card worthwhile?
In my opinion it is worthwhile as often as there is space and the desire in your itinerary to see these important Madrid museums, which together with the more emblazoned ones, complete the artistic and cultural offerings that Madrid offers its visitors.
It can be chosen as the only museum pass, forgoing the most popular ones in case you have already seen them on previous occasions, or purchased together with a pass that includes the others, such as the DIGITAL Pass explained in this article.
Its low cost makes it an excellent investment in this regard.
Only to be discouraged when, for reasons of time or itinerary preferences, you want to limit yourself to only the two most important museums in the city.
We can tend to say that it is great for medium/long stays (4-7 days), to be evaluated for shorter stays.
Madrid card transportation
Madrid offers a very rich and effective urban transportation network, consisting of metro and buses, which allow you to move easily in all areas of the city.
The transports card in Madrid is called Abono Turístico de Transporte (translated to Tourist Trasport Pass), also called Tarjeta turística (translated to Tourist Card): they are synonyms for the same season ticket.
The passes for museums and attractions described above on this page, do NOT include options for public transportation.
So this card should always be purchased separately from the Madrid tourist pass.
Madrid's transport card includes unlimited rides on the metro and buses, and is sold in different validity denominations; for tourists there are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 7-day passes, depending on how long you are in town!
You can choose between two passes, one designed for the center of Madrid (ZONE A) and the other for the suburbs (ZONE T).
If you are in Madrid as a tourist, staying in the center and not staying many days, I definitely recommend theZone A pass .
ZONE A subscription includes:
- Madrid Metro in fare zone A (city)
- Metro to/from airport (T1-T2-T3 and T4)
- All EMT blue bus routes.
- Zones 0 and A of the Renfe network (trains)
- Metro Ligero's ML1
The ZONE T subscription, on the other hand, includes:
- All metro fare zones
- All urban and intercity bus routes (blue + green)
- The entire Renfe network
- The ML2, ML3 lines of Metro Ligero and ML4 lines of the Parla Tranvia
Madrid transport card prices
As anticipated, the price of Madrid's transport card varies depending on the duration and zone of coverage (at the tourist level we take ZONE A as a reference, enough to get around everything).
The fares are as follows:
| Zones | 1 Day | 2 Days | 3 Days | 4 Days | 5 Days | 7 Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zone A | 8,40€ | 14,20€ | 18,40€ | 22,60€ | 26,80€ | 35,40€ |
| Zone T | 17,00€ | 28,40€ | 35,40€ | 43,00€ | 50,80€ | 70,80€ |
Where is the transportation card purchased?
The Madrid metro + bus transportation card is purchased in the city at any metro ticket office.
Is it worth the transport card in Madrid?
Yes, Madrid's transportation pass absolutely pays off, both for an economic factor and for convenience.
Consider that Madrid is very large and dispersed: to move from one side to the other of ZONE A, the metro is essential to conserve a little energy.
So using transportation frequently for medium and long trips saves a lot of energy, especially in summer when it is quite hot.
The price of a single ticket is 1.50€, reasoning that with 6 trips already you go save money by taking the season ticket.
Table prices are valid for adults (12+). Children 5-12 years old pay 50% of the full fare. Under 4 years old can travel without a ticket.
Where to purchase it.
You can buy the season ticket at all metro stations by following the directions on the screen. It is very simple and intuitive.
Is a card for Madrid worthwhile?
The different types of cards for Madrid attractions and museums that we have seen on this page do not make saving money their big selling point, although they always save something.
The big advantage of having a Madrid pass is measured in convenience and time savings in skipping the lines at museum entrances, thanks to the fast lanes dedicated to pass holders.
This aspect is worth a lot, saves valuable time to devote to your vacation, and saves a lot of effort.
The DIGITAL Pass is definitely the most typical card for the classic tourist, the others are specifically for those who want to delve into museums and the cultural side.
That said, I also see it interesting to take two or more passes paired together, to complete the overview of Madrid's cultural offerings, for vacations of at least 5-7 days or more.
- DIGITAL Pass + 5 Museums Card
- DIGITAL Pass + Paseo del Arte
- Paseo del Arte + 5 Museums Card
- DIGITAL Pass + Paseo del Arte + Card of the 5 museums
As for DIGITAL Pass and Paseo del Arte card, you can serenely buy them online from the links on this page.
The 5-museum card, on the other hand, as mentioned, is bought locally.
The public transportation card, on the other hand, pays off practically all the time, for every tourist case you go to consider.
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