Pre-booking museums or other attractions in Lisbon, Porto and Madrid?

In Madrid the Prado and the Royal Palace are candidates for pre-booking. I didn't have a significant wait at either in May 2016, but even at that time some folks were suggesting buying tickets in advance. I'm sure both places are busier now--everything is. I'm pretty confident there are still times when you can walk right up to the ticket counter and get tickets for immediate entry, but you might not arrive at one of those times.

I haven't been to Portugal recently.

Thank you. Did you by chance take the train to Toledo when you were visiting Madrid/area? We are looking at going in early November and wonder if a pre-booked train tix for the early and late return trains is still recommended.

We visited Lisbon in April 2018, and we did not pre-book any of the museums or other attractions. There were no lines at the Gulbenkian Museum or the Coach Museum. We arrived at the Sao Jorge Castle shortly after it opened, and there were no lines. But when we left a few hours later, lines were forming, but not awful.

We did have to wait in line for about an hour at the Jeronimos Monastery in Belem. If you can, I suggest buying tickets in advance. The line looked short, so we weren't worried at first, but it took us an hour to get to the ticket booth. That's because there were many tour groups, especially from cruises, that were allowed in first. There are also long lines at Belem Tower. So we took the elevator to the top of the Discoveries Monument instead. No lines at all! And the views are spectacular!

We visited Madrid in September 2017. We did not pre-book any tickets. We were are the Prado and Reina Sofia a few minutes before they opened, and we had very short waits, about 15 minutes. Waited in line at the Royal Palace for about 30 minutes. We arrived early, maybe 15 - 20 minutes before they opened.

We stayed overnight in Toledo. I booked our train tickets when they went on sale. I have heard that trains to Toledo can fill up quickly with daytrippers.

The important thing for Jeronimos Monastery is to get there within a 1/2 hour of its opening. Although you can purchase a ticket in advance, I do not believe you can pre-book an entry time. As a PP mentioned, it gets crowded fast. In Porto, purchase in advance any port house tours and tastings you plan to take. Sandemans (which I do not recommend) was sold out for several days. We unfortunately had tickets.

I spent several nights in Toledo, departing in the early afternoon, and it was 3 years ago, so I don't think we can trust my experience. There are very frequent trains to Toledo (also buses, but they are quite a bit slower). What you can do is go to Renfe.com every day between now and your planned day-trip to Toledo. Look for sold-out trains in both directions. If things seem to be tightening up, you can buy your tickets then. If the situation looks OK, you can be flexible. My understanding of Rick's advice (which I haven't read since my trip) was that the late return trains to Madrid were the biggest concern. I found so much to enjoy in Toledo, and the historic district is so large (plus hilly, which tends to slow you down), that I'd plan for a lot of time there if I had to commit to a return time in advance.

I disagree with the advice to arrive at the Belem Monastery when it opens. We did that and the line was extremely long. When we left a couple of hours later, the line was much shorter. We were back later because the church closed for a special event and we still wanted to see it. In the afternoon the lines were quite short.

Overall, we felt we would have been better off arriving mid-morning or early afternoon.

Hi from Wisconsin,
I can't recommend the Gulbenkian Museum enough. A cousin of mine went there and feels the same. She feels it is one of the best museums she has ever visited. I might agree with that. The collect is displayed better than any place I have gone (Richmond, VA has a museum with excellent display technique). The collection is also, one excellent piece of this, and one of that, and one... They don't over whelm you with countless broken pieces of Grecian cook ware. All pieces are excellent.

Seems we took a metro from Lisbon city center to near it.

While in Madrid there are four museums in close proximity of each other. The Prado, Thyssen-Bornemisza, Reina Sofia, and what can be a really excellent visit if only to walk the staircase into the museum is the CaixaForum (check out the stair case going up from the right side of the ticket office all this is free. Check out what is being exhibited before buying a ticket). The Prado alone could be a lifetime to see it all properly. So don't try to do all of them in a day.

Buying Spanish train tickets is real chore. Try the 'seat 61' for help in how to do it. There is a link to how to buy tickets for Spain.
www.loco2.com is what is ultimately recommended. I used it after using the Renfe Spanish official site and found loco2 excellent.

wayne iNWI