I am planning on booking this tour, however I understand that the chances are high that I will be assigned to the Spanish language tour. I believe I have come across and written English guide somewhere however it looks like it was not in RS Spain 2015 or 2019. Anyone know of anything?
Posted by
Wyckoff, NJ, USA
7894 posts
FYI: This building and art collection are worth taking the Spanish tour. It's hard to get in at all. Visit is only by tour. Alas, little free-time in the painting gallery.
Posted by
OP
5 posts
Yes I understand that it is by Spanish tour only as I have stated above . The question was where can I get a WRITTEN tour to follow along as I walk through the site WITH the Spanish tour
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
7163 posts
My guess is although you’ll be on the Spanish tour, there will be an English handout for non-Spanish speakers. That has been my experience in other countries. You could send the venue an email and ask it.
Posted by
Washington DC
28105 posts
I took a Spanish tour in 2016. I was not offered an English handout. At that time the RS guidebook did have a fair amount of information about the site. Not a tour, per se, but still useful. I had read it before deciding to go the convent but stupidly did not re-read immediately before the tour.
If you are an early riser, it's worth showing up before the place opens in hopes of snagging an empty spot on what may be the single English tour of the day. I don't know how early you would need to be, and of course there's no guarantee that there will be even one spot available for walk-ups. I was a few minutes late, and the fellow immediately in front of me got the last place on the English tour that I believe was due to begin about 30 minutes later. As of 2016 there was no provision for showing up a day ahead of time, buying a ticket and putting your name on a list. A day ahead of time they couldn't (or wouldn't) even tell me whether there would be an English tour the next day.
This is purely speculative on my part, but I suspect they only schedule an English tour when they're contacted by a tour group that wants to see the convent. Then, depending on how many people are in the tour group, there may be a very few extra spots on the tour for which they sell tickets at opening time. I don't know that the English tours are always shortly after opening, but that was the case on the two days I went by the convent.
Folks traveling as part of a large family (or other) group might find it worthwhile to contact the convent and try to arrange a tour. Perhaps that would work if you are 6, 7, 8 people or more.
It is a very interesting place; it's too bad they make it nearly impossible for solo-traveling English-speakers to see it under good conditions, despite having at least one guide who can conduct English tours.
Posted by
OP
5 posts
Thank you everyone. I have tried to get in as standby on previous trips to Madrid but it has not worked out. So I just bought my tickets in advance
https://entradas.patrimonionacional.es/en-GB/informacion-recinto/8/monasterio-descalzas
you can buy up to 8 and up to 90 days in advance (just bought mine for about 60 days in advance and had my pick of time; no distinction of language was made). Of note, if you try to click on an available time and it tell you that this date is not for sale-- try again! It just did that to me and then worked fine for the same date and time.
To answer my own question about resources in English: the purchase confirmation page directed me to download a tour app, which I easily got from the apple store. No looking at the emailed tickets, the app may not be free (just a nominal 2 euro).