Madrid, Toledo, Segovia on our own

1. No
2. Take a taxi, it will be cheap.
3. Get a taxi. You may want a taxi straight to the Alcazar because it's uphill to the Alcazar. It's an easier walk down to the aqueduct from the Alcazar than up to the Alcazar from the aqueduct.
4. I wouldn't think you necessarily need to get tapas for your main dinner meal. There are amazing sit down restaurants in Madrid if that's more your style. I really like Bardero which is near Atocha. Fine dining quality at an affordable price. Focusing on the neighborhoods near Atocha, here are a few good tapas places: La Burlona, La Canibal, La Fisna Wine Bar, Bar El Boqueron, GatoGato, Bar Melo, Bar Tribuetxe (cash only). Further afield, I really like Casa del Abuelo (not the Plaza Mayor location), and Casa Revuelta.

The train to Toledo leaves from Atocha station and I believe the train to Segovia departs from Chamartín station. With so little time in Madrid, once there you may decide to visit either Toledo or Segovia. If you opt to skip one, decide which one will need to wait before the trip.

The two main sites in Segovia are the Alcázar and the aqueduct. You can’t miss the aqueduct as it runs right through the historic center. I believe it’s just over a mile from the main train station.

To save time in Toledo you can take take a bus or taxi from the train station to Zocodover Plaza. The distance to the plaza from the station is about 1.5 miles. However, already being in a taxi, ask the driver to take take you to one or more of the overlooks. Personally, I feel the best view of the town is from the balcony at the Parador (hotel) a couple miles outside of town. If you decide to walk from the train station there’s an escalator just past the Bisagra gate that goes up to the historic center. I’ve never taken the tourist train. If you’re not into museums then the main site for you might be the cathedral. If you have few must see sites, then consider just wandering around the town.

I have been to all three cities twice and the first time we did everything on our own.

Touring Toledo and Segovia is easy taking the train. Both cities are not large.

You would need a good guidebook with maps.

I haven't taken the little tourist "train" (really a road vehicle) in Toledo, but I recall a positive report here from someone who did. However, paying a taxi driver to give you a bit of a detour outside the walls is a fine idea.

Since you aren't much for art, you may want to track down some of the Mudejar buildings in Toledo: https://lionsinthepiazza.com/mosques-synagogues-churches-toledo/. Toledo is a very atmospheric place with a large historic center. It's rather hilly, so you may need more wandering-around time than you expect.

In Madrid, tapas take the form of Raciones mainly. These are appetizer sized portions, you can usually also get a media-racione, or half portion.

For a first trip, I would head to an intersection with three excellent places, Casa Toni, la Orejo de Jaime, and Casa del Abuelo. The offerings range from classic to maybe a bit exotic, but all good.

The other option would be to head to Cava Baja, a street with a wide range of tapas bars.

For more info, head to YouTube, look for a channel called "Spain Revealed" by James Blick. He has the best recommendations for places in Madrid, tons of videos, examples of dishes, and every place he has recommended that I have been to is excellent.

I am 100% an advocate of doing as much as possible in limited time, but one has to have the energy, stamina, desire and knowledge to accomplish this.

It appears this may be your first time in Spain, so it is a bit curious to me that you would fly all the way to Madrid and yet really plan to see nothing specific of the capital city. Yes, Toledo and Segovia are lovely towns to visit, but doing two days in a row of independent travel immediately after recovering from jet lag may be a bit much if you are not even able to stay up late to dine past 6:00 PM, and you are asking here how to even plan these independent visits on your own.

The fact you are staying near the Atocha station means you will have at least a half hour walk to the Plaza Mayor of Madrid, which you really should see. The Royal Palace of Madrid is impressive, and although you say you are not "museum people," it seems a shame not to take a quick tour of the Prado just to have some first-hand familiarity with some of the greatest artists of the country.

Sometimes train tickets sell out--have you started looking at how to buy a ticket and read the schedules? How is your Spanish?

Are you strong walkers? Both of the visits to these towns can require a fair amount of walking (sometimes uphill), whether you take a tour or go independently, and taking taxis everywhere will start to add up in cost. Yes, the aqueduct of Segovia is marvelous and easily visible to all tourists. Going inside the Alcázar is also an incredible experience. Toledo has an abundance of riches, and the cathedral there is lovely.

I am completely bilingual, and I have traveled independently all over the country, but on my last visit this past Summer to Spain I booked a one day bus tour to Segovia and Toledo because: my time was limited and I liked that everything was prearranged and taken care of; the tour stopped at all the places I wanted to revisit; I did not have to worry about getting to the train station and buying tickets, or purchasing my entry tickets to the cathedral and the castle; my (bilingual) guide was excellent and brought history to life through his descriptions; we had photos stops, guided walking tours, inside visits, and sufficient free time for shopping and a mid-day meal.

So, I would not recommend my tour to most people, as it was very long, and a bit exhausting to visit both cities in one day, but for me the experience was excellent. I also tend to linger and shop a LOT, so having a time limit helps keep me on schedule (yes, I bought some damasquinado in Toledo--I always do).

We also frequently use a tour company in Europe called Walks (https://www.takewalks.com/madrid-tours/), because the guides are phenomenal, the tours are a bit rigorous but very comprehensive, and all entrances are prearranged with hardly any waiting, In Madrid we booked their tapas tour, the flamenco tour, and the Palace/Prado tour, and we also use them a lot in Italy. They move a little more quickly than the Viking walking tours, but are similar in length.

Well, I guess you will not have too much time to tour in Barcelona, but there are also many wonderful sites to visit in that city, especially if you like architecture.

Again, I never try to dissuade people from being independent explorers (I actually hitchhiked in some parts of Spain when I was a young and poor student, but that was decades ago when I could travel for months), but my goal these days is usually to try to see as much as possible in a pleasant manner with as little hassle as possible.

However, I think if I were your travel agent I would have had you just fly straight to Barcelona and tour that city for few days instead, because I would not want you to be too overwhelmed with all these logistics, even though that is exactly what I do when I cruise in Europe (country and city hop!).

Have fun planning, and have a great cruise! ¡Buen viaje!

Most restaurants in Madrid don't open until 8 pm at the earliest. Some on the Plaza Mayor may serve earlier for visitors. You may consider having your main meal at lunch and just a sandwich in the evening.

Tapas in Madrid are really plates or portions to share. Barcelona and the Basque country has small individual tapa plates. There is a Catalonia (Barcelona) style tapas restaurant at the 9th floor food court of the Cortes Ingles department store on Plaza del Callao.

The Atocha station is very large and confusing. Be sure to allow a lot of extra time to find your security entrance to your tracks.

We travel independently and just spent 5 nights in Madrid as part of a Spain trip. We chose to skip Toledo but did a day trip to Segovia. It was easy to take the metro to the Moncloa bus station. We purchased Avanza bus tickets online for 8:30 am. We walked 10 minutes to the TI by the aqueduct and purchased their audio guide. We walked about 20 minutes to the Alcazar--we had purchased 10:30 tickets online. Go into the ticket office to download the audio guide before entering the castle. It only takes about 1/12 hours to visit, we really enjoyed it. Then we used the TI audio guide during our walk back around town. We had suckling pig at Jose Maria, not as fantastic as expected but very good. We walked around more with the audio guide (which isn't always accurate!) and spent time at the aqueduct. Segovia is lovely to walk around. We took the 5:15 bus back to Madrid. The timing worked well for us. You could just go to the Alcazar and aqueduct in a half day. In Madrid, we spent a long 5 hours at the Prado, another day at the Royal Palace and Royal Collection, another day at the archeological museum (our favorite) and walking around El Retiro Park. Many restaurants are open all day. Start by searching around your hotel, looking at reviews, menus and hours on Google. You don't have to eat late. You might miss out on some great restaurants but we never had a bad meal in Spain. In Barcelona, try to get tickets in advance to see La Sagrada Familia and the MUHBA history museum has great Roman ruins.

We ate only tapas for dinner while we were in Spain. We also cannot eat late at night. We found many places open and enjoyed the variety.

Thank you all so much for your advice, opinions, sharing of experiences. That is why I love these forums, they have been invaluable in trip planning & I have learned tips on here that saved us from various issues over the years. I have given advice to other posters & posted several trip reports. I did not get a trip report written on our last trip in 2023 to Scandinavian & Baltic countries. My luggage was lost for 5 days of the trip & the last leg of Norway in a Nutshell from Oslo to Bergen was cancelled due to heavy rains affecting the trains so I was pretty worn down! We have done all of our European trip planning since 2017 independently and after the last one, I said I wanted a break even though the planning is a joy in itself and we are very good at it! That being said I insisted on either a cruise or Rick Steves tour this time so we do less moving and unpacking from place to place, learning all the transportation systems in a new country/city/area every few days, etc. Anyway, reading all these posts has helped us realize we are trying to cram in too much & we should just enjoy Madrid & Toledo which will still be a lot before heading to Barcelona. And yes, we have already booked our high speed train to Barcelona & will book the Toledo train in the next week or so. We are planning to get tickets to La Sagrada Familia for late afternoon on the day we arrive in Barcelona, I have been checking the website and I am just waiting for May to open up. We are also doing a Viking excursion to Monserrat, Park Guell & the Gothic Quarter before we leave Barcelona. We will get a Roman ruins fix in Cartagena as the ship stops there, and we have an excursion to the Alhambra Palace on the port day in Malaga. So we will see some wonderful places in Spain overall. I really appreciate all the tapas recommendations. We will probably have a long lunch & then grab a sandwich at one of the markets or chocolate/churros, etc. some of the time as one of you suggested. We chose this cruise because we had not been to Spain yet and also because the cruise ends in Bergen, Norway which means we will get to do the trains and boat ride through the fjords this time as we are extending an extra 2-3 days on our own in Bergen after we disembark. Thank you again for the insights! I feel much better about not over planning and allowing a more relaxed pace the first few days.