Royal Palace and Prado, Madrid

I would contact this guy from the RS marketplace....
https://spainfred.com

When I look at the Prado website it shows 90 minute guided tours with English tours at 11am and 1pm.
Guided visits to the Collection
90-minute guided tour of the Collection
Ticket + 10 € per person

There are Free entrance hours if you just wanted to wander.

FREE ACCESS
Monday to Saturday, from 6 PM to 8 PM
Sundays and holidays, from 5 PM to 7 PM
Access to the Museum up to 30 minutes before closing

With the royal palace, you are correct. It appears there are no guided tours offered in English on the website. An audio guide is an additional 5€. After selecting your visit time, ensure you select the number of tickets you need under the correct category since some categories are free or reduced price (unemployed, disabled, senior, child). Then click the Añadir A Su Compra (add to your basket). A summary will come up showing the time, number of tickets, and total price. If everything is correct, click the Pagar Visita (pay). You’ll then be asked for an email and names.

There may be English tours offered, you just can’t purchase them online. I suggest you send the palace an email and ask.
From the website: Guided visit

Guided by Patrimonio Nacional staff
The guided tours that are purchased online are all in Spanish
There is the possibility of the guided visit by adding a supplement whose amount is 4 € per person. (Spanish only)
You must access the Royal Palace by the preferred door 15 minutes before the time indicated in your tickets, and present 5 minutes before at the specific meeting point located in the entrance hall to the Palace.

I can’t help much in regards to finding a guide, but when we took the RS Spain tour, our time in the Prado included a tour guide and let me say this - it was amazing! She brought paintings to life for you and the story behind some of them were fantastic, you got an experience that you would never have had without the guides knowledge and expertise. From then on, we have taken guided tours when available,so we don’t miss out on the stories behind the scene.

We did a tour of the Royal Palace with Get Your Guide and it was great!

Thanks Steph!
Oh yes Jaime, I see the guides now. 10 euro a person seems like a good deal!

Just, yes it makes a big difference to us. Love London Walks if you’re ever there!

Cathy, thanks!

What do you think about visiting both in the same day?

The Palacio Real and the Prado aren't particularly close together, so there's no logistical advantage to scheduling them on the same day.

The palace is large, and if it hasn't implemented COVID-related capacity controls, you may find it quite crowded; it's a popular sight for Spaniards as well as foreign tourists. I remember not being able to move through the palace as rapidly as I would have preferred. Unfortunately, I don't remember how much time I spent there.

The Prado is quite a large museum. I'm the sort of person who wants to at least walk past every painting in a museum, pausing in front of the ones I'm most interested in. And I always get the audio guide. I know most visitors to art museums are more selective. For someone like me, the Prado will fill the better part of a day (if not longer). I wouldn't have had time to see the palace on the same day. In addition, a full day of standing on hard floors (as opposed to mostly walking) would have been painful.

When we were in Madrid a couple of years back I was with friends who weren’t huge art lovers, but I was desperate to see Goya’s ‘Black Paintings’, so we compromised and went to the Prado for the evening free admission. Yes, there was a sizeable queue to get in so go early to avoid eating into too much of your gallery time, although the queue moved fairly quickly.

We got to see Picasso’s ‘Guernica’, I split off the group and did a ton of Goya, including the ‘Black Paintings’, on the way back I stumbled across Bosch’s ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’ - which I hadn’t realised has a reverse (despite knowing it was a triptych, duh), and managed to take in a bit of modern art (love that!) and some sculpture by Paolozzi, all without feeling I’d been whisked round the gallery at a gallop.

Nearing the two hour mark my back was killing me due to a compromised left hip (since replaced, although the ‘museum shuffle’ still causes me discomfort after a while, much to my chagrin), but the point is you can see a terrific amount for free, without tour or audio guide if you do a little research and swotting up beforehand.

Ian

As clarification, Picasso’s Guernica is in the Reina Sofía museum, not the Prado.

To add to what acraven said, the royal palace and the Prado are 1.2 miles apart (walking). Depending on how much time you wanted to spend in the Prado, yes you could theoretically see them both in the same day. If you wanted to take the metro you get on and off at the Opera (near the palace) and Banco de España (near the Prado) stations. I’d see them on separate days and after leaving the Prado I’d wander through Retiro Park and Cristal Palace, and walk past the Puerta de Alcalá, Plaza de Cibeles, and Fuente de Neptuno.

After seeing the palace you could wander over to the Catedral de la Almudena, Temple of Debod and Plaza de España. After a day of wandering, head over to Chcolatería Gines near the Plaza Mayor and Puerta Del Sol for some churros and chocolate.

I agree with everyone who recommends visiting the Prado and the Royal Palace on two separate days. That is exactly what we did. We spent about 4.5 hours at the Prado, including having lunch in the cafe. We saw a lot of wonderful majestic paintings but of course it's impossible to see everything. We rented the audioguides. I love the Prado, more so than the Louvre. And we did exactly what jaimeelsbio suggests. After leaving the Prado, we wandered through lovely Retiro Park, drank Sangria by the pond, and saw the Crystal Palace.

We visited the Royal Palace on a different day. I know we arrived just before it opened, and only had a short wait in line to buy tickets. This was in September 2017. Again we rented the audioguides. And we visited the Temple of Debod that same day, as jaimeelsabio suggests.

jaimeelsabio - you’re dead right about ‘Guernica’ not being in the Prado. I’ve mushed my Madrid art experiences together! It was a couple of years back! Thanks for correcting my error - probably heads off a lot of complaints directed at me - “we spent three weeks in the Prado and never found ‘Guernica’. Thanks for nothing!”

Soo excited! So, a day for the Prado, a day for the Palace and a day to visit Toledo!

Now I see why Madrid and Sevilla may be all we fit into this 8 night trip with the kids.

Now to wait for airfare to come down a touch!!

Regarding audio guides and live guides - I am booking my Prado tickets now for my March visit. Although things can change from day to day, please note that under the Visit the Museum section today it says: "OUT OF SERVICE - For security reasons, we cannot offer the services of group guide or baby strollers. There are currently no audio guides available for the permanent collection (only for temporary exhibitions)" So I assume this means that the 50 Euro group tour may not be available, and no audioguides. There is a Prado Guide App in the Apple store and Goggle Play. I'm going to download that and see how helpful it is.