Toledo, Spain: Day Trip out of Madrid, or Stay the night?

Toledo at dusk is romantic and becomes completely different when the tourist dump out of the city at the end of the day. Spend the night.

If you can, spend the night. It's a great town to wander after the tourists have gone.

If you can swing it, spend the night. Go to the walls at around 5 PM and wave goodby to the tour buses.

Toledo makes a great place to de - Jet lag, consider it for your first night.

You MUST MUST stay at least one night in Toledo. It is completely different at night, almost like stepping back in time because in most parts of the historic area no cars are allowed so you walk around narrow cobblestoned streets, surrounded by centuries old buildings. The city has quite a history - Romans, Visigoths, Moors, Christians. There are many tour companies that do night time tours around Toledo that specialize in the mysteries of Toledo, local legends, etc. I would highly recommend one of those. The one I went on, we went into a cave whose entrance was buried deep underneath a regular looking house. The cave had been around for thousands of years and had (supposedly) quite a bit of paranormal activity (I'm a hard sell on that kind of stuff, but anyway).

I'm sorry, I don't know one off the top of my head that has guides in English (the one I took was in Spanish), but I'm sure if you do some looking around online/calling, you can find one.

Anyway, definitely do at least one overnight in Toledo and if you can find an English-speaking nighttime tour I highly recommend that as well.

Better lodging in a nicer place at a lower price staying in Toledo.

Does anyone know how far a drive/bus ride it is to Toledo from Madrid? A few mentioned stay in Toledo instead of Madrid. If I fly into Madrid, I know I will be jet lagged (coming from LAX). Probably don't want to have to go too far for the first night hotel. Would Toledo be a viable option? How do you get to Toledo from Madrid airport?

Overnight..one or even two nights....completely different in the evening hours. Great place. Posada de Manolo. I have stayed there several times...great location beside the Cathedral and great breakfast over looking the Cathedral.

We took the train for a day trip, it is only 30 minutes. And have the taxi from the station take you all the way up the hill in to town and walk down. We got let off at the gates and it was a steep walk up. If you have time, I would spend the night, but we took one of the last trains back to Madrid and it was fine.

Definitely spend the night! The town looks entirely different at night, and becomes more magical in the evening light. We drove from Madrid, spent the day and overnight in Toledo, then drove south. In Toledo we even took the little tourist tram around the area - got some great pics overlooking the town! Life's too short to backtrack!

I would suggest spending a couple of days if you can. I found that three days in Madrid was really too much for me. In contrast after a week in Toledo, I still wanted to stay longer. It's a wonderful town for wandering.