Timing for visiting the Prado and the Royal Palace in . one day

Probably the Palace when it opens. The line builds through the day.

I've done both in one day. We actually hit the Prado on a day with free admission at 4 PM. We stayed 2 hours until they closed but we saw what we came to see (I think it was a Tuesday). The palace was fantastic. Not Versailles fantastic, but impressive nonetheless.

The Prado is massive. You cannot get off of one floor in 3 hours. I would encourage you to hire one of the guides on the inside. I think she was 30E for one hour for four of us. We asked for a highlight tour with emphasis on the Spanish artists. During the course of the tour when moving from one room to another or to different floors, she pointed out rooms that we should return to at a later time. Very helpful for what to do after her tour was over. Be sure to pay attention to the map as you move through the rooms.

My one day's experience at the Prado - it only gets crowded when the free admissions begin. During the day I encountered a few groups with either loud children or loud guides, but it was easy enough to move to another room - there are soooo many to choose from, and then return after the group had moved on. The day I was there, the free admissions began at 6 p.m. and within 10 minutes, the rooms were packed and noisy, but by then, I'd run out of steam anyway and was ready to leave. I used the audio guide which was pretty good. There was a pamphlet with the top 50, I tried to narrow my visit to those, but it was really hard to not look at so many other beautiful works. If you want to limit yourselves to 3 hours, I suggest you start at the information desk, and decide exactly what you want to see and where it's located on the floor plan. Brad's right. Start at the Palace and get there early.