Two days in Madrid

Not knowing your interests, I would suggest visiting the following to experience the most in two days: Palacio Real, Prado, Reina Sofía (for Picasso and Guernica), Puerta del Sol, and Plaza Mayor. Drink café con leche, eat tapas, and try churros (although they're terrible). Also try yemas (confection made from egg yolks)...great confectionery right in Puerta del Sol. Try paella...not the bad fast food type, which is all over and advertised on posters, but the excellent kind you order in a café that takes 45 minutes to prepare. If you have time, walk through Retiro Park, and go up to Gran Via to walk/shop around. You could manage your time to fit in the above in 1.5 days (if you're good...may have to cut something out) and use another half day to visit either El Escorial or Segovia (personally, I would choose El Escorial over Segovia, but they're both awesome). That should give you a starting point. Happy travels!

prado is really cool you shouldn't miss. if you have limited time don't go out of madrid, save your travel time to do some site seeing.

Was definitely planning to see the Prado on Day One. We like to shop (shoes!), eat, drink wine and were thinking of some kind of half day tour, maybe a touristy double decker bus. Any recommendations?

You can walk to all of the sites from PdS...nothing is more than 25 minutes from there. As such, the hop-on/hop-off buses really aren't worth it IMHO (unless you don't want to walk). If you're interested in a tour of any kind, check out Carlos Galvin at http://www.letangospaintours.com/ A tour through his company didn't work out for us, but we did the research and would have selected his tour company had it worked out calendar-wise. He works with Rick Steves and is well respected. Many here recommend Madrid Man's website for great info on Madrid...check it out.

Do Rick Steves walking tour which starts at Puerta del Sol and takes you through Plaza Mayor and on to the Palacio Real. It's a great introduction to the layout and history of old Madrid.

For high-end shopping, or just the window-shopping experience, younwant the Salamanca district, particularly Calle Serrano and Calle Goya. For something less stratospheric and closer to the center, start at Puerto del Sol and explore the pedestrian street Calle Preciados. If younare short on time, just have a lookmaround El Corte Ingles.

I was just going to post an almost identical question but we have 6 days (plan a side trip or two or even 3) and a 25 year old son. I enjoy architecture and history and we both enjoy photography, art, walking the neighborhoods to see the real city, food and wine and live music. Any suggestions for live music spots that work for both our ages?

I was just in Madrid last weekend. I took the HOHO bus, and I thought it was a great tour (translations in many languages via headphones). You can use your ticket for both routes, so you could make it a 3-hour tour. You will get a look at both the historic and modern areas of Madrid. Take the route all the way around and pick out places to get out and explore on the second round. I have problems with a knee, and it was nice not to have to do all of the walking.