would you recommend organized tours or just taking the train/bus. Also, any idea how much day trips to any of the popular sights cost??

aranjuez.. regualr train. about 4 Euros retrun.<BR>Alcala de Henares. ditto.<BR><BR>El escorial.. take tour. probably about 60 Euros but will include another tour.<BR>have not done this for a long time.. so i am out of touch on prices.. valle de los caidos/el escorial is best with guide .<BR>chinchon.. bus. <BR>segovia.. tour. lots to see.. faster to be taken.

nycgal,<BR>I have a fairly up to date file on all of the possible day excursions from Madrid and how to do them (by organized tour/public transp.). Too lengthy to post here, I think. If you'd like a copy, just email me and I'll send it on.

If you are interested in city of Madrid sights per se, there's bus company that runs throughout the city, similar to the London Red Bus company. They're double decker buses, with an open air top deck, and no tour guide (but in-seat recordings that you hear through headphones in your language of choice). You pay about 9 Euros per adult, and they're good for 24 hours (I think for an extra couple Euro you can add a day to your pass but trust me, you won't need it). You can get on and off the bus at any stop throughout the day. They have three main routes they run, and if I recall correctly they are Old Madrid, New Madrid and Monumental Madrid (focusing mainly on museums and sharing some stops with Old Madrid route). It's the easiest way to see all the sights in Madrid, but nothing beats in my opinion, walking it or taking the user-friendly metro (subway). A 10 trip ticket on the metro costs you 5 Euro and Madrid has a great undergrownd system--fairly clean and safe, with stops just about anywhere you need to go.

we just returned from spain and we did take a bus tour from madrid to toledo. it was one of our favorite excursions. our hotel recommended this company that stopped at our hotel and other hotels, took us to their office where we bought our tickets and then put us on another bus with a tour guide to toledo. i'm glad we didn't drive it as the traffic was horrible. but we liked toledo so much that we regret not having more time there. i wish we had taken a train or bus and explored more on our own. we might have missed some things without an english speaking guide to point out the highlights, but think we would have done ok. the big cathedral there is positively breath-taking. we couldn't believe how gorgeous it is. there is another church that i think is also a monastery, where ferdinand and isabella had planned on being buried, and it is also magnificent. (ferdinand and isabella's tombs are in granada. guess they changed their minds.) <BR><BR>the winding streets and charming shops of toledo made us wish for more time there. wish i could remember how much the tour cost, but we didn't think it was outrageous for taking us there and back to our hotel and for providing for a guide.<BR><BR>have fun!

I have not been to Toledo and hear its nice but we went to Segovia last march. It was a beautiful place to visit. If you have a car go to the mountains above madrid. We stayed in a beautiful village called Rascafria. There was an old monastry with a hotel attched. As well you can dive over the mountian (skiing on top in winter!) and into segovia. Lovely little place to stop on the way for tapas. It was my favourite day in Spain.

Once again pardon my spelling! I type too fast!

I recommend taking the train or bus to Segovia and Toledo and touring on your own. I recently did that with no problems. The Madrid tourist office can provide sheets with bus and train times and prices to various places near Madrid. The bus is faster to Segovia, and cheaper. Bus and train are about an hour to Toledo; bus is cheaper and the station is closer to the main sites. Buses also run more frequently. The cost is only 3-4 Euros each way.

Hello NYCgal! Sorry I couldn't help out with the phone, but I'll contribute with my opinion on organized tours. We did the Toledo/El Escorial/Valle de los Caidos tour with Julia and everything worked out fairly well. I will say they skipped the library in El Escorial, and I wished we had more independent time in Toledo (for lunch especially--the lunch with the tour was a little lame), but they sure did pack a good deal into the trip. I can't remember the exact price, but I think it was about 60 Euros per person.<BR><BR>Now I will confess that we planned to go to Segovia via bus on our own, but because of bad weather, we skipped it. In some ways, I wished I had booked something because then we would have been obligated--regardless of the weather--but at least we had the flexibility to opt out. (It was actually hailing and thundering on our Segovia day--not ideal weather for discovering something on your own.)<BR><BR>Something for our next trip to Spain! (More time in Toledo and a trip to Segovia...)