Guide to El Escorial: Day Trip from Madrid: "
If you like old architecture, a day trip from Madrid to the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial will bring you face-to-face with the El Escorial royal monastery (Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo), a huge structure built in 1563.
El Escorial is a monastery, museum and a place where Spanish monarchs are buried. What makes El Escorial stand out is the size. You'll feel like an ant standing outside the main building.
It is hard to imagine such a large building being constructed 500 years ago. Why? Because the complex has:
- 2673 windows
- 1200 doors
- 88 fountains
- 9 towers
- 86 stairways
- 15 cloisters
- 13 oratories
Construction was no easy feat and ended up depleating the region of financial resources until hundreds of years later as El Escorial evolved into the tourist attraction it is today.
Besides the size, the building's design emits a feel grandeur without being overly ornate or colorful. It has a lot of angles and long flat surfaces. The curves are used sparingly, only in interior and exterior archways and in the many grand hallways.
As the aerial photo shows (and as you'll see in the videos), the building has many branches and courtyards, though part of it is in active use and closed to the public. Depending on your pace and how interested you are in the details, you can spend several hours here, especially if you rent a tour headset/guide unit which will explain the history and features of the El Escorial in English. Even if you want to breeze through the complex and listen only to the highlights, for a couple of euros the audio guide unit rental is worth it.
El Escorial Gardens
The El Escorial gardens feature perfectly manicured hedges in a maze formation.
Inside gets interesting. There's a basilica, library, mausoleums, and many great halls.
The El Escorial Library
The library has paintings on the ceiling by artist Pellegrino Tibaldi done almost 500 years ago.
El Escorial Museums
Wandering the museum halls of El Escorial you'll also find paintings by masters like El Greco who seems to have at least a few pieces of art in every museum in Spain!
The El Escorial Basilica
Best El Escorial Videos
See more of El Escorial with these 3 videos.
Hours of operation
Open everyday except on Mondays. Hours vary by season. The San Lorenzo de El Escorial tourism website provides these details about the hours:
October to March
Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Box office closes at 5:00 p.m.
Last complete pass at 4:30 p.m.
April to September
Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Box office closes at 6:00 p.m.
Last complete pass at 5:30 p.m.
Admission
The price: 8,00 € for basic admission and 10,00 € for basic admission and a multilingual headset for a self-paced guided tour.
How to get to El Escorial from Madrid
El Escorial is about 50 km from Madrid. Assuming that it would take about a week to walk there (or several days by horse), modern transportation is a better alternative.
Madrid to El Escorial by car
Let's look at the roads. Driving will involve taking the A-6 north out of Madrid and then turning onto the M-505 about halfway through. That's it. Easy. The drive takes around 1 hour. And with a car, you can park as close to the El Escorial as you want. Having a car gives you the freedom to explore places not easily accessible by foot, bus or train
Though renting a car in Madrid is easy, there are a few things to consider first.
First, it's good to you shop around to find the most reasonable car rentals rates. Shop around and you may find a rental car for 30 or 40 euros a day in Madrid.
Second, most rental cars in Spain are stick-shift manual transmissions. If you don't know how to drive a manual transmission, you might have a problem. Rental cars with automatic transmissions are around but they cost extra. If you don't know how to drift a stick-shift car, learning in Madrid without an instructor is not a good idea.
Third, if you do find a rental car at a price you can afford and that you know how to dirve, you still have to navigate through Madrid. If you've never driven in a city before, Madrid can be challenging between the road signs in Spanish, the volume of traffic, the crazy taxis, and the trying not to hit mopeds or predestrians. I've driven New York City and survived. Madrid is much easier in comparison. Once you get on the highway, the rest of the drive from Madrid to El Escorial is a breeze.
Madrid to El Escorial by train
Taking a train from Madrid to El Escorial and back is fairly easy and cheap. Trains also offer a unique view of the countryside. Compared to driving though, you give up some flexibility. But trains are comfortable and easy. There's more space on the train and no worries of traffic that you get with either a car or a bus.
If you go to the Renfe website on this page here, you can put in your starting station and your destination station. The information is in Spanish and will give you a chance to use a Spanish dictionary if you do not understand. By the looks of it, the trains run twice an hour or more and the ride by train is less than an hour from train stations in Madrid like Chamartin and Atocha to El Escorial. There's a quick shuttle from the train station in El Escorial to the El Escorial monastery. If not, you'll have to walk. At a leisurely pace, it shouldn't take more than 20 or 30 minutes.
You'll be able to find an interactive map ("plano") of the Renfe Madrid train lines on the Renfe website. If you take the C-8, just make sure you get on one heading to El Escorial and not to Cercedilla. I think this would be the C8A, depending. Leaving Madrid, the train will be marked El Escorial. On the way back, it may be marked Atocha.
Madrid to El Escorial by bus
Going by bus from Madrid to El Escorial should be easy too. The Intercambiador de Moncloa bus station offers a bus to El Escorial. From what I can find, the bus goes at least hourly, sometimes 4 times an hour, through one bus line named Herranz.
If the bus is full for some reason, you have to wait for the next one. That's no fun. The train might be easier than the bus and more convenient. Either way, you'll have to get from the bus station in San Lorenzo de el Escorial to the El Escorial monastery.
If you don't mind walking, it is an easy 10 or 15 minute walk that will give you a chance to explore the town a little on foot. If you want to take a taxi, that's an option too. Walking on foot is more fun though.
The bus line information can be found here, but you'll have to navigate a confusing and unintuitive website. Hint: choose the English link on top center of page. Then, select "Suburban Buses". Then a long list of bus lines comes up. You want bus line 661, the Madrid (Moncloa) to S. L. de El Escorial (Por Galapagar) line. From there, you can select the link to see the timetables. You'll see that there are 3 stops in the city of San Lorenzo de El Escorial. The first El Escorial stop is the one you want.
That's it! If you are looking for a good sidetrip from Madrid, consider a visit to San Lorenzo de El Escorial.
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