Experiences
Destination
Search destinations
Date
Add dates
Prado Museum
3 experiences and tours
Likely to sell out
Prado Museum: Entry Ticket
From €18
Likely to sell out
Prado Museum Guided Tour: Masterpieces & Skip-the-Line Entry
2hSkip the lineFree cancellation
Likely to sell out
Paseo del Arte Card: Prado, Reina Sofía and Thyssen
From €40Explore other destinations
Most of the Prado's paintings were never bought for a museum. They were collected by Spanish kings over three centuries, for their own palaces, and in 1819 the royal family opened them to the public. That is why the Prado holds the best collection of Spanish painting in the world, and so many works by the Flemish and Italian artists the kings admired.
A first visit usually centres on a handful of rooms: Velázquez's Las Meninas, Goya's Black Paintings and The Third of May 1808, Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights and the long galleries of El Greco, Titian and Rubens.
This page gathers ways to visit with Artista: entry tickets to explore on your own, guided tours that take you straight to the masterpieces, and the Paseo del Arte Card for the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen. Each card shows what is included.
About Prado Museum
The main building was designed by Juan de Villanueva in 1785, at first as a museum of natural science for King Charles III. War with Napoleon delayed the work, and when the museum finally opened in 1819 it showed paintings instead. In 2007 the architect Rafael Moneo added a new wing that links the old building with the cloister of the Jerónimos church behind it.
The heart of the collection is Spanish painting from the 16th to the 19th century. Velázquez painted Las Meninas for Philip IV, and the Prado has more of his work than any other museum. Goya is here from his bright tapestry designs to the dark Black Paintings that he painted on the walls of his own house. Next to them hang the Flemish and Italian works the kings collected, from Bosch and Rubens to Titian and Raphael.
What to expect on a Prado Museum experience
The Prado is large, and few visitors see it all in one day. Plan two to three hours for the main works. Pick up a free floor plan at the entrance and mark the rooms you want before you start, because the most famous paintings are spread across different floors.
With an entry ticket you walk at your own pace. A guided tour takes about two hours and goes straight to the key works, with the stories behind them. Photos are not allowed in the galleries. Large bags go in the free cloakroom.
Best time to visit
The museum is quietest at opening time on weekdays. Late morning and early afternoon are the busiest, especially at weekends and on holidays. The Prado is open every day of the year except 1 January, 1 May and 25 December.
Entry to the permanent collection is free in the last two hours of the day: from 18:00 to 20:00 Monday to Saturday, and from 17:00 to 19:00 on Sundays and holidays. Queues for these hours can be long, and they do not include temporary exhibitions.
Getting around
The Prado is on Paseo del Prado, between Atocha station and the Retiro Park. The nearest metro stations are Banco de España on line L2 and Atocha on line L1, each about a ten-minute walk away. Many city buses stop along Paseo del Prado.
Visitors with an online ticket use the Jerónimos entrance, at the back of the museum near the church of San Jerónimo el Real. The Reina Sofía and the Thyssen are both within a ten-minute walk.