During the winter break / Yeshiva Week of 2020, I had the opportunity to bring my family to Spain using points & inexpensive flights to Madrid. While it took a while to put together an efficient itinerary for our family, here’s the aggressive approach that we took that accounts for our family’s needs + desire to explore both cities and nature + Shabbat + kosher food, etc.
TIPS: Want to fly basically for free on credit card points and miles? Here are YeahThatsKosher’s recommended credit cards for travel [This is an affiliate link]. Not sure how to best take advantage of these cards or points? We recommend The Points Partner Masterclass which teaches you the best tips and tricks for earning free travel from credit cards. This link offers you a discount for the masterclass.
With 2 boys in tow (both between ages 5-10), we knew that they were troopers but wouldn’t want to do too many museums. Feel free to use the following itinerary as a guide and to adjust accordingly based on your family’s needs and preferences.
I’ve named this a “Jewish Itinerary” because we spent a good chunk of the time viewing and learning about the Jewish history of Spain, essentially Sephardic history, before and during the Inquisition. It’s a combination of sad, beautiful, and eye-opening experiences of what was, and gives a lot of perspective on Jewish life today, with a few kosher restaurants peppered in between.
Day 1 – Arrive in and Explore Madrid
Our red-eye flight had us arriving in Madrid fairly early, allowing us to drop off our luggage at our Airbnb apartment and find a cafe for coffee. We decided to walk through the city to get our bearings and explore the unique architecture of the city.
We booked a tour of the Royal Palace of Madrid, a beautiful castle formerly used by Spanish royalty in the heart of the capital. The castle is a hybrid art museum and Spanish history. From there we walked to nearby XXX gardens for a nice midday stroll. We opted to Uber to the city’s newest kosher restaurants across town for lunch at Barganzo Hummus which has delicious hummus, falafel, pitas, shakshuka, and more. Definitely a recommended stop for breakfast or lunch.
After lunch, we intended to hit up the Prado art museum, which is one of the largest art collections in the world, but with the kids being antsy, we opted to walk around the city and explore the subways. While we didn’t get to visit the Prado or the other nearby museums, you can easily spend 2 days in Madrid visiting these museums alone (but likely not with kids in tow).
For dinner, we Ubered just north of the center of the city to the Trafalgar neighborhood which is home to multiple kosher restaurants, shuls, a mikvah, and more. We headed to Shipudey the first night, trying their Israeli cuisine. After dinner, we headed back to our Airbnb for an early night to get up for our early AM train.
>> Click to continue Spain/Gibraltar Itinerary Days 2 & 3 <<
