Madrid doesn’t walk, it runs. Here you have breakfast standing at the bar, you answer emails in the subway and it is considered a waste of time to stand still on the escalators. So yes, there is a hurry, but not so much as to give up a good plan when the occasion arises.
Because you don’t need a whole afternoon to enjoy the capital. Sometimes, with just an hour to spare, you can make a plan with friends, discover a corner of the most curious or live that experience you need so much to get out of the routine. That’s why we have put together a selection of one-hour plans in Madrid… So that you only have to find the time.
See a micro-theater play
15 minutes, less than 15 square meters and no more than 15 people in the audience. That is the premise of micro-theater: short plays in small spaces and with few spectators. The place to enjoy this art in Madrid is Microteatro, right in the center. A space that offers, for only five euros, a small – but more than enough – dose of culture.
Its program is very varied and it also has a bar with cold beer and delicious nachos to liven up the wait or even drink while you enjoy the play. Or of the plays, since they are short, you can see more than one in a day. A complete plan to enjoy even the busiest day.
📍 Calle Loreto y Chicote, 9
15 minutes
Enjoy a Candlelight concert
Surely you already know them, but also, most likely, you have not yet been encouraged to go to one of their tributes. Candlelight is the series of candlelight concerts that has been filling Madrid with music and lights for a few years now.
A most intimate and emotional atmosphere to celebrate great artists, compositions and soundtracks that have marked the history of music. Whether Queen, Vivaldi, Ennio Morricone… Mecano, La Oreja de Van Gogh or Bad Bunny. In Candlelight there is a concert for everyone, in classic format and, of course, in 60 minutes.
📍 Different locations throughout Madrid
⏰ 60 minutes
Give it all in a climbing wall
Is it just us or is everyone a fan of climbing now? As it happened a couple of years ago with the escape rooms, one day we all woke up and, suddenly, there were dozens of climbing walls in Madrid. And don’t get us wrong, we love the fact that climbing is living its golden age and that something so original and beneficial to our health is becoming fashionable. We just didn’t see it coming.
Some of these climbing walls offer one-hour classes to introduce you to this vertical sport. Sputnik Climbing, for example, already has four centers throughout the community with instructors who, for 60 minutes, will teach you the basics of this activity. Or Sharma Climbing, which has the largest climbing wall in the country and also offers initiation sessions for the most inexperienced.
📍 Sputnik Climbing is at Calle del Hierro, 33; Sharma Climbing is at Calle Julián Camarillo, 55.
⏰ 60 minutes
Live an immersive experience at The Jury Experience.
Although it sounds impossible, with just an hour to spare, you can stop by the Palacio de la Prensa and experience a trial as if you were inside a true crime series. The Jury Experience is an immersive experience in which you are part of the jury and must decide the fate of the accused.
What sets it apart from other theatrical proposals is that here you don’t just come to watch: you will be inside the case. Immersed in pleadings, forensic evidence and testimonies, you will participate in the deliberation and your verdict will be decisive. Probably the most intense hour you will spend this month.
📍 Plaza de Callao, 4
⏰ 60 minutes
Make your own street art route through Madrid.
If it’s not raining (anymore), perhaps one of the best one-hour plans in Madrid is to explore the neighborhoods of Malasaña or Lavapiés through their street art.
Both neighborhoods have a rich and vibrant street art scene. On every corner we can find murals and graffiti, such as those created each year in Pinta Malasaña; in addition to mosaics such as those of the well-known Basket of Nean or the posters and illustrations of Sergius Fitz from the Canary Islands.
📍 Malasaña and Lavapiés neighborhoods.
⏰ 60 minutes approximately
Trying to get out of an escape room
Do you have an hour? This plan will make you appreciate every second of it. Four walls, no open door and a game master who guides you — or misleads you — to get you out before the timer goes to zero. This is how an escape room works, the plan not suitable for claustrophobics that arrived a few years ago to stay.
Madrid offers numerous escape rooms that challenge the ingenuity and skills of anyone who dares to go through their doors. In most of them they give you an hour to get out and the themes are varied: from the Far West to a possible Third World War, without forgetting the scary ones.
⏰ 60 minutes approx.
Visiting the Mint
Most mortals learned of the existence of the Royal Mint through The Paper House and its mythical heist. And that the facade we see in the series actually belongs to the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. But what almost nobody knows is that this organization has a museum inside that shows the history of coin minting in Spain.
In fact, the Mint Museum is considered to be one of the most important museums of its kind in the world. The value of its collections and its variety make this space the best place to learn about the world of money. A plan of 10 to visit in an hour.
📍 Doctor Esquerdo Street, 36
⏰ 60 minutes approx.
Release endorphins at the Museum of Happiness.
There are museums for everything. Almeria has a museum dedicated solely and exclusively to the guitar, the Ramblas in Barcelona give home to the Erotic Museum and in Madrid there is the Museum of Happiness: an immersive space where you can learn in an entertaining way about the history, culture, science and future of happiness.
A happy journey of about 60 minutes with more than 20 experiences to experience happiness in your own flesh: laughter therapy machine, huggers, a happiness ATM, a magic show… Happiness in all its forms.
📍 Ronda de Valencia, 8
⏰ 60 minutes approx.