Madrid Royal Palace and Almudena Cathedral Guided Tour

Royal Palace Only

The royal palace was amazing and we had a very nice and knowledgable guide. There was however no guided tour of the cathedral as advertised. Our guide in fact explained that there was really no need for a guided tour of the cathedral, and she was right. She even pointed us to the armory which is inside the palace gates that we wouldve never known existed. So we did that which was good and walked the cathedral by ourselves. We chose not to go up to the done which cost extra. So our issue is with Viator for false advertising. We nay have even overpaid but be clear the palace is a must just be careful what you reserve!

Great tour guide, excellent tour!

Sergio was our guide and he was excellent...well informed, clear, organized and personable. The Palace was beautiful and he truly made it shine! Thank you for keeping us either ahead or behind the crowds and for the excellent tour.

Do the audio tour early in the morning

The palace is beautiful and we did the audio tour headsets. This allowed us to walk at our own pace and it took about 2 hours inside and out. I would not pay for the tour guide for this one. The audio was great. Go early in the morning--9:30am to get in line for the general admission. Not many people and by 10:30 the line was incredible. Even if you get tickets and they are not early in the morning, you will be fighting a crowd of people in all of the inside areas. Beautiful place to tour and well worth the general admission price.

We had a nice experience...

We had a nice experience ! Our tour guide was very good and we enjoyed the palace. The Cathedral was not part Of the guided tour, despite that being part of the description. The price included just tickets to enter the cathedral (from what was explained to me).

Excellent choice

Excellent tour. No regrets. Rodrigo was an excellent tour guide was witty and knowledgeable. I definitely recommend this tour

These are sinners, not saints

This trip was sold as a 2 part tour, a palace and a cathedral. The cathedral was NEVER intended to be part of the tour, it never happened. They ask you to show up on time, and then you wait, and wait, and wait for all the late people to show up. There are much better tours around. I tried to give this company a chance to make things right since the cathedral tour isn’t a tour at all. They refunded me a measly $5. What a joke.

We did not get the full tour to the cathedral

I think we were overlooked. We booked 10am tour of Palace and Cathedral. Day before the tour we received an email saying our tour was changed to 11am. Sergio was our guide. He did a great job. Very informative, organized, helpful and answered questions. When the tour of the Palace was done he collected headphones and began to leave. Apparently no one else was on the combo tour to the cathedral except us. Sergio had no idea. No fault of his. The tour company apparently made the error. Sergio was gracious enough to walk us to the cathedral and usher us in but could not stay or give us a full tour as he was schedule by the company to take on another tour. I emailed the tour company but my email bounced. They really should offer us a partial refund. Overall however, I do recommend a guided tour. It will give you much more insight and detail than just doing the tour on your own.

Guided tour is the only way to go

Our giude Sergio was really good. He was very knowledgable and answered everyones questions. We only had a limited number of days so a guided tour was perfect for us. We purchased a tour of the palace and cathedral. Unfortunately there was a misunderstanding on the tour company’s part and we really did not get a guided tour of the cathedral as our guide was scheduled to move on. He was gracious enough to walk us in to the cathedral. But we probably should have been refunded the difference from the cost of the tours.

Cathedral tour was not provided

I would give 5 star but I had to downgrade it yo 3 because the cathedral part was completely skipped. Our tour guide was great but she said that no one told her about the Cathedral tour so she had to end the tour after we completed the palace tour.

We loved the tour we learned a lot from our tour guy

It's definitely worth to see the palace. Our tour guy was very knowledgeable and fun. Picture taking is not allowed inside the palace. If you like taking pictures you can take outside in front of of the palace at the square which is so beautiful. Just one tip if you book both the palace and the Cathedral make sure before you leave the palace you take your pictures because while you leave for the cathedral tour you are not allowed to go back. Our tour guy was not much into picture taking so missed, he took us outside of palace directly to the cathedral tour and he didn't offer if we like to take pictures so we missed it and we regret it.

Excellent guided tour of the Palace

Excellent tour guide in English. Group was kept to 8 persons. Most interesting details re the massive Royal Palace. Took all 2 hours near and in the Palace. Afterwards we were guided to the entrance to the Cathedral and spent some good time there.

Wonderful tour including Plaza Mayor

Our guide was great! We learned a lot during this tour. Very well organized and informative. Make sure to wear comfy shoes!

We signed up for the...

We signed up for the Palace and Cathedral tour. The Cathedral was never mentioned. The tour started half an hour late and our headset was awful. Half of the time we could not hear anything out if the earbuds. When we could hear, it was full of static and cutting in and out. We love Viator and have never been disappointed until this tour. Would not recommend this tour.

Mediocre experience

Guide commentary was good but the organisation was poor, and cathedral tour a waste of time. Overall a below average performance

Poor guide

The tour itself was fine. It was our guide who was terrible. She did not wait for the group to gather before she explained things so by the time we got there it we had missed it. She was abrupt and did not appear that she liked her job. We had booked for the cathedral tour also. She lost us. We happened by chance to find her in the cathedral. She gave a 2 minute explanation and left without saying goodbye. A very disappointing experience.

Not As Promised

The tour was ok but lacked deep knowledge. We booked for a guided tour that was supposed to include both the Royal Palace and Almudena Cathedral but only got a tour of the Palace. Even after showing the guide the ticket he said the tour ended with just the Palace. Still have not received a response from the provider regarding our “half tour” and remediation.

Palace is awesome!

Palace was awesome! Highly recommend the tour, but our guide was a bit rambling. Otherwise, was great. The cathedral is open to all to tour so no advantage with the bundle.

Visit flow interrupted by bad organization

The whole visit was pushed back to the afternoon because the King was in residence but we were not initially told why so we would not cancel. On the day of the tour was delayed a further hour and a half. As a result with crowds we waited even longer and the guide rushed us through our visit while reciting his speech learned by heart. personally he was congenial but because of the delay this tour was not very informative

Informative, fascinating and superb aesthetics.

Fantastic, friendly and very knowledgeable guide who manoeuvred the group through very rough weather to arrive mostly dry at our destination.

Good

It was very informative and a nice walk, our tour guide was very helpful and knowledgeable. Lovely sites to be seen

Add to your list to do!

A must do for your first time in Madrid! What a beautiful palace and cathedral and what a great way to see it whilst skipping the long line in the heat! Guide was well knowledgeable.

Beautiful place in downtown Spain

The apartment is beautiful and quirky - one of a kind. Great A/C. The clothes washer is a welcome addition. This was our first time in Spain and our first time using AirBnB. Paula walked us through everything.

Disappointing

Our guide was very knowledgeable about the history and culture connected to the palace and the cathedral. However, the size of the group, the poor quality of the headphones, and the guide’s inability to tell a story made this tour disappointing. We left early.

It was a good experience...

It was a good experience we were able to enjoy the trip and the royal palace We needed more time at the cathedral

Nice city walk with the palace visit

Very beautiful little city walk with palace and cathedral visit , Jose ( our guid ) was son nice , very knowledgeable and friendly We got to know many things about the city , the palace , all the rooms we visited along with history. We were a small group of 3 families ( total 12 ) and kept good contact with everyone

Poor customer service

We had a good tour of the royal palace, our guide did a good job and was very knowledgeable but sadly ended the tour early and did not take us on our tour of the cathedral which we had also paid for. When we visited the tour office to see what could be done. We were told it was only a 2 euro difference and all they would do is refund us that amount. We were very disappointed to have missed our skip the line, guided tour of the cathedral and would not use this company again.

Exceptional experienced and amazing Carmen!

Overall it was an exceptional experienced. Carmen our tour guide was amazing. She was very patient and composed as there were couple of people who were late and this made our group delayed. Additionally, Carmen was able to demonstrate exceptional knowledge of her subject matter. The only opportunity for improvement is if there is possibility of lesser number of people as the tour was only 2 hours and there are a lot of things to cover.

Worth it

I found it great to get a city history and history of both the church and the palace. I thought this was a tour of both the church and palace, but it included a walking tour of the city near these.

Castle tour great! Must do. Cathedral is not included.

Palace tour was great. Ignacio the guide was excellent. The castle is so gorgeous and to see the historic references was wonderful. Be aware - the cathedral is not included. The tour is not two and a half hours. They refunded us the difference but I had to go back and ask. and that was a pain.

Palace and Cathedral Guide

Nice basic tour. Informative guide. The palace is amazing and should not be missed. Started and finished on time. Would recommend.

Wrong organization good guide

Very bad organization first they called me one night before to change time and then when I got there they told me that the second part of my tour. Can not be done because it was a Christian holiday and they can not perform any tour inside the cathedral . I went by myself and there were plenty of tours inside .

Great

Irene was a great guide with a good sense of humor. She was knowledgeable and making sure she engage the audience (We were 12 people) The Royal Palace is a must see when in Madrid. I’d recommend this tour!!

Excelente

Excelente visita, la persona que guió muy entendida y capacitada. Lo disfrutamos mucho! Se esmeraron en explicar a detalle aquello que estábamos viendo y no nos trajeron corriendo. Fue un verdadero placer. Gracias

Bello palacio real de Madrid

Carmen fue nuestra guía y realmente nos hizo pasar una experiencia espectacular, podímos imaginar cada evento mediante su narrativa. Muy buena experiencia. El palacio muy bello. No dejen de visitar la armería al final del tour.

Passeio incompleto!

A guia do Palácio foi muito bacana mas o passeio comprado foi Palacio Real com Catedral e o passeio da Catedral não ocorreu. Então, não recomendo pois o combinado na compra , não foi cumprido. Renata

Aardig, maar niet bijzonder

Tour was aardig, maar zou hem niet weer boeken. Er zat aardig de pas in. Op eigen gelegenheid zie je meer. Paleis an kathedraal zijn zeker we de moeite waard.

Cutura española

La infraestructura del palacio y su decoracion son imponentes. La guia buena ppero el tours a la Almudena un fraude porque nunca se hixo.

Nada recomendable. Pésimo servicio

Nada recomendable. El Tour fue cambiado de hora de último momento. Pero adicional a ello inició más tarde. Nos hicieron esperar para que el guía fuera a comprar los boletos . No haces fila. Pero te asen esperar como si la hicieras. Ya dentro el guía solo nos llevo a muy pocas obras saltándose muchas icónicas. La final, tuvimos que recorrer nuevamente el Museo para ver lo que falto, y fue mucho. Mejor compren su boleto en el sitio oficial, la audio guía (que adquirí después de que el guía se fue) y disfrútenlo a su ritmo

Experiencia educativa y fascinante

Excelentes detalles y datos históricos. Te transporta a diferentes epocas y llegas a entender muchas cosas sobre la actualidad.

El tour NO incluye Almudena

El titulo del tour dice Palacio Real Y CATEDRAL DE ALMUDENA, sin embargo cuando terminó el recorrido por el palacio real, la guía nos dijo que ahi terminaba la visita y que no se incluia la catedral, ella no tuvo la culpa y hasta nos dijo que era una catedral insignificante al compararla contra otras catedrales de España, sin embargo lo molesto fue que movimos nuestros horarios para reservar un tour que cubriera las 2 atracciones y resulta que es solo una. Esto no es un error porque la misma guia nos dijo que la catedral no tiene tours por dentro, que si alguien quiere entrar puede hacerlo, pero que era absurdo que la incluyeran en la descripcion