Real Sitio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Community of Madrid, Spain

5Orlando C 5:00 PM Feb 23, 2020

Plan in advance. No need to commit to a formal tour.
If you find yourself in Madrid for a few days, any trip that would include something like a visit to The Prado should also include the palace and monastery at El Escorial. The place is pretty amazing. Getting there is simple via public transport. Bus is more direct. The Renfe Cercanias station at El Escorial is a 10-15 minute walk up a fairly steep hill. A quick bus ride from the station or a taxi or Über from the station may be the more pragmatic option for those slightly less adventurous. A little bit of knowledge of Spanish history in advance of your visit will likely enable you to better understand and appreciate the significance of this complex. The monastery and palace complex is immense. Initially I thought taking a tour would be the best option for my partner and me. I read many, many reviews that mentioned complaints of feeling "rushed" through. Mostly because of that we opted to meander through the place ourselves. This was indeed the best option for us. There is a fairly good audio guide that makes use of handheld tablets in languages that most tourists would find feasible. The path the audio guide takes you on makes perfect logistical sense but navigating on the fly during the tour was mildly confusing. Thankfully there were enough guards around to get me back on track when I became confused or couldn't find something. My partner and I spent half of a day inside the complex. Easily double the amount of time that most guided tours would devote. Our visit was during low season on an unseasonably warm day. There were cohorts of school children along with tourists. More crowded than I would have expected for the time of year. During high season, I would expect larger crowds, and queues to enter. If you do opt for a tour, I recommend ensuring the tour covers the parts of the complex you wish to see. Many tours miss parts I consider to be critical such as the Bourbon apartments.

5Patrick G 5:00 PM Jul 19, 2022

Do it yourself!
Stopped to visit Escorial whilst driving between Toledo and Segovia. Originally booked conducted tour in English through "Tiquets.com" who charged us £52.30 for 2. Chose this as they said the guide would meet us at the entrance and we would skip any queue. The night before, we were furious to receive an email from Tiquets saying there were insufficient numbers to make up an English tour, so they had cancelled it, refunded our money, leaving us high and dry, or so we thought. This turned out to be good news in the end as we decided to do it ourselves. We arrived at the Escorial about 11:00 on a Tuesday morning. Parked on the free parking area on Calle Calleja Larga and walked 300 yards to entrance. There were no crowds. We walked straight in and bought 2 English conducted tour tickets for 20 euro (senior citizen rate), which started at 11:30. The tour lasted 2 hours and took us all around the main building. It was fantastic. The only potential problem with doing it this way would be if there was a queue but I suppose the earlier you get there, the better it is.