Madrid: Royal Palace Expert Guided Tour With Optional Tapas

Our guide was on time and easy to find outside of the Opera Metro station in Plaza Isabel II. She was carrying a little flag. Her English was fine, and she gave a good tour. We did not opt for the tapas. We took this tour because the palace was sold out on the day we wanted to visit, but this tour operator had tickets. I recommend this tour.

NICA and informative tour of the palace.

It was easy to connect with our tour guide, Deyvis. He was early, organized, and enthusiastic. He knows his Palace history and engaged the group with questions. This space is very crowded so having a guide was extremely helpful for getting inside promptly and the bonus of a history lesson.

Our guide was exceptional and made the tour. Very informative, professional and well informed. The tour itself was well organised and we were met and escorted in good time, adhering to the times planned. A must do in Madrid, and a great way to see the palace.

Our guide was amazing and kept a close eye on us and directed us very kindly. He even helped me go back because I had left my glasses inside the castle. He was exceptional.

The guide was very knowledgeable about the history of the palace and details of the items and furniture in each room. The armory ticket was included.

The palace was beautiful with so much to see. The guide was very knowledgeable and informative. We really enjoyed this tour.

Our guide was exceptional describing the history, individual sculptures, busts, and statues. She brought palace life alive with full descriptions of the visited palace rooms. We saw palace life through her explanations. She was also sensitive to the walking needs of my wife, by providing an elevator for descending to the ground floor.

We had a wonderful time on this excursion and are very glad we booked it. The itinerary was well-planned, the guides were professional and knowledgeable, and everything ran smoothly from start to finish. ​The highlights of the tour were fantastic and exactly as described. The only reason I’m giving it 4 stars instead of 5 is that the tour time was changed. ​That being said, it was a completely seamless, high-quality experience. All was good, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a solid, well-organized tour!

Ander was a brilliant guide! Had so much fun and learnt so much about the Spanish royal court and history. Would definitely recommend ☺️

This tour was exceptional. The guide was fun and knowledgeable, and kept the pace quite reasonable. The crowd was medium that day and he kept us all together while conveying the details of the palace and history of Spain in an engaging way.

Very informative guide . Elena was sweet and answered all our questions with patience.finding the place was tricky. I wish we had pick ups for the tours. Finding pick up places in new town is quite a challenge for tourists.

Had a fantastic time. Tour guide was very prepared ahead of the meeting point. She was extremely knowledgeable in the palaces history. I strongly recommend using IBE Tours.

Benny are tour guy was very informative, knowledgable, patient with the group and provided a lot of good information, history and background regarding the royal family, along with intricate details of the various respect spectacular rooms we visited.

The tour itself was great. Lovely guide and super informative. We had opted for the optional tapas which didn’t work out at all. The place they told us to go to wouldn’t let us in. Had to do a dispute to get $$ back. Forget about the ad on.

Rather functional, sizeable group (30?). I’m not sure having the guide added very much vs walking round on your own with an audio guide.

The Madrid palace should not be missed. The colorful rooms were a sight to behold. Our tour guide was so knowledgeable and awesome.

Great tour of the palace. It was nice to have the skip the line option and have someone walking with you, rather than just using a self-guided listening device.

Our guide was very knowledgeable and the tour was paced well. We had time to take in the subject matter at each stop.

Highly recommend, great guide. Amazing palace, must do! A lot to see, very worth the price. Very fun and amazing memories

Maria was perfect guide with excellent knowledge of history of spalín and palace, was excelentný journey with her. Very careful.

First the positives - excellent palace tour with the very knowledgeable and eloquent Benny. Having a great tour guide makes all the difference. The palace is stunning - each room had a story that came to life with Benny. I appreciated all the thoughtful historical details. Unfortunately, the tapas add-on was unnecessary and confusing. We were sent to Abuelos which is a great tapas spot, but they didn’t know we were coming or what we could order. And no one was communicating from IBE, so we were all staring at each other for a while. First I was told that it was 3 tapas and a drink per person, then the waiter said it was 3 specific tapas (that I didn’t order). In the end, I had to pay out of pocket for the tapas. So that was disappointing. The tapas were delicious though! It was a confusing and unfortunate end to a great tour without proper guidance. So, in conclusion, take the palace tour but, I highly recommend booking a separate tapas tour with a proper knowledgeable tour guide to understand and appreciate Madrid tapas culture. Do not combine these two - it did not work or flow for us.

I found the tour guide rude and a bit offensive you can find better person to show you around. Didnt help me at all when i asked for help.

An amazing place that reflects everything that is wrong with inherited privilege and obscene wealth over the centuries. Modern Spain has addressed this to a large extent. The Royal Palace is similar to the Versaille Palace in many respects. Our guide was very clear and gave a comprehensive commentary. Recommended.

Very good tour. Well organized and knowledgeable tour guide Ismail. We met by the Opera metro in front of the Teatro Real and had a short walk to the Palace.

Our tour guy was excellent. Gave so much details of each room we visit. Was always available for questioning

What a wonderful and knowledgeable guide we had. She was great. Informative and patient with the group. She made this tour so much better. Loved it.

The instructions say look for tour guide with IBE sign .. there was no sign but she found us . The tour was very well organized and our tour guide very knowledgeable.

Be prepared to walk thru the palace. The audio ear piece with the personal guide was fantastic as it can be difficult to hear due to the number of people in the palace.

**Skip the Line Made All the Difference** The best part of this trip was the skip-the-line feature. There was a long line to get in, and there are separate entrances for groups. We were able to get right in without any wait. The tour guide was very nice and provided great information about the place and its significance. Overall, it was a nice tour and well worth it!

Met at meeting spot, group not there, walked all over the place trying to find the group entrance. Finally found it and they would not let us enter without the guide. Spent $46 a person on this trip asked for a refund and it was denied. Waited in non-ticket line for 45 minutes to get in and had to buy another ticket. Very disappointed.

Does not want to cooperate with you with regards to flexibility or refund/cancellation. I reached out to them and they were both helpful.

Arrived 15 minutes before the schedule time. Waited on the line that said “visitor with tickets”. Only to be told that the tour left had to purchase tickets again for entry. No clear location for tour to start.

Tour was very informative, guide had lots of knowledge . Bit rushed difficult to stop and take pictures. Certainly wasn't the 2 hours as advertised so could have been a bit slower. Would recommend

Our tour of the Royal Palace of Madrid was excellent. Our tour guide was friendly and very engaged with the group. He offered great information about the Palace, the building, the history and the royal family. He did a great job navigating through the 24 rooms and keeping the group together. Excellent!

My guide Benny was extremely knowledgeable and a excellent guide would highly recommend it He kept us well informed in every room of the Palace And we were lucky enough to see the changing of the wards

Unfortunately our guide was interrupted part way through our visit to be advised she couldn't complete the tour for us. We were able to explore the place at our own pace but we were missing additional facts she would have told us. We'd started the tour with the guide, she was friendly, funny, informative & got everybody arranged with headsets. We were given a partial refund, but the tour without a guide wasn't what we wanted otherwise we would have just booked the palace entry without a guide. It didn't appear to be the fault of our guide. The warden from the palace was rude & quite aggressive. Was a shame we lost our guide in these circumstances.

Terrible. Guide spoke too fast even after requests to slow down, was disorganized, lost group twice. Guide held up group of 28 people for 2 late comers. Viator denied my refund request. I will not be doing this company again.

Touring the largest royal palace in Europe is a must do. Beautifully designed and decorated building that one cannot miss. Our tour guide was thorough and so educational, which is important when one has little reference about Spanish royal history.

I bought the last ticket available to Madrid Royal palace through Viator. I was glad that I got a chance to visit. I paid 32 euros. Don’t know if I overpaid or not 😃😃

The tour guide was amazing and gave great details about the history of Spain’s monarchy and history of Spain—I highly recommend.

Great tour, wonderful guide! Ricardo was professional, polite and knowledgeable. We had such a fun day on our tour! Highly recommend!

Beautiful exhibits. Takes about 2 hours with guide. We'll worth the price. Maria was an excellent guide!

The tour was well executed. Small group, very informative, perfect time length . Our tour guide was warm, friendly, patient with picture taking and answered every question.

Very informative trip to the Palace. Martin was very enthusiastic about the palace and the history of the monarchy. It felt very personal. Skip the line was fantastic, felt like a VIP

Did able to find the tour guide and not able to go inside the place. Too bad we waisted our hard earn money.

Our guide was helpful, knowledgeable and energetic. Beautiful palace with so much history. It was helpful to skip the long line.

Great communication for reminders and meet up location. Our guide Rocio was excellent. Very knowledgeable and great sense of humor.

There is so much to see. The tour moves fast, I recommend making another loop through the palace after the tour is complete to spend more time.