Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales — Attraction in Madrid

If you've done it all in Madrid and want to mix it up, this place is interesting and has some breathtaking art. Make a reservation to make sure you can get in, and I would not recommend it if you don't speak Spanish. You must go with a guided tour, which focuses on the art and is only given in Spanish. Before I went, I was a bit worried by the reviews. I had a lovely time. Our guide, Antonio, was excellent. My recommendation is to, courteously, ask questions if you have them. He knows about everything in the museum.

People who complained about time given to look at the art must have never taken a guided tour, or possibly they had a different tour guide. We had plenty of time, keeping in mind that you are on a schedule and have to finish in an hour. You can't stand and gaze for hours. Also, no one at all was rude to us. If you want to go with realistic expectations, though, here are my two complaints:

You cannot enter with any bags or backpacks. You must have a euro coin to put into a locker before going in. That's fine, but they will not give you change if you have bills. Just charge me an extra dollar for the entrance and have some spare coins on hand. Or just fix the lockers, like many Mercadonas have done, so that you don't need a coin. Overall, a very small complaint, but now that you know, go prepared! It will make your life and everyone else's easier.

The behavior of the other people on the tour. If the guide mentions a painting, don't be a jerk and run to the painting and stand right in front of it so no one can see. Several people did this. It was extremely annoying. These people were adults (so it was super weird). Reading other reviews, it sounds like the tourists were the problem, not the guide or the security guard. Also, this is not a visit for children or people who can't stand for an hour. We are guests in the nuns' (beautiful) home. I am not religious at all, but I realized that it was a privilege to be here. Keep quiet while the guide is speaking, so that he doesn't have to talk loudly, and don't sit on the furniture that is not yours.

We were very pleased with our visit. I would love to go back in the winter when they have the baby Jesus...

if you love yourself, do NOT come here. you are forced to take a tour, only offered in spanish (which i speak, but does not matter as the guide has to be the most monotone, boring person i have ever come across). beyond that, it is a full hour of torture where you are not allowed to take a singular picture, which has no reasoning that could make any sense as it isn't like it is to protect paintings from potential flash since they are being decayed by the sunlight that comes in either way.

beyond those things, this tour had my autistic brother on the verge of a mental breakdown as there was a lady who wasn't a guide and whose only job seemed to be to ensure everyone knew that they were being watched and were unwelcome visitors. as my brother is autistic, he would try and look at paintings when there wasn't a crowd surrounding the area, but the moment the tour guide moved on this woman would turn out the lights and not allow him to view the artworks.

there was also seating in a couple rooms, but nobody was allowed to sit for a singular moment on the gruelling hour-long tour, causing me personally immense back pain for the rest of the busy day, cannot imagine how bad it was for those who were more elderly on the tour.

all in all, it is a beautiful place, but as i have a permanent brain injury i always take pictures of what i enjoy so i can freshen my memory due to it deteriorating without, so the entire event was a waste of money as it left me with back pain, my brother needing hours to recover from his near-mental breakdown, and i not being able to keep a single memory for the coming years.

if you can avoid this, i do not say this lightly as i have travelled across 60+ countries and have NEVER felt so upset by a museum or tour: AVOID AVOID...

This is a very beautiful and well kept working monastery (there are 19 nuns there currently). The frescoes, art, furnishings, and the structure itself are beautiful and in excellent condition for their age. All tours here are done by in-house guides (monastery employees) only and in Spanish. The staff is crude and extremely unpleasant at times. Photography and video recording are prohibited here, and in our tour they had an employee with the grace and good humor of a wild bore who tailed the group reprimanding people for just looking at their phones. One visitor in our group got yelled at for trying to silence here phone. If you had your phone in your hand, you were watched like a criminal, so we put ours in our pockets. A lady with limited mobility sat on a bench and was rudely told to stand up and get off the bench. There is security check at the door and we had to put not only our backpack through the X-ray machine, but our phones and the coins I had in my pocket as well. Beyond ridiculous! I get the backpack, but phones and coins??? Our tour guide, who had a nice voice and was very eloquent, was a bit scattered at times making it hard to follow the tour. Our tour lasted one hour and the tickets only cost €6.00 a piece, so very affordable. Visiting this place takes a bit of planing as tickets are usually sold out a week in advance. This place is not suitable for people with limited mobility as there are some stairs to climb. For us this visit was a bit uncomfortable and unpleasant due to the staff’s crude behavior, so we cannot recommend this...