Bike tour of Madrid: how long, how much, and how to choose

Madrid's old centre is compact and its big parks are not. On foot you can do the squares or you can do a park, but not both in an afternoon. A bike tour of Madrid exists because a bicycle joins the two: the palace, the old squares, a park and a district you would never have walked to, inside a single guided run.

What the standard three hours covers. Across these listings the named places are the Royal Palace, Retiro Park, Plaza Mayor, Almudena Cathedral, the Temple of Debod, Plaza de Oriente, San Miguel Market, La Latina, and the Salamanca and Malasaña districts. No listing here includes going inside a monument, and none claims to. A bike tour of Madrid is an overview with a guide attached, and that is exactly the right first thing to do in a city this size.

Why so many listings are electric. This city is hilly, and pedal assistance is the difference between a hill you notice and a hill you do not. Twelve of the seventeen listings are electric outright or let you choose at booking — $40, $28 and $25 all put the choice on their own page. Five listings stay on ordinary bicycles, including the two most-reviewed rides on the site, so a bike tour of Madrid without a motor is clearly no hardship either.

What the fare actually tracks. Not quality. Length, and how many people are in the group. Nine of the rides sit in the thirties for three shared hours. The two-hour park rides sit just under that. The four private listings cost what they cost because the group is your own party and the fare is charged for the party rather than per seat. And two listings add a table at the end: a bike tour of Madrid that finishes with tapas and a drink, or with a tasting of Licor de Madroño.

Seventeen listings is too many to read end to end. Four questions cut it down to two or three, and every answer below is a figure the operator publishes.

How many hours have you got? If it is under two, there is exactly one answer: $25, the essential landmarks with a local guide in an hour and a half, rated 4.5 from 70 reviews. If you have two, $33 gives them to Retiro Park and its history, fauna and flora, and $38 gives them to Casa de Campo, one of the largest urban parks in Europe, passing the Civil War trenches and the Serpents Bridge. If you have three, you have the whole niche to choose from.

How much do you want the evidence to weigh? $33 carries 1,882 reviews at 4.8 and $32 carries 1,557 at 4.8. $33 carries 1,235 at 4.9. Between them that is more than half of the 6,831 reviews on this site. Three other listings are rated 5.0 on eleven, five and one reviews — promising, but a bike tour of Madrid with a thousand people behind it is a different kind of assurance.

Do you mind sharing? Four listings say no sharing at all. $36 is two private hours through the centre and Retiro Park, naming the pond, the statues and the Crystal Palace. $38 is three private hours naming Retiro Park, the Royal Palace, the Cathedral and Plaza Mayor. $63 is a private electric ride to hidden spots as well as the iconic ones. $215 is three private hours through the heart of the city and the most-reviewed of the four private listings, at 4.8 from 115 reviews.

Do you want something at the end of it? $86 includes a selection of tapas and a refreshing drink in the fare of a three-hour ride, and $172 finishes with a tasting of Licor de Madroño. Two other listings offer tapas as an option you tick at booking. That makes a bike tour of Madrid into an evening rather than an item ticked off a list, and the fare is buying the second half of it.