Rural Madrid, the Madrid you don’t expect
MadRural invites you to discover the Madrid you don't know yet 24 May, 2023The wonderful thing about Madrid is that there is a Madrid to suit all tastes, as you can be in the city centre, with its tall buildings, the crowds, the wide range of services, the fast pace, the museums and monuments, the musicals.... Meanwhile, a few kilometres away, you can enjoy the opposite and go to any of the rural areas of the Region of Madrid, which, like the city centre, has a wide range of tourist attractions, but totally different.
A tourist proposal where nature, historical heritage and activities are the main features, alongside culture, gastronomy, patron saint festivities and a host of other experiences. And the fact is that rural Madrid is an ideal destination for enjoying activities in nature, such as wildlife watching and photography or sports activities (hiking, cycling, snow sports, canoeing, sailing...). All this combined with a cultural landscape shaped by human activities.
Undoubtedly, being able to blend into the rural environment is a privilege. The wide range of rural tourism in the Region of Madrid is grouped into four areas: the Sierra Norte, the Sierra Oeste, the area of Las Vegas and La Alcarria and the Sierra de Guadarrama.
A territory where you will discover villages that blend in with the landscape: white villages of the Alcarria that blend in with the fields of cereals and olive trees; and mountain villages built with granite, slate and wood that blend in with nature. A destination where you will visit villages with steep streets, Castilian squares and a rich artistic and ethnographic heritage.
Its diversity also extends to its gastronomy, inspired by the richness of the fruits of its lands, which provide us with some of the best products: Guadarrama meat, goat's cheese, honey, pulses, garden produce, oils, olives from Campo Real and wines from the Madrid Designation of Origin. Madrid Destino Rural is waiting for you, to explore it alone, with your family, as a couple or with friends. Discover it!
The Sierra Oeste de Madrid
The Sierra Oeste invites us to visit its villages, such as Santa María de la Alameda, with its livestock farming past and mountain architecture; or Robledo de Chavela, home to NASA's Deep Space Communications Centre, with its Training and Visitor Centre where you can see everything from astronaut suits to models of spaceships and a rock from the moon. Not forgetting San Martín de Valdeiglesias, one of the sub-areas of the D.O. Vinos de Madrid and one of the 11 Villas de Madrid, unique destinations scattered throughout the Community that stand out for their cultural heritage.
Las Vegas and the Alcarria de Madrid
Territory located in the southeast of the Region of Madrid, the serenity of its landscapes of valleys bathed by rivers has been the inspiration for the different features to be enjoyed in the region.
Las Vegas and the Alcarria de Madrid is a friendly land where, for example, you can enjoy touring the four Villas de Madrid within its territory: Chinchón and its famous Plaza Mayor, an example of popular Castilian architecture where time seems to have stood still; Colmenar de Oreja, where you can visit the Ulpiano Checa Museum and its centenary wineries with excellent wines registered under the D.O. Vinos de Madrid Designation of Origin; Nuevo Baztán, a unique example of an Enlightenment town, founded in the 18th century by the Navarrese politician Juan de Goyeneche y Gastón; and Villarejo de Salvanés, where you can delve into the history of the Order of Santiago in the Interpretation Centre housed in the Torre del Homenaje of the old castle.
The Sierra Norte de Madrid
The Sierra Norte de Madrid is, alongside the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park, the most natural and protected territory in the Community, being home to the Biosphere Reserve of the Sierra del Rincón and the SCIs (Sites of Community Importance, areas of Europe designated of Community interest for their potential contribution to restoring the natural habitat) of the Jarama and Lozoya river basins; In addition, a large part of the region is classified as ZEPA (Special Protection Area for Birds), which makes it one of the best ornithological destinations in Spain.
Its villages keep alive the customs and traditions of the past, which are also present in its ethnographic museums, including its typical mountain gastronomy. The region has been witness to history, from its archaeological sites to its network of contemporary art exhibition halls. Also in its four Villas de Madrid: Buitrago del Lozoya and its surprise, the Picasso Museum-Eugenio Arias Collection, with more than 60 works that the brilliant artist bequeathed to his hairdresser; Patones de Arriba, like an open-air slate museum; Rascafría and the Monastery of Santa María de El Paular; and Torrelaguna, the setting for mythical films from Hollywood's Golden Age.
La Sierra de Guadarrama
The Sierra de Guadarrama offers nature for everyone, to be enjoyed whilst playing sports, observing it from its viewpoints or simply relaxing in its recreational areas. Not surprisingly, almost 34,000 hectares of its surface are protected as a National Park.
To enjoy everything that the region has to offer, “The 14 essentials of the Sierra de Guadarrama” brings together an essential, different and special tourist resource from each of the 13 municipalities that make up the destination, whether they are museums, archaeological sites, routes in the natural environment, or civil and religious architecture with references to intangible cultural heritage, among other attractions as well as the tour of the Green Belt. Also the visit to the Castle of the Mendoza in Manzanares El Real, another of the 11 Villas de Madrid.
The offer of nature, cultural, patrimonial, but above all experiential tourism, comes together in a MadRural that will surprise the most demanding visitors with the possibility of having unique experiences in a sustainable environment just a few kilometres from the capital, but with a totally different tourist offer.