El Escorial Monastery and the Valley of the Fallen from Madrid

Madrid, Spain

Experience the grandeur of the El Escorial monastery on a guided half-day trip from Madrid. Afterwards, visit the poignant Valley of the Fallen monument erected in memory of the millions who died in the Spanish Civil War. Gain insights into Spain's intriguing history at these symbolic monuments reflecting the Spanish monarchy, church and 20th-century conflict.

The Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo El Real was built by King Philip II to house the remains of his parents, Charles I and Isabella of Portugal. The austere Renaissance complex combines a palace and monastery, and features a wonderful collection of art. On your visit, an experienced guide will take you for a tour of the complex, including the Pantheon of Kings and basilica.

Located six miles (9.5 kilometers) north of El Escorial lies the Valley of the Fallen, a vast basilica built into the side of a mountain and topped by a gigantic granite cross. The monument was built by the Spanish dictator General Franco to remember the dead of Spain's Civil War. You'll take a guided tour inside the basilica, and admire the spectacular valley landscape surrounding the complex.

USD $63.84

Traveler Reviews

Review by: T T	April 2012
The two sites were wonderful to visit, especially El Escorial. The only critique I have, and unfortunately it is a major one, is that the tour was marketed as a "tour only in English." In reality, the tour was a bilingual tour with the guide presenting in both Spanish and English. While that did not seriously mar my enjoyment of the tour, it was wrong as a matter of principle to have marketed it as an English-only tour.

Review by: THOMAS W B	February 2012
Excellent and informative guide. And what a monastery/palace/place of learning. A must for anyone interested in Spanish history! Very memorable.

Review by: Marla H	January 2012
The monastery was great. The tour guide was not. She clearly didn't care about being a tour guide, didn't talk during the trip, seemed bored and didn't even introduce herself. In contrast, our other tour guides this week gave us some history, anecdotes, politics etc and made the trip much more interesting. With an unemployment rate of 21% in Spain (learned from one of the other tour guides) certainly Julia Travel can find a tour guide more interested in doing his/her job.

Review by: Julie C	January 2012
Very nice place, guide was good, time there was about right. Thanks.

Review by: yateseunice	January 2012
was ok

Review by: Alan M	December 2011
Excellent and led by a superb guide

Review by: Peter D	November 2011
Windy cold day, El Escorial is at a higher elevation so be prepared dress-wise depending on the time of year. Our guide was very knowledgeable and accommodating.

Review by: Kevin M	October 2011
El Escorial is fascinating and the small town there is very beautiful. This is a must see location. The tour didn;'t go to the Valley of the Fallen. The guide was excellent, very knowledgeable.

Review by: Holskipolski	October 2011
Very worthwhile 1/2 day trip to a place much different from the ornate trappings usually found in Spain, except for the crypt where the Kings are buried, of course. Don't go on a Sunday, when mass precluded seeing much of the church. Guide Sylvia was knowledgeable, but quite soft-spoken, especially when using English.

Review by: Johnnie N	October 2011
Excellent tour guide and itinerary! My best friend and I enjoyed having extra time at El Escorial since we were not able to visit the Valley of the Fallen.

Review by: Karen D	September 2011
Escorial Monastery is a beautiful place...tour leader Julia was excellent...it's a pity we couldn't go to Valley of the fallen cause they told us it was closed for the last year

Review by: Emilija T	September 2011
Well organised, with a pleasant, knowledgeable guide. A visit to the Valley of the Fallen was not included, due to restoration. This however enabled a less rushed visit to El Escorial. Photos inside the monastery are not permitted.

Review by: Mark B	September 2011
Somewhat of a rocky start with the original booking cancelled because of Pope's visit and the Valley of the Fallen segment not available due to closure. Visit to Escorial was great however some concern about whether the bus would get us back to Madrid - it did.

Review by: Irina B	August 2011
it was overpriced, the valley of the fallen was under construction and there was not any indication that we would not see it at all. we chose this tour for the valley, but missed it completely. i would rather give one star only.

Review by: Brenda F	August 2011
The visit to the monastery was very interesting and there were no complications with the travel group. We were very taken with the room where the kings and queens were entombed, the circular room. It was quite an awesome sight.

Review by: andra m	August 2011
Great trip....guide was well versed in English which helped. The only issue was advising in English for the scheduled trip - several of us missed the announcement and the bus had to return to pick us up.

Review by: Nicholas I	August 2011
Excellent ! I strongly recommend it.

Review by: DENISE C	July 2011
Our guide was disappointing, talked too much in both Spanish and English and left us no free time to see the gardens or have a wee wander. I was most impressed by El Escorial but wish I'd gone on my own.

Review by: Valerie R	July 2011
It was a great tour. The Valley of the Fallen was closed due to renovations so we got to spend more time at the Monastery. Very impressive building. I would recommend this tour!

Review by: Tamera C	June 2011
The monastery was beautiful. However, we were not able to visit the Valley of the Fallen, and were not told this until we were on the tour bus on our way to the sites. The tour guide was difficult to understand a lot of the time, as she had a very heavy Spanish accent when speaking English and a relatively quiet voice. The guide also left 8 people from the tour in the bathroom when we stopped for a restroom break. She had not realized there were still so many of us in the restroom, and the group of 8 had to go searching for the rest of the tour group, which took us about 15 minutes to locate within the monastery.

Review by: Reid L	June 2011
The Valley of the Fallen, as the website information indicated when I booked, is closed for some renovations. The tour of El Escorial was very good, though. The tour guide provided information in Spanish and then in English. Her comments were informative, and her demeanor pleasant. It would have been good to be able to spend a bit more time looking at the artwork in some of the rooms, but other tour groups were in the complex. We seemed to be under some time constraints to keep things moving. Overall, I was glad to have booked the tour and would recommend it to anyone who would like to see El Escorial.

Review by: Steven J J	June 2011
We looked forward to the Valley of the Fallen, however the place is closed indefinitely by the current regimn. We enjoyed the Monastery, but wished we had time to explore the gardens outside. Over all an adequate tour. Our tour guide was pretty good with a good command of the English language.

Review by: JOAQUIN Z	June 2011
Well worth visiting.

Review by: Susan P	May 2011
Great Trip. Wonderful Guide. I learned a lot and would recommend this company and trip to anyone.

Review by: Brian M	May 2011
The El Escorial tour was fine but we had not been advised in advance that we would not be going to the Valley of the Fallen so we were somewhat disappointed that we did not see that.

Review by: naser m	May 2011
Not very good. I made the reservation a day before the tour, but Vally of Fallen was not included, apparently under construction, and we were not told that VoF is not included. Even the slips we were given before tour starts had Valley of Fallen in it. The tour guide even did not try to explain it to us, just said it is closed. The El Escorial tour also was limited, it seemed to me that the place was not one of the places that she knows well. We took the tour mainly for Valley of Fallen, since going from Escorial to VoF is difficult. Otherwise going to Escorial with train or bus and the podcast we already had was significantly cheaper.

Review by: Alan D N	May 2011
The excellent guide spoke English very well and gave lots of interesting information both on the bus ride to the Monastery and while on the tour itself inside the Monastery. The tour lasted longer than expected because the guide took extra time during the tour to answer questions or give additional information besides a simple recitation of the facts.

Review by: Kirk S	May 2011
The trip to El Escorial was fascinating and our tour guide was wonderful. However, the Valley of the Fallen has been closed for a couple of years. This is never mentioned when selling the package until AFTER YOU PAY. We thought we would be able to at least take pictures outside, but we were not even taken up the mountain. The website should be changed and the amount of the trip reduced. This is the first time in more than a dozen overseas bookings for day trips that I have felt completely ripped off. Disappointing.

Review by: Jan O	May 2011
It was a nice trip, very interesting and there was a lot to be seen._br/_ Unfortunately we were on a tight schedule, so we felt a bit rushed to "tun through the palace" in orde to keep up with our guide._br/_ The lady at the desk in Madrid didn't make us feel very welcome on the tour, but our guide was very friendly (but a bit in a hurry)._br/_ But over all it was a nice experience.

Review by: Sheralyn M	April 2011
El Escorial was a little dissapointing,the outside was great but once we went inside there wasn't much to see,apart from where all the Kings and Queens of Spain are buried,which was interesting,also the guide had to speak 3 languages so there was a lot of waiting about in between.We couldn't go to Valley of the fallen as it was under renovation.

Review by: Susan E	April 2011
Tour guide did a great job of explaining the history, architecture and art in 3 languages.

Review by: Timothy N	April 2011
We enjoyed the trip and would recommend it. Valley of the Fallen was closed and that was a disappointment. We would have enjoyed more time at El Escorial.We felt like we were being rushed through the tour. Tour guide was very pleasant.

Review by: Judi	March 2011
This tour was very strenuous but interesting and worth the effort. I was only disappointed by not having enough time to appreciate the many masterpieces hanging on the walls as we rushed past._br/_ A general complaint I'd like to make on all the larger group tours: I missed much of the guides' comments due to the number of clients she was addressing and not always aware of whether those closest to her were English or Spanish speaking. I would recommend ear phones be loaned to customers so that, no matter how close to the guide you stand or how softly she/he must speak due to certain conditions (as in a church) each customer would hear the full presentation. Thank you.

Review by: Gary T	March 2011
Very nice trip. The guide was excellent and made a great difference in our enjoyment of the trip. She took special pains to make certain that we and only one other English speaking couple were totally informed.

Review by: James B	March 2011
The Monastery is a wonderful trip back in history, with so much of Spain's past within its walls. _br/_ We were disappointed that the Valley of the Fallen was deleted from the tour as we were very much looking forward to seeing that also. This Tour is well worth taking.

Review by: Megan G	March 2011
Excellent tour and the palace was really interesting - be warned - as this is close to the moutains and the palace is freezing so take a warm jacket. Guide interesting.

Review by: Alex I	February 2011
Tour Guide mostly spoke in spanish and did not get full value for the trip..

Review by: Torem	February 2011
El Escorial Monastery and the Valley of the Fallen from Madrid:

Review by: Judy	February 2011
The El Escorial Monastery was enjoyable, but the Valley of the Fallen was closed and the guide never mentioned it. As we were passing the cross from a distance on the expressway, I asked what it was. She should have at least told us more about it while we were on the bus, even if we couldn't go there. I wish the bus could have just driven by the site. The tour was a little long to just see El Escorial.

Review by: Viatcheslav S	December 2010
well organized tour

Review by: Christine T	November 2010
A definite must see! Very glad I chose to book a tour rather than go on my own because I learned so much and I felt that we got to see more of the Monastery than the general public. Would recommend this tour to anyone, especially considering the great value!

Review by: deborah s, United States of America	July 2010
enjoyed trip, guide very knowledgable, and made this very large place managable and understanable.

Review by: Jane E, United States of America	July 2010
Lovely tour with a very well-informed tour guide.

Review by: Julie B, United States of America	July 2010
It was nice, and even though the valley of the fallen was closed, we still got to see a very extensive visit of the Escorial's Library.

Review by: Anonymous, United States of America	January 2010
Definitely easier to take a tour than to go there on my own. Escorial is beautiful and the tour guide was really detailed in info. I recommend it.

Review by: Maria Ines G, United States of America	December 2009
Great tour and knowledge.

Review by: Gerald T, United Kingdom	November 2009
The trip was very interesting, as i was the only English speaker the guide took the time to explain everything twice for my benefit. The other guests did not mind.

Review by: Soma C, United States of America	November 2009
A must-have trip. I strongly recommend. Thanks, Viator.

Review by: Robert M, United States of America	October 2009
Very professionally done. I felt there was adequate time allowed at each location. Departure and arrivals were on time.

Review by: Amanda-Hazel M, Australia	October 2009
Absolutely wonderful tour - highly recommend. Guide was very friendly and informative.