El Escorial
- Address: San Lorenzo de El Escorial
- Hours: Open Tues - Sun 10am - 5pm Oct - Mar, 10am - 6pm Apr - Sept
- Admission: Adults: €8
ATTRACTION Keywords:
Cultural Experience,
Must-Do Experience,
Off-the-Beaten Path,
Religious Experience,
Church / Cathedral,
Monastery,
Monument - Historical
El Escorial Reviews
We've found 240 El Escorial reviews from Viator.com travelers and members: what they loved, what they liked and what they think could be improved. It's all here to help you make the most of your next trip.
Review by Michael M, September 2012
Doing what: El Escorial Monastery and the Valley of the Fallen from Madrid
The trip to El Escrorial and the Valle de los Caidos was beautiful. The only thing was that the tour did not leave till 10 mins after 9:00. People were waiting at 8:30 am as advised which means 15-25 mins. less to go around during the free time. Overall it was a good expereince but next time please be a bit prompt as there is so much to see and experience for a little time.
Review by Elsa A, August 2012
Doing what: Madrid Super Saver: El Escorial Monastery and Toledo Day Trip from Madrid
This was a great tour. I enjoyed the tour guide for the first part of the trip; for the Toledo trip, the tour guide was not very nice. Although you should visit both places, this is quite a lot to do in one day.
Review by Lee Anne C, August 2012
Doing what: Madrid Super Saver: El Escorial Monastery and Toledo Day Trip from Madrid
El Escorial Monastery was a perfect trip to the mountains.
Review by Elida C, August 2012
Doing what: Madrid Super Saver: El Escorial Monastery and Toledo Day Trip from Madrid
I loved Toledo!!!! A very nice city and I like the tour a lot. Our guides were very good and knowledgeable.
Review by Paul d Murphy M, August 2012
Doing what: El Escorial Monastery and the Valley of the Fallen from Madrid
The tour was efficient and enjoyable on the whole and the guide was friendly and knowledgable. I did, however, raise one point of concern with the guide after the tour of the Valley of the Fallen. I felt that her commentary on the historical context of the building of the basilica and the politicical context and record of the Franco regime was, to put it mildly, not the sort of objective account I would expect from an independent tour operator visiting a publicly owned monument administered by the state office of a democratically elected government. I felt that the commentary was partial and far too respectful of a regime that, on historical record, was guilty of many crimes against human rights. The guide was polite in refuting my points but I feel that questions should be asked of her employers if the guide commentary was endorsed.
Review by Annika R, July 2012
Doing what: El Escorial Monastery and the Valley of the Fallen from Madrid
Beautiful place to see and didn't take up the whole day so you could still do things with your afternoon!
Review by Michael J, July 2012
Doing what: El Escorial Monastery and the Valley of the Fallen from Madrid
This tour made it easy to visit both important sites. The guide was helpful.
Review by dacocin, July 2012
Doing what: Madrid Super Saver: El Escorial Monastery and Toledo Day Trip from Madrid
Well worth the effort. Toledo was wonderful.
Review by JUAN G, Argentina, July 2012
Doing what: El Escorial Monastery and the Valley of the Fallen from Madrid
The Monastery is amazing, such history. Definitely worth a visit.
Review by Krishan S, United Kingdom, July 2012
Doing what: El Escorial Monastery and the Valley of the Fallen from Madrid
Enjoyable tour, well organised, good guide and comfortable coach. Tour was rushed, and although this is somewhat inevitable on a half day tour, it would have been nice to have a bit of free time - I would have liked some free time to see the gardens of the monastery.
Review by JulieRetired, July 2012
Doing what: El Escorial Monastery and the Valley of the Fallen from Madrid
Great guide, good bus ride and fascinating sites. However, we were rushed when going to the Valley of the Fallen and did not spend nearly as much time nor did we receive enough information on this site.
Review by Neill R, July 2012
Doing what: Madrid Super Saver: El Escorial Monastery and Toledo Day Trip from Madrid
The morning trip to El Escorial and the Valley of the Fallen was disappointing in several respects.
The tour leader provided a very (linguistically) unbalanced presentation, spending about 3 times as long in Spanish as English, even though the group was fairly evenly split between Spanish and English speakers. Second, the tour was rushed,partly because of sacrificing time at Escorial in favor of more time at Valley of the Fallen. The 'rushing" through Escorial precluded tourists from even having a chance visit the gift shop.
A savvy traveler we spoke to afterwards had planned for this, and broke from the group and sprinted to to the gift shop to purchase a worthwhile book. Upon examining his purchase, I realized what a coup he had scored, and immediately copied the ISBN number to order the same book (used) from Amazon on the bus ride back.
The high point of the tour could and should have been some time spent in front of the highly ornamented Escorial altar, but that was as rushed as the rest of the visit. Unfortunately, total tour time was misused by allocating too much time to the Valley visit, which included a trek to reach the basilica entrace and wander about within it. I think the topic of the Valley could be handled in a much abbreviated manner.
In contrast, the afternoon visit to Toledo was quite well managed. Our guide provided a very evenhanded, thorough discourse in Spanish and English, and was careful to paint a word picture for each of the areas to be visited, and their significance. She was obviously enthusiastic about the historic role of Toledo in Spanish life, and she was gracious and informative throughout, and I would highly recommend her as a guide.
Review by shazza, Australia, July 2012
Doing what: El Escorial Monastery and the Valley of the Fallen from Madrid
This tour is okay if you have nothing else planned.
Review by Beatriz, July 2012
Doing what: El Escorial Monastery and the Valley of the Fallen from Madrid
The problem with this tour is you can not see those 2 sites in 1/2 day. This tour should be offered as a full day (which I was looking for). El Escorial is a great place to visit, but only in 2 hours the guide tour was rushing it to go in and out because we have to be on time at the bus to go to the Valley of the Fallen at 12, not possible to see much when we arrived there at 10. It is a real shame, the tour guide knew a lot but we could not enjoy it because the timelines were not realistics. Really recommend to look into extending the hours of this tour otherwise it is not worth it
Review by Sylwia D, June 2012
Doing what: El Escorial Monastery and the Valley of the Fallen from Madrid
The trip was very well organized. Guide was realy nice and gave us a lot of interesting information
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