A Great Day Trip From Madrid to Chinchón Spain

If you are traveling in Madrid, you will not have any problem finding great day trip opportunities. In fact, you will probably find yourself struggling to choose between all the many options. And while day trips to Toledo and Segovia are rightfully at the top of most wishlists, I want to show you another place you should definitely consider – a town called Chinchon. Our own day trip from Madrid to Chinchon was a highlight of our month in the area. Let me tell you all about what we found in Chinchon Spain.

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Getting From Madrid to Chinchon

First, let’s take a look at how to get to Chinchon Spain on your day trip from Madrid.

It’s a Bus

If you are using public transportation like we do, then a 45 minute bus ride is your only option – you won’t find a train connection to Chinchon.

The bus to Chinchon is relatively comfortable and mostly passes through the scenic countryside southeast of Madrid. The ride only costs around 4 Euros for one way. You pay the driver directly in cash. You do need to indicate that Chinchon is your destination, as it is not the final stop on this route (the bus fare increases as the distance increases).

The bus leaves Madrid to Chinchon quite frequently during the week, but only hourly on the weekends. Here’s a link to the schedules.

Finding 337

The bus to Chinchon can be a challenge to find. So here’s how you do it…

The bus leaves Madrid from a streetside bus stop located at Plaza del Conde de Casual, south of the city center. Conveniently, there is a Metro subway station at Conde de Casual.

Once you get to Conde de Casual, you then need to find the correct bus stop. And, there are several scattered around the large Plaza. Fortunately for you, I’ve marked the correct location within the Plaza on this Google Maps link.

Then, once you get to the correct part of the plaza, you will face a series of covered bus stops spaced along the busy street. Each covered structure is assigned to just a few buses. You’ll walk past several of these structures before you’ll find the one marked with a 337. There is also a good chance that depending on when you arrive, the bus (clearly marked with 337) will be staged nearby.

Getting Off in Chinchon

Because Chinchon is not 337’s final destination, you do need to pay attention to your progress during your ride. The bus makes multiple stops along the way – many more than are indicated on the printed schedule. A lighted display at the front of the bus shows each upcoming stop. But during our ride, I found it the most helpful to simply follow our progress on Google Maps.

The Chinchon bus stop is on the west side of the town. And it’s just a roadside drop off at a roundabout. Once again, I have marked it for you on Google Maps. From there it’s only a 5 minute walk to Chinchon’s famed central plaza.

Plaza Mayor

The Plaza Mayor (or central plaza) is undoubtedly the highlight of visiting Chinchon Spain. It’s considered one of the most unique and beautiful in the entire country. As you walk down the road named Calle de los Huertos from the bus stop, you’ll enter the Plaza from its southwest corner…

And once you enter the Plaza Mayor of Chinchon Spain itself, you’ll understand what all the fuss is about….

It’s quite a beautiful sight! This Plaza dates to the early 1500s and still retains much of its medieval charm. In fact, the center is still covered in dirt. As you look around, you’ll notice that it’s completely enclosed by 3-story wooden buildings. And each of these is fronted by a series of balconies (called claros), one on top of another, all highlighted in green paint – 234 in total. And then presiding over the Plaza is the town’s 16th century church.

Nowadays, the balconies are mostly filled with diners, since many of the buildings in the Plaza are restaurants. Tables also spill out into the Plaza.

Off to one side of the Plaza, you’ll find a fountain with a square pool of water. I couldn’t find anything written about this fountain’s history online, but it seems as unique as the Plaza itself. .

And as you walk around the Plaza, you’ll notice that several very scenic side streets empty into it from the elevated town above (The Plaza sits in a slight geographic bowl. So the rest of Chinchon leads down into it.)

Over the centuries, the Plaza Mayor has filled a key role as the central gathering place for Chinchon Spain. Bullfights, markets, and festivals all still take place in the Plaza. In fact, on the day of our visit, a stage was set up, and a band was playing sets throughout the afternoon.

To learn more about the town’s history and festivals, check out Chichon’s tourism website.

Lunch Time

You’ll certainly want to enjoy a meal on this historic square while on your day trip from Madrid to Chinchon Spain.

As for us, we ate lunch on the Plaza, but not from one the historic balconies. I had scheduled a Chinchon wine tasting experience for us. And the only available time was at 1pm. However, the majority of restaurants in Spain do not start serving lunch until 12:30 or 1…Chinchon included.

If you know anything about me, I need to eat! And my lunchtime is long before mid afternoon.

Fortunately, I’d scoped out a place with earlier lunch hours called Cafe Bar Fuentearriba. Its entrance is slightly off the Plaza. But, its outdoor tables have a prime location on the edge the historic square, right next to the Plaza’s fountain.

And it turned it out great!

We had a great view and we sat right next to the town fountain. The food was simple and really more directed toward locals than tourists, but that never bothers us (in fact, I often prefer it). It was quite inexpensive too – less than 10 Euros per person including drinks. Prices like these are rarity when visiting a tourist town.

I did make it a point to also order garlic soup (Sopa de Ajo). It’s made from garlic, smoked paprika, olive oil, and soggy bread. Garlic soup is a local favorite in this region of Spain. And especially in Chinchon – a town that’s famous for the quality of its garlic.

Vino is Spanish for Wine

If you are fan of wine tastings in quaint settings, then you may want to follow my lead and schedule a tasting at one of Chinchon’s local wineries (called bodegas).

Bodega del Nero is the most popular in town. It’s located not far from the Plaza Mayor, off one of the town’s quiet streets. Five generations of winemakers have been creating wines from local grapes in this winery dating all the way back to 1870. And as I mentioned in the section above, I was able to secure a tour for us at 1pm.

Guided visits at this Bodega are typically only available on weekend afternoons and are quite cheap – currently only 8 Euros. I was able to schedule ours via email.

Because visiting Bodega del Nero is a popular thing to do in Chinchon Spain, I had difficulty finding an available time when making our arrangements. And then our tour was packed with about 20 people. Plus, the tours before and after ours seemed full too.

But there is a catch…all the tours are in Spanish.

I didn’t know this. And it was stupid of me to presume English would be spoken. After all, the website doesn’t say anything about English language tours, and I had to use my browser’s translate function to read its pages. I should have asked when I booked.

But in retrospect it makes complete sense. During our time in Chinchon, it became obvious that far more Spanish tourists visit Chinchon than other nationalities.

So we just rolled with it. We’ve been on enough winery tours around the world to understand the gist of each step in the process.

And enjoying some crisp white wine in a quaint courtyard in a beautiful Spanish town requires no translation.

Wandering the Upper Streets

At some point during your day trip from Madrid to Chinchon Spain, you should spend some time just wandering around the beautiful streets above the Plaza.

That’s what we did after our hour at the Bodega. And it’s not only the Plaza Mayor that’s a stunner in Chinchon Spain. The entire town is beautiful, too.

Ultimately we worked our way around to the town’s 16th century main church – the one that sits above the Plaza. It’s called the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción (Church of Our Lady of the Assumption). And sadly for us, it wasn’t open at the time of our visit.

Adjacent to the church, you will find one of your best views of Chinchon as a whole, including the Plaza Mayor below. Though you can’t see it in the photo below, from here you can also see the ruins of a large 15th-century castle called Castillo de los Condes. It sits distant enough to not show up very well in any photo I took.

From this spot, you will also find yourself standing near another of Chinchon’s most beloved sites – the Torre del Reloj. This is a clocktower that once belonged to a different medieval church – a church built in the 1400s, but completely destroyed in a later war.

Then from here, you can walk down the hill and re-enter the Plaza Mayor from a different scenic entry point.

One Last Stop

As we were leaving town, on our way back to the bus stop, I realized that we’d yet to try Chinchon’s namesake spirit – an anise seed liqueur. You won’t want to forget about this on your own day trip from Madrid to Chinchon Spain if you drink alcohol. You should always at least sample the local liqueur, right?

Just as I spoke my regret out loud, we passed this place below called Alimentación San Roque. And we noticed on their outdoor signage that they offered shots of Anis Chinchon for 3 Euros. A no brainer! In we went…

Once we passed through the doors, we discovered that it was a small grocery store/bakery/bar with just one local customer and two proprietors. None of whom spoke English. But all of whom seemed entertained to suddenly see two foreign tourists walk in.

And…they were so friendly and very helpful.

After we explained what we wanted, one of the proprietors took us over to a shelf and showed us our choices. We discovered that there are several versions of this liqeuer.

We know Dulce means sweet and we know Seco means dry. And we pointed to the Dulce. But we thought maybe she misunderstood that we wanted to buy a bottle. As we tried to explain, she took us over to the counter. She knew what we wanted.

The other proprietor opened a bottle of Dulce and poured us each a small glass, while our first host grabbed two different pastries from the shelf, asking if we wanted to try them too. She seemed to suggest that it was local tradition to eat these with the liqueur.

And then on her phone, she typed out this message using her translate App….

We all had a good laugh. Then we drank our sweet licorice-tasting Anis Chinchon, and ate what we later discovered are indeed the town’s most traditional pastries – Novice’s Tits and Friar’s Balls.

Final Thoughts

One of the joys of traveling for us are interactions like that final one in Chinchon. Discovering unexpected pleasures in places where we least expect them, often while stepping just a little bit outside of our comfort zone.

Chinchon Spain is a beautiful little town. One that is definitely deserving of a day trip from Madrid. I hope you get the chance to go. And maybe if you’re lucky, you’ll discover your own unexpected pleasures while there.

If you would like to learn about other day trips from Madrid, then check out my post entitled Avila or Segovia – Which is the Better Madrid Day Trip

If you are putting together an itinerary for Madrid, the check out my post entitled How Many Days in Madrid is Right For You?

And for even more advice about Madrid check out these posts:

A Quest to Find the Best Churros in Madrid

Traveling on the Iryo High Speed Train from Madrid to Malaga