Insider’s Hemingway Tour

“When you get to know it, Madrid is the most Spanish of all cities, the best to live in, the finest people, month in and month out the finest climate.”

Ernest Hemingway wrote this in Death In The Afternoon. The great American novelist and journalist spent some of the best days of his life in Madrid – from his earliest visits as a young aficionado of the bullfights, to his dangerous reporting assignments on the front lines of the Spanish Civil War, to his later nights out with Hollywood stars at the city’s most glamorous cocktail lounges.

Inside our Hemingway Tour

Our tour leads away from the well-worn Madrid tourist trail to Hemingway’s favourite corners of the capital, including classic beer halls, elegant hotel lounges, cave-like basement bars, and the oldest restaurant in the world. Many of these places were immortalised in his books, and most have barely changed since the author sat eating, drinking and writing within their walls. Over three hours or so we will make our way across Hemingway’s Madrid, hearing stories from his life and times and hitting all the spots the man himself would have taken us to.

YOUR GUIDE: Stephen Phelan is an Irish journalist based in Madrid, after years spent living in Scotland, Japan and Argentina. He writes about culture, travel and history for magazines and newspapers all over the world, including The New Yorker, The Boston Review, The Guardian and The Sydney Morning Herald. He shares Hemingway’s love of the Spanish capital, and his lifelong belief in the pleasures of literature and lively conversation. He knows the books, he knows the bars, and he’s more than happy to talk your ear off about both whilst leading our Hemingway Tour.

Sample Articles by Stephen:

Goya’s Black Paintings: ‘Some people can hardly even look at them’

On the exhumation of General Franco

On Madrid locations in the films of Pedro Almodovar

On the legacy of Don Quixote

Want to dine “upstairs at Botin, one of the best restaurants in the world,” just like Hem did? Or perhaps you want to stroll through the old Madrid that Hemingway so adored. Check out our companion tours: