Santiago Bernabeu Stadium

Football fans won’t want to miss a visit to the magnificent Santiago Bernabéu, the number one football stadium in Spain and home to the legendary Real Madrid football team. The stadium opened its doors in 1947, originally under the name Nuevo Estadio Chamartín, before changing to Santiago Bernabéu in honor of its namesake, the club’s president for over 35 years. Despite boasting a capacity of around 85,000 spectators and reaching a 5-star rating as a UEFA-classified Elite Stadium, the Santiago Bernabéu is actually only Spain’s second largest football stadium, losing out to Barcelona’s Camp Nou.

Watching a game at the famous stadium – the 4-times host of the European Cup finals – is a memorable experience for any football fanatic but if you’re not lucky enough to score tickets for a game, you can still visit the grounds. Fan tours allow behind-the-scenes access to the stadium, where you can take the lift to the top of the stadium towers for an impressive panorama of the vast playing field and walk in the footsteps of your heroes across the pitch. You’ll also get to sneak a peak into the players’ dressing rooms, the presidential box and the trophy room, and even walk through the players’ tunnel.