Halloween in Madrid for adults usually comes in two versions: pay for a ticket so someone in costume can scream at you in a dark corridor, or pay for a guided walk so someone can tell you ghost stories by torchlight. Both are fine. But there is a third one that costs nothing: go out at nine on the night of the 31st and check for yourself what is actually true behind the legends.
This year the calendar is on your side. 31 October 2026 is a Saturday, 1 November (All Saints' Day) is a Sunday, and the Community of Madrid has moved that public holiday to Monday 2 November. That means a three-day weekend across the whole region, and no reason to get up early on Sunday.
Here are three plans for the night of the 31st, ordered by how much fear you are after, plus what else is on that week, split into free and paid.
Halloween in Madrid without paying for a haunted house
First, what we are talking about. Discover The City routes are games you play on your phone, out in the street. They are free, need no booking and no app download (they run in the browser), and you go at your own pace. Nobody is waiting for you at a meeting point and nobody hurries you. If you fancy a drink halfway through, the route waits.
What they are not: there are no actors, no staged jump scares, and nobody leaps out from behind a column. If you want to scream, skip to plan 3. If what you want is that particular unease of standing in front of a locked building at night knowing what happened inside, read on.
One practical note first: clocks go back on Sunday 25 October, so on the 31st the sun sets around a quarter past six. By nine it is fully dark.
Plan 1 (mild fear): the Paseo del Prado by night
This is the core plan, and the one that fits the date best, because the game was built to be played exactly like this: at night, with the facades lit and the buildings closed.
Those Who Never Left: Paseo del Prado by Night makes you the new night watchman of the Paseo del Prado. You inherit your predecessors' logbook, with nine reports of "presences" noted between Cibeles and Atocha, and your first shift is to check them one by one.
- How long: about 100 minutes.
- Where: 9 stops, from Plaza de Cibeles down to the Atocha area. A little over two kilometres, all downhill.
- When: it starts at nine. Set off between 21:00 and 22:00 and you finish before midnight.
- Languages: English and Spanish.
- Where to start: Banco de España metro. You finish a short walk from Atocha station, with no need to go back to the start.
Why "mild"? Because what unsettles you here is not apparitions, it is case files. Every legend on the route has a birth date and a named witness, and underneath each one is a real death. We explain how we documented it, and what we decided not to claim, in the making-of of the game. One of its stops, the surgeon who stayed inside his own museum, has a post of its own: Doctor Velasco and his embalmed daughter.
Dinner afterwards. The route ends very close to the Barrio de las Letras and Lavapiés, two areas packed with bars and restaurants, a short walk away. We are not going to recommend a specific place; we will give you a more useful tip. The 31st is a Saturday and the start of a long weekend, so book a table in advance if there are more than two of you, and ask how late the kitchen stays open, because not all of them serve late. If you would rather eat first, do it around Cibeles and Banco de España before nine and keep the night for the route.
Plan 2 (medium fear): a double bill, afternoon in the Austrias and night on the Prado
If you have the afternoon free and want the whole day to have a mood, chain two games.
Afternoon: The Alchemist of the Austrias. Honest warning: this is not a ghost story and it is not documented history. It is fiction with a dark tone: a 16th-century diary turns up bricked into a wall during building works, its author says the Inquisition is after him in 1578, and you have one afternoon to follow his symbols through the churches, squares and alleys of the old town. It takes about 90 minutes and is designed to be played in the afternoon, so start around five and you will finish just as the light goes.
In between: grab a bite in the centre and head towards Cibeles. From the Austrias it is a little over two kilometres, a good half hour on foot, or a few metro stops.
Night: the Paseo del Prado at nine, as in plan 1.
The contrast works: stone, alleys and an invented legend in the afternoon; boulevard, closed museums and real case files at night. That is about three and a half hours of play spread over the day, so wear comfortable shoes and bring a charged phone (or a power bank).
If you would rather go it alone, without a game, and see the "haunted places" of central Madrid, we are not going to repeat them here: they are all listed, area by area and with what is legend and what is documented, in our self-guided Madrid ghost route. One of them, the House of the Seven Chimneys, has its full story here. We are working on games about several of these stories (the Seven Chimneys ghost, the Lavapiés vampire, Malasaña, the death of the Count of Villamediana, the shadows of the Austrias), but they are not playable yet, and for now they are being written in Spanish.
Plan 3 (real fear): a haunted house by day, the street by night
Let's be clear: if you want physical scares, people chasing you and pitch-black corridors, a street game will not give you that. Paid events will, and the biggest one that week is MADHORROR, at IFEMA.
According to its official website (checked in September 2026):
- Dates: 30 October to 2 November 2026.
- Hours: 10:00 to 21:30, in Hall 14.1 at IFEMA (Feria de Madrid metro, line 8).
- What's on: horror passages, immersive experiences, exhibitions, a gaming zone, a film festival, make-up and cosplay workshops and a live "zombie invasion".
- Price: the five-hour "Pase Maldito" from 46 EUR, in a morning or afternoon slot. No changes or refunds.
- Age: not recommended for under-18s.
Since the hall closes at 21:30, the combination that makes sense is a morning slot at MADHORROR and the night in the street: leave IFEMA mid-afternoon, have dinner, and be at Cibeles by nine for the Paseo del Prado. Paid scares in the morning, free unease at night.
Theme parks around Madrid also run paid Halloween seasons with horror mazes. Their dates, times and prices change every year, so check their own websites before you go.
Spooky things to do in Madrid that week: the All Saints' tradition
Long before Halloween reached Spain, this week already had its own dead. Two Madrid traditions fit an adult plan well, with one caveat: as of today neither has published its 2026 programme, so here is what happened in 2025 and where to look.
Don Juan Tenorio, the All Saints' play
José Zorrilla's Don Juan Tenorio premiered in Madrid, at the Teatro de la Cruz, on 28 March 1844. Its second part is set in the family pantheon where the Commander and Don Luis are buried, ghosts included, and that is why, from the late 19th century, it became the play performed around All Saints' Day.
The best-known performance in the region is Don Juan en Alcalá, in Alcalá de Henares, staged in the open air since 1984 in the garden of the Archbishop's Palace. In 2025 the performances were on 31 October and 1 November at 19:30, with free entry. It is in Spanish, in verse. Alcalá is a commuter-train ride from Madrid. The 2026 programme will appear on the festival's website.
Cemeteries around All Saints' Day
In 2025, Servicios Funerarios de Madrid, the city's municipal funeral company, ran free guided tours and candlelit concerts at La Almudena cemetery, with advance booking on its website, during All Saints' week. If they return in 2026, places go fast: check their website from mid-October.
The Sacramental Cemetery of San Isidro, one of the oldest in Madrid and where Doctor Velasco himself is buried, runs guided tours all year round, from 9:00 to 15:00 and by booking: 8 EUR standard, 6 EUR reduced and free for under-12s, according to its website. Note that these are morning tours, not a night plan.
Summary: three Halloween in Madrid plans for adults
| Plan | Fear level | When | How long | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paseo del Prado by night | Mild: case files, no jump scares | From 21:00 | About 100 min | Free |
| Double bill Austrias + Prado | Medium: dark fiction and real legend | 17:00 and 21:00 | About 3.5 h of play | Free |
| MADHORROR + Prado | High: physical scares | Morning at IFEMA, night in the street | 5 h + 100 min | From 46 EUR (MADHORROR) |
| Tenorio in Alcalá | Tradition | 19:30 in 2025 | One performance | Free in 2025 |
Frequently asked questions
What can adults do for free on Halloween in Madrid? The simplest option is a self-guided night route. Those Who Never Left is free, needs no booking and runs on your phone, in English. If you would rather go without a game, the self-guided ghost route gathers the places and what is actually true about each one. In 2025 the Tenorio in Alcalá and the Almudena tours were also free, with booking.
Are free ghost routes actually scary? Not in the haunted-house sense: no actors, no jump scares. They give you a different kind of unease, the one of standing somewhere at night knowing what happened there. If you want screams, you need a paid event.
Do I need to book to play on the night of the 31st? No. There are no slots and no fixed start time: you open the link on your phone and start when you get there. What you should book is dinner.
Is 2 November 2026 a public holiday in Madrid? Yes. Because 1 November falls on a Sunday, the Community of Madrid's Decree 75/2025 moves the All Saints' holiday to Monday 2 November.
Can I bring children? This post is for adults. The Prado game talks about corpses and embalming, with no images but with names and dates, and we recommend it from twelve or thirteen, accompanied. MADHORROR is not recommended for under-18s.
What if it rains? The Prado route is entirely outdoors. In heavy rain, pick another night of the long weekend: the game does not expire on the 31st.
Your night shift
On the night of the 31st, Madrid will be full of costumes, queues and sold-out tickets. The Paseo del Prado at nine will look the way it always does: facades lit, museums closed, and nine stories waiting for someone to check them.
Those Who Never Left: Paseo del Prado by Night is free, takes about a hundred minutes and is played from the street, in English or Spanish. All you have to do is be at Cibeles at nine.
Cover photo: Palacio de Cibeles at night, by Audiolibro (Wikimedia Commons), CC BY-SA 4.0.