From late October to late November, the forests north of the city turn yellow, orange and red, with peak color shifting each year. One beech forest only lets you in with a guide, chestnut groves fill the hills below El Escorial, and mushroom season brings guided walks and a big show in November. Here's what we checked, from nature workshops in city parks to the beeches at Montejo.
Guided walks on the Segovia side of the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park, around the pine forests and rivers of Valsaín. Saturday walks go with a nature guide, and some Sundays bring themed outings led by specialists, from old drove roads to river wildlife.
Groups are small. Routes range from easy riverside strolls to longer hikes, so pick by distance and difficulty.
A morning in the woods of the Sierra Norte with a mycologist. It starts with a short talk on how to tell mushrooms apart and which ones to be careful with. Then the group walks the forest looking for fungi, and ends by sorting and naming what it found.
Run by the Asociación de Amigos de la Casa de Campo. Suits curious kids who are happy on a long walk.
Each November the Sociedad Micológica de Madrid lays out wild mushrooms its members have gathered, each one labeled edible, toxic or of no interest. It's a hands-off way for kids to learn which mushrooms not to touch on a forest walk. Kids can also enter a drawing contest, sketching a mushroom from a slide while parents look around.
Hábitat Madrid is the city's season of nature activities, run from environmental centers in three big parks. Kids plant in a family vegetable garden, track animal prints, build bird feeders and join bird walks, all led by environmental educators. Each session has a set age range and needs booking, so it suits families who plan a few weeks ahead.
La Calbotada is Rozas de Puerto Real's chestnut festival, when the town roasts and tastes chestnuts from its own groves. They are the biggest chestnut woods in the Madrid region, with some trees over a century old. It is a village tradition rather than a big fair, so it suits families who will pair it with an autumn walk in the woods or around the Morales reservoir.
The yearly pumpkin party at El Huerto del Retiro, the city's environmental education center and garden inside Retiro Park. Local growers sell food from their stalls, a singer plays a short set, and the municipal nursery hands out free plants. Older kids can join a booked workshop making decorative pumpkins from old fabric, and a contest crowns the biggest and rarest pumpkins of the year.
A certified organic family farm in the Jarama valley where kids push a wheelbarrow into the field and pick their own pumpkin. Between rounds there's a hay maze, a slide and hay-bale photo spots, plus a shop terrace where parents can sit. On workshop days a booked session adds a tractor ride, farm animals and hollowing out and decorating a pumpkin. Works well for toddlers and younger school kids.
Every fall the Botánico's gardeners set out about 30 kinds of pumpkin from the garden's vegetable plot, outside the Santiago Castroviejo greenhouse. Kids spot giant Big Max pumpkins, sponge gourds and the bottle-shaped pilgrim's gourd that children nickname the "canteen". It's look, don't touch, so it suits a curious kid more than one who wants to pick a pumpkin. The plot where they grew is a short walk away.
An arboretum on the slopes of Monte Abantos, with more than 200 species of trees and shrubs from every corner of Spain. Paths and viewpoints wind through it, past a charcoal kiln, resin-tapping trees, beehives and a trap for pine processionary caterpillars. In fall many of the trees change color. The paths are steep in places, so it suits kids happy to climb.
La Pedriza is a maze of granite boulders, domes and rock towers in the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park. The park's visitor center sits at its entrance, with an exhibition on the sierra and a two-hectare garden holding a rock garden, a mini Pedriza, a bird hide, an aquarium and a reptile and amphibian center. Trails into the rocks start just past the barrier.
Tejera Negra is a beech forest in the Sierra Norte de Guadalajara, where the leaves turn gold, orange and red in fall. The long Senda del Robledal starts at the visitor center. The shorter Senda de Carretas starts at an inner parking lot and winds through the beeches past a meadow that makes a good rest stop.
It suits kids who can hike several kilometers on rough ground.
Hayedo de Montejo is a protected beech forest on the banks of the Jarama river, part of a UNESCO World Heritage site. You can only go in on a guided walk in a small group, along one of three paths. In fall the beeches turn gold and copper.
It suits kids who can walk a couple of kilometers on forest paths and stay with the group.
La Herrería is the old royal forest below the El Escorial monastery, still owned by Patrimonio Nacional. Paths cross meadows of big ash trees, oak woods and a chestnut grove that has spread past the walls of the El Castañar estate, with stone fountains along the way. The classic family walk climbs gently to the Silla de Felipe II, a rock viewpoint looking back over the monastery.
From late October to late November, the forests north of the city turn yellow, orange and red, with peak color shifting each year. One beech forest only lets you in with a guide, chestnut groves fill the hills below El Escorial, and mushroom season brings guided walks and a big show in November. Here's what we checked, from nature workshops in city parks to the beeches at Montejo.
Guided walks on the Segovia side of the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park, around the pine forests and rivers of Valsaín. Saturday walks go with a nature guide, and some Sundays bring themed outings led by specialists, from old drove roads to river wildlife.
Groups are small. Routes range from easy riverside strolls to longer hikes, so pick by distance and difficulty.
A morning in the woods of the Sierra Norte with a mycologist. It starts with a short talk on how to tell mushrooms apart and which ones to be careful with. Then the group walks the forest looking for fungi, and ends by sorting and naming what it found.
Run by the Asociación de Amigos de la Casa de Campo. Suits curious kids who are happy on a long walk.
Each November the Sociedad Micológica de Madrid lays out wild mushrooms its members have gathered, each one labeled edible, toxic or of no interest. It's a hands-off way for kids to learn which mushrooms not to touch on a forest walk. Kids can also enter a drawing contest, sketching a mushroom from a slide while parents look around.
Hábitat Madrid is the city's season of nature activities, run from environmental centers in three big parks. Kids plant in a family vegetable garden, track animal prints, build bird feeders and join bird walks, all led by environmental educators. Each session has a set age range and needs booking, so it suits families who plan a few weeks ahead.
La Calbotada is Rozas de Puerto Real's chestnut festival, when the town roasts and tastes chestnuts from its own groves. They are the biggest chestnut woods in the Madrid region, with some trees over a century old. It is a village tradition rather than a big fair, so it suits families who will pair it with an autumn walk in the woods or around the Morales reservoir.
The yearly pumpkin party at El Huerto del Retiro, the city's environmental education center and garden inside Retiro Park. Local growers sell food from their stalls, a singer plays a short set, and the municipal nursery hands out free plants. Older kids can join a booked workshop making decorative pumpkins from old fabric, and a contest crowns the biggest and rarest pumpkins of the year.
A certified organic family farm in the Jarama valley where kids push a wheelbarrow into the field and pick their own pumpkin. Between rounds there's a hay maze, a slide and hay-bale photo spots, plus a shop terrace where parents can sit. On workshop days a booked session adds a tractor ride, farm animals and hollowing out and decorating a pumpkin. Works well for toddlers and younger school kids.
Every fall the Botánico's gardeners set out about 30 kinds of pumpkin from the garden's vegetable plot, outside the Santiago Castroviejo greenhouse. Kids spot giant Big Max pumpkins, sponge gourds and the bottle-shaped pilgrim's gourd that children nickname the "canteen". It's look, don't touch, so it suits a curious kid more than one who wants to pick a pumpkin. The plot where they grew is a short walk away.
An arboretum on the slopes of Monte Abantos, with more than 200 species of trees and shrubs from every corner of Spain. Paths and viewpoints wind through it, past a charcoal kiln, resin-tapping trees, beehives and a trap for pine processionary caterpillars. In fall many of the trees change color. The paths are steep in places, so it suits kids happy to climb.
La Pedriza is a maze of granite boulders, domes and rock towers in the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park. The park's visitor center sits at its entrance, with an exhibition on the sierra and a two-hectare garden holding a rock garden, a mini Pedriza, a bird hide, an aquarium and a reptile and amphibian center. Trails into the rocks start just past the barrier.
Tejera Negra is a beech forest in the Sierra Norte de Guadalajara, where the leaves turn gold, orange and red in fall. The long Senda del Robledal starts at the visitor center. The shorter Senda de Carretas starts at an inner parking lot and winds through the beeches past a meadow that makes a good rest stop.
It suits kids who can hike several kilometers on rough ground.
Hayedo de Montejo is a protected beech forest on the banks of the Jarama river, part of a UNESCO World Heritage site. You can only go in on a guided walk in a small group, along one of three paths. In fall the beeches turn gold and copper.
It suits kids who can walk a couple of kilometers on forest paths and stay with the group.
La Herrería is the old royal forest below the El Escorial monastery, still owned by Patrimonio Nacional. Paths cross meadows of big ash trees, oak woods and a chestnut grove that has spread past the walls of the El Castañar estate, with stone fountains along the way. The classic family walk climbs gently to the Silla de Felipe II, a rock viewpoint looking back over the monastery.