Local knowledge. Personal judgement. Care in every choice.
Upper Madrid began without a name.
We have lived in Madrid since 2014. For years we organised trips for demanding friends and a handful of clients who arrived by word of mouth: the difficult reservation, the itinerary rewritten the night before, the right table for an occasion that could not go wrong. We did it because we enjoyed it, and because we knew the city well enough to know what was worth someone's time.
In time it became clear that there was a method to it, and that the method held well beyond a circle of friends. Upper Madrid is the decision to widen that work without losing what made it work: a limited number of trips each season, and real attention paid to every one of them.
We believe luxury in travel is not what you accumulate but what you are spared: the queue, the doubt, the badly judged journey across town, the meal that was not worth it, the feeling of always running late. What takes their place is time, and time is the only thing a journey really offers.
One person answers for every trip.
Upper Madrid is not a layered organisation. The person you speak to first is the person who designs your trip and the person who answers when something changes during your stay.
Viviany Costa
Viviany Costa has lived in Madrid since 2014. More than ten years in one city does not make anyone an expert by default, but it does make a difference in concrete ways: knowing when a neighbourhood has changed in character, which places are still good once the fashion has passed, what time somewhere stops being worth it, and which addresses nobody recommends because nobody writes about them.
That knowledge did not come from research. It came from living here, from hosting people she cares about, and from spending years answering the same question, always in writing and always tailored: what do I do with my five days in Madrid? To deliver it she works with a small network of collaborators in Madrid, guides, art historians, drivers and photographers, chosen one by one over those years and called upon only when a trip calls for them.
Judgement before recommendation.
We know it before we suggest it
We do not recommend restaurants, guides or suppliers we have not tried ourselves or verified with recent clients.
We are independent
We take no hotel commissions. Where any commercial relationship with a supplier exists, you are told.
We review constantly
Madrid changes. Kitchens change hands, neighbourhoods shift in energy, and what was good two years ago may not be now. Our list is under continuous review.
We say no
If an experience is not up to standard or does not suit your trip, we say so, even when it is the thing you asked for.
Five principles, without the rhetoric.
Less, better
We would rather have four right choices than twelve possibilities.
Discretion
What we know about your trip stays between us.
Honesty about limits
We do not promise access or reservations that depend on other people.
Time as raw material
We plan so that the day fits inside the day.
Presence
We are in Madrid, and that changes everything when something goes off plan.
The best way to know us is to talk to us.
No obligation, and no automated system at the other end. A person reads what you write and replies.