Do this first
Do this at the border: the EU Entry Exit System
Since April 10, 2026 the European Entry Exit System is fully in force. On your first entry after that date the officer takes fingerprints and a photo instead of stamping the passport, and the system counts your 90 days across every Schengen country together. ETIAS, the online authorization, is not in force yet; the EU expects it in the last quarter of 2026, at 20 euros, free for travelers over 70. One Spanish rule to know: since December 2024 hotels must collect more personal data at check in under Royal Decree 933/2021, so expect a longer form at the desk.
travel-europe.europa.eu is the only official ETIAS and EES site.
Getting in
What the border asks for
- Passport
- Valid for at least three months beyond the day you leave the Schengen area, issued within the last ten years.
- Visa for a US passport
- None for 90 days in any 180 day window, shared across the Schengen area.
- At the border
- The Entry Exit System registers you on first entry. Return ticket and hotel booking on your phone.
- ETIAS
- Not yet. Expected in the last quarter of 2026, 20 euros, three years, free over 70.
- At the hotel
- A longer registration form since December 2024. It is the law, not the hotel being nosy.
The law and the welcome
Stated plainly, and dated
- Marriage
- Legal since July 3, 2005, the third country in the world.
- The law
- Legal since 1979. The 2022 Zerolo law bans discrimination in work, housing, goods and services. Complete.
- Spartacus index
- Second in the 2026 Spartacus Gay Travel Index, tied with Malta, behind only Iceland.
- In practice
- Madrid Pride is Europe's largest. Chueca, the Gaixample, and Sitges are as at ease as anywhere you will ever stand. Gran Canaria's Maspalomas is the winter version.
The Compasserie welcome score is the house read of the law, the indexes, and what the guides' writers found on the ground. It is an opinion, and it is stated as one. The Equaldex and Spartacus figures beside it are not ours and are cited below.
Where to sleep
Where a man over fifty stays
From the Gay Madrid guide, with Barcelona and Sitges from their own guides.
- Madrid, Chueca or its quiet edge
- In the middle of Chueca the bars are at your feet and so is the noise. A few streets toward Justicia, Las Letras, or the Prado gives the same access and a calmer night.
- Barcelona, the Eixample
- The Gaixample around Consell de Cent, flat, grid streets, lifts in the modernist buildings, the metro at the corner.
- Sitges
- The gay seaside town, forty minutes from Barcelona. The seafront and the streets behind it are flat; the hillside villas are not.
- Madrid is a late city. Ask for an interior or courtyard room and sleep.
- A grande dame near the museums or a boutique in Chueca are both right; they are different moods and prices.
- Madrid in July and August is a furnace. Sitges and the coast breathe.
The body
Pharmacy and clinics
Official sources only. Spain's healthcare is among the world's best and the pharmacy on the corner is a doctor's first visit.
- Everyday prescriptions
- Up to a 90 day supply for personal use, in the original packaging, with the prescription or a doctor's certificate.
- Controlled medicines
- Narcotics and psychotropics are limited to 30 days and need an AEMPS traveler's permit requested at least 10 to 15 days before travel, plus the Schengen certificate. Amphetamine based ADHD medicines cannot be imported under any permit.
- Pharmacies
- The green cross, everywhere. Every district has a farmacia de guardia open 24 hours on rotation; the rota is posted on the door.
- Hospitals
- Quironsalud and HM are the private groups in Madrid and Barcelona; English spoken; same day appointments.
- Emergency
- 112, everywhere in Europe.
Sources: AEMPS, the Spanish medicines agency, traveler's permit for controlled medicines; Schengen Convention, Article 75.
Before you land
Six things to book
Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you book through one, Compasserie earns a commission at no extra cost to you, and it is how these checklists stay free. Where a link earns us nothing it says so. How the links pay for this.
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One
Travel medical insurance
Travel medical insurance bought the day you buy the flight. A broken hip abroad is the bill that ends trips. Check the age band and the pre existing condition wording on the quote screen before you pay. Cover for a man over seventy, and cover for a condition you already have, are the two things travel policies most often exclude, and they are the two that matter most at this age.
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Two
eSIM for your phone
An eSIM installed before you fly, so the map, the taxi app and the arrival form work the moment you land.
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Three
Hotels
The hotel, in one of the neighborhoods above, with the lift confirmed in writing.
Not an affiliate link. Compasserie earns nothing on your hotel. It is here because you need one.
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Four
Gay welcoming stays
A gay welcoming stay, for when you would rather be a guest in a home than a number at a desk.
Not an affiliate link. Compasserie earns nothing if you book here.
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Five
The airport transfer
The airport transfer booked in advance, and one unhurried tour for the first full day.
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Six
The guide
Gay Madrid: A Compasserie Travel Guide. The neighborhoods by character, the table, a sample week, and the pre trip checklist this page grew from.
Behind this checklist
Gay Madrid: A Compasserie Travel Guide
This page is the short version. The guide is the long one: thirteen chapters, the neighborhoods by character, where a man over fifty actually sleeps well, the table, an unhurried sample week, and the welcome stated plainly and dated.
Show your work
Sources, checked 2026-09-13
- European Commission, Entry Exit System. Checked 2026-09-13.
- European Union, official ETIAS site. Checked 2026-09-13.
- Equaldex, LGBT rights in Spain. Checked 2026-09-13.
- Spartacus Gay Travel Index 2026. Checked 2026-09-13.
- AEMPS, medicines carried by travelers. Checked 2026-09-13.
Quarterly. Next review December 2026. Nothing on this page is legal, medical, or immigration advice: every claim names the authority that decides it, and that authority is the one to confirm with before you travel. Found something that has changed? Write to hello@compasserie.com and we correct it.
Stay current
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