It is hard not to fall in love with Madrid. Not many people get to visit Madrid once, let alone multiple times throughout their life. For those that do plan on visiting this city, they probably want to see as much as they can while they are there. This often means that they plan out an itinerary to try many of the sights. In order to see much of the city, you don't necessarily need to make a plan. There are a lot of reasons why you should ditch the itinerary when you are visiting Madrid and just enjoy yourself.

You Don't Want To Miss Out On A Special Event
Throughout various times of the year there are special events that take place in Madrid. For instance, in the summer quite a few festivals occur including Vallekas Water Battle, which is basically an excuse to drench everyone in the streets with water. If you have your entire trip mapped out, you will miss out on a lot of these types of events that you might find out about at the last moment.

It's Cheaper Than Other Areas In Europe
One of the best things about Madrid is that it's fairly inexpensive considering it's a capital city. So what this means is that while you are in the city you might feel the need to splurge on certain experiences since you could end up with more cash than you thought you would. An itinerary could ruin all this. There's no room for adding in activities, even if they are affordable. In the end you might actually see less things with an itinerary than you would if you didn't have one.
 

It's Fun Just To Follow The Architecture
As we all know Madrid has some amazing architecture. It's pretty fun just to wander about checking out building after building. This will allow you to enjoy the tree-lined streets and discover some of the best hole in the wall places. The spontaneity of just wandering about and exploring can be one of the highlights of your trip. You could easily find that you've wandered to the Paseo de Recoletos or the Plaza de Colon. Now, if you are afraid that you will miss some things that you really wanted to see while you are in Madrid, you could always have an itinerary for a day or two and just throw caution to the wind and go wherever you want on a whim during the rest of your trip.
 

All this being said, not all of us are adventurous. For those that prefer at least to get an orientation of a city and then explore on your own, consider a custom trip such as Monograms Vacations where you have your hotels and transfers taken care of, and then you can add a few tours here and there to get a feel for what parts of the city you want to revisit on your own.