My husband and I will be travelling to Spain for the first time in June. When we have travelled to Europe before (England, France, and Italy) we have really appreciated the museums/sites that had audiguides (in English) that we could rent. We find we get a lot more out of a place if we have oral commentary than if we are just looking at things. I was trying to decide whether to go to places like Toledo and El Escorial on our own or via a bus tour from Madrid. If I knew that we could still get a tour in English or rent an English audioguide at some of the main attractions in these places, then I'd probably opt to go on our own. However if the only way to get have commentary in English is to go on a bus tour - then we'd probably go that route instead. Thanks for any help you can offer!

El Escorial can be only visited with guided groups, or at least it was so a couple of years ago, the last time I visited it. In case of Spanish speakers, one simply has to buy their ticket and wait for the scheduled time, when a guide will take over all the persons in the group. But there are official English, French, (and Italian and German, I think) speaking guides that are allowed to take you the tour for a fee. They are near the ticket office and carry a badge.

For more info, you can visit Web page of Spanish Crown Heritage (including El Escorial)

You have English audioguides in el Escorial.
Not sure about Toledo, most likely no.
As far as I can remember, the two main buildings (Cathedral and Alcazar) had none last time I went there.

Rharton-
I was in Toledo in January. Actually, I was in several cities in Spain (Madrid, Toledo, Segovia, Sevilla, Granada, Alicante, Barcelona). I am pretty sure every major tourist attraction I went to had English audio guides (and/or written guides available for free), including the Cathedral and Transito Synagogue in Toledo (didn't go to Alcazar). Usually they are available where tickets are sold. Also, a good guidebook in English can be very helpful and sometimes they even mention whether audio guides are available. I sometimes found I got more interesting/useful information from the guidebook than the audio guide.

Yes, El Escorial has tour guides in English. As far as Toledo goes, I know there are audioguides available at the Church of Santo Tomé, where El Greco's masterpiece, "The Burial of the Count of Orgaz" is located. In fact, they come free with your ticket, you just have to ask. I found the information on it very informative. As far as the cathedral, I never asked about audioguides because I knew the cathedral inside and out thanks to my Spanish Architecture class. But I would be surprised if they didn't have someting like that available. And as I think someone else mentioned, you can always buy a book at the gift shop and use it to guide you around the sites. Not as technologically advanced, but it will suffice if needed! Hope you have a great time in Spain.

Oh! I meant a guidebook, such as a city guide or country tour guide that has fairly detailed descriptions of the sights. If you buy a guidebook at each place, it could get pretty pricey

Thanks so much for posting back to me. I really appreciate it! I am so glad to hear that English tours or English audioguides will be available at at least some of the locations we want to tour in June. I know in Italy last summer we really enjoyed the Greek temples at Paestum so much better than the ones in Sicily (Segesta, Selinunte, etc) because we had an audioguide in Paestum and no such luck in Sicily. I am sure I will be posting again later with more questions. So glad to have found this great site! I have already learned some helpful tips by searching through previous posts. Thanks again!