silver springer

Hello Everyone. I read this thread while preparing for my trip to IC Madrid so I thought I would update some information.

I am an Ambassador member. I worked with the Ambassador staff to book a deluxe executive room, with the hope I would be upgraded to a club room. The Ambassador office actually booked two stays, the second stay included a free night with a BOGO certificate, so I stayed for three nights and paid for two.

I was not sure I had been upgraded til we arrived and were escorted to the club lounge to check in. We arrived around 9:15 am and I had emailed in advance asking if we could check in early. Susanna the Club manager did a nice job in securing a room. When there was a little glitch as it was not ready, she invited us to have breakfast in the lounge which was very gracious and appreciated.

The lounge was small and nice and never crowded during our stay. For breakfast there was a small buffet as well as a choice of several made to order egg dishes. Try the spanish omelet, which is not what you expect, it is perfectly round with potatoes on the bottom. Throughout the day there is fruit, soft drinks and cava, small sandwiches and cookies. In the evening there is more wine on offer and some small desserts. There are several English language papers and two computers and a printer.

Internet access is free with club room, both in the lounge and in your room. You can also have the buffet breakfast in the restaurant instead of the lounge.

The Intercontinental is a bit out of the main tourist sites but there are two metro stops close by. We took the metro from the airport to Nuevos Ministerios and then changed to Gregorio Maranon. It cost 2.5 Euros and was easy but there were places where we had to carry our suitcases up stairs so be warned if you have much/heavy luggage. To go to Old Madrid, we usually used the other metro stop, Ruben Dario which we took to Opera station.

For advice we found Susanna in the Club Lounge helpful. We did buy a tour from the concierge which was just okay (Pulmantur panoramic tour).

I recommend you consider taking the Free Madrid Tour by Sandeman tours that meets in the Plaza Mayor. It is a great 3 1/2 hour tour and you tip what you think it was worth. Be rested when you take this as it involves a lot of walking. We also took their tapas tour--4 hours, three stops that included tapas and drinks for 14 euros.

We found Madrid to be a beautiful and interesting city with nice people and we will likely return to Spain and Madrid. We had a wonderful stay at the IC Madrid.