When the Holiday Inn Express (which is actually near the beginning of one of the airport runways) was on the Point Break list, we booked three nights there and used a mistake fare on Iberia for a long March weekend in Madrid.

Initially we took a taxi/van to the hotel(expensive). But after that we learned how to get around using the city busses. Downtown was a snap. And you can get a city bus to the Holiday Inn Express with only one transfer, and the frequency is good.