Thanks lalala - did not know there is an airport bus.

Wonder if anyone knows if there is a pick up point near Atocha, and which of the NH hotels on way to airport it drops off to or near?

Glen

I had not checked this thread in a while. Thanks for all of the info. I think we will stay in the city and take a cab to the airport. Our flight departs from MAD about noon.

Good tip. ^

I see on the web that Metro 8 Pink line now goes direct to Barajas? On this Metro map, I see Atocha is on lower part of Blue Line 1. I guess if we sit on Metro to Plaza de Castilla is the fastest route?

http://www.softdoc.es/madrid_guide/maps/metro_map.html

Getting stuck in rush hour traffic in a taxi is not a good idea, and we have plenty of time up our sleeve! :p

Just an update for the record, in case it assists anyone else.

We stayed at Tryp Diana for 1 night purely as an "Airport" hotel. Nice stay, and bus was regular and fast. As you can see above, that stay was really cheap, booked direct with Hotel chain, and was cheaper than any Hotel booking site. ^

I booked for a few days later at Sieteislas Hotel Madrid, Valverde 14 28004 Madrid - for €70 + tax, as it seemed very central to Prado and stuff downtown, and for week nights rates do seem to get pretty high there.

It had some great client reviews, and was fine, price and staff were great, and rooms were quite large, which for downtown in Europe you can NEVER assume as we all know!

We booked that via www.hotel club.net and it said on voucher "Free MiniBar" which sadly was limited to sodas. :p

A SUPERB location. Easily accessible from airport by Metro, and right in the centre of EVERYTHING you want to do in MAD as a tourist. We do not carry a laptop, and there was a large web café 20 yards away on Gran Via with cheap rates, that was really handy for us.

Being right on Gran Via is exactly where you want to be as a tourist. We walked to Prado, and all other places of interest.

Doing at least half a day on the double decker Madrid red tourist buses is ESSENTIAL the moment you arrive. They run right down Gran Via of course.

They do not cost much for a day pass, and there are 3 separate loops of routes, that intersect several times, so you can get on and off at will.

They have excellent headphone commentary in most languages. It sounds real kitschy, but one of THE best tourist things I have been on anywhere on earth in terms of orientation.

You see absolutely everything you'd need to visit as a tourist, get your bearings right up front, and go back later to the places and areas that interest you most. Excellent value for ANY tourist to MADRID. :D

Credit where credit is due to this Hotel. :)

Lynn had her handbag pick-pocketed on the Metro on route to this hotel. Professional gang, very clever, lots of pushing and shoving and noise, and perplexed and angry expressions from those involved. Be SUPER careful when in Madrid - these folks work in gangs and there are 100s of them that target tourists

All her credit cards, licence, all her $US and $A and Euros (over $1000 and all un-insured of course being cash) etc. :rolleyes:

Anyways, the FIRST thing we needed to do in that Hotel was phone Australia and cancel all the credit cards etc. And phone her family to try and follow things up here etc, as house keys were involved in the theft. Took quite a while, and "800" type numbers do not work from Spain for ozzie banks!

On check out I was fully assuming this Hotel, like most larger hotels would screw me royally for all IDD It'l calls. Not that it mattered, as we had no choice to make them urgently at the time.

The TOTAL for "Teléfono" on my bill was €9.86. And that included all calls to local Madrid Police, local Amex office, airline, rail company, etc.

So credit where credit it due, to Sieteislas Hotel Madrid, as €100 would not have surprised me at all to be honest. A USA Hilton or Starwood or Hyatt sure would have been $US100 I can bet that. :mad:

Hi Glen,

Nice to see you're still on FT after all the sh*t you've been subject to by narrow-minded f'wits.

Anyways, sorry to hear about your bad experiences in Madrid, but can you advise if it appeared that this gang was home grown Spanish or Eastern European (or maybe even Latin American)?

This might help the rest of us in dealing with the problem in the future.

Cliffie.

Senator Gran Via
 

Anyone stay at the Senator Gran Via? It has good reviews on Trip Advisor but I'd like to get an FT'ers take. Thanks.