28014 Travel Guide
Tags: Anti-View / Madrid Hotels / Westin Hotels / → All Tags
Room With an Anti-View:: A So-So Scene from the Westin Palace in Madrid
You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.
Thanks go to another HotelChatter tipster, tombarnes20008, who dropped this photograph into the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool. It's a picture of the view from the balcony of Room 433 in the Westin Palace Madrid, and while it's far from the ugliest anti-view we've ever seen, it's certainly a view we might be a bit disappointed to find.
Take a look around from this balcony in another direction and we're fairly sure we'll see a much prettier side of Madrid. But this view is so plain-Jane that we'd think we should've paid less than the $500 minimum you'd pay for a room like this. It's all a matter of perspective. Our expectations are just higher.
[Photo: tombarnes20008]
Tags: Spain Hotels / Madrid Hotels / Luxury Hotels / → All Tags
In Spain, A Man's Hotel Is His Castle
Can someone tell us what is up with Spain's King Alfonso XIII? He's seemingly like the 19th century version of Andre Balazs, what with his demands that Spain have the most opulent hotels in Europe. That was the expressed intent of his namesake hotel, Hotel Alfonso XIII in Seville, which is still widely regarded as the luxury property in the city, despite the presence of a few smaller but no less luxurious boutique hotels.
Then there's the Hotel Ritz Madrid, which was borne out of Alfonso's desire to build a luxury hotel to rival the Ritz in Paris. Ah, if only online guest reviews existed in 1910.
No matter, the Hotel Ritz Madrid continues to stack up pretty well against its competition in Paris and elsewhere. A member of Orient-Express and the Leading Hotels of the World, the hotel is often noted for its exceptional service and its location across the street from one of Madrid's most famed attractions, the Prado Museum.
Though some reviewers wish the hotel would update its décor, others noted that the dated design was all part of the charm.
The Hotel Ritz Madrid seems to attract all types: families, honeymooners and celebratory travelers--at least those who can afford it, given that room rates start at $885, including VAT. Hey, if you want to live like a king you've got to expect to pay like one.
[Photo: Rahego]
Tags: Madrid Hotels / Art Hotels / Spain Hotels / → All Tags
Madrid is For Art Lovers
If you're the type of traveler who only visits cities steeped in art history and who requires that the place you lay your head be it's own work of art, we've found your dream hotel package.
Madrid's art scene is so embedded in the city that even hotels are in on the action, particularly the Urban, a Design Hotel that not only is avant-garde in its design, but also houses it's own art collection, featuring original Oriental and Egyptian art work.
Through the end of the year, the hotel is running a promotion that includes two nights in a double room, a welcome bottle of Spanish red wine, daily buffet breakfast and newspaper, parking, late checkout and a Madrid Card for a day, which earns you free entry to all Madrid's museums, including the famed Prado and Thyssen. Per person prices start at $355. Be sure to mention package code GCMD121 when booking.
Photo: [Raffles.dk]
Tags: Madrid Hotel Reviews / Hotels-Near-Eurail-Stops / → All Tags
Eurail Hotel Stop: Hit the Tapas Bars from Madrid's Catalonia Las Cortes
If you're Eurailing it through Madrid soon and want a really nice hotel that won't totally break the bank, the Catalonia Las Cortes Hotel isn't bad. Situated in the Plaza de Santa Ana, right in the heart of Madrid, you can get to all the main sightseeing highlights with ease, and hit the nightlife too. And tapas bars, of course. A lot of guest reviews describe spacious rooms and well-equipped bathrooms, along with friendly service.
And while we're talking Madrid, here's somewhere not to stop, at least until October 2008: the Hotel Villa Magna Park Hyatt is about to close and spend $55 million on renovations, increasing the room sizes and adding hi-tech stuff like I-pod ports. Interestingly, Spanish law means they have to keep all the staff on during the 14 month refurbishment so they're being sent on courses to increase both their English and their hospitality skills. Not a bad job!
Check our hotels near Eurail stops map.
Have a tip about a good hotel near a Eurail stop? Shout it from the digital hilltops.
[Photo: Judy26]
Related Stories:
· Eurail Hotel Stop: The Museum at Zurich's Widder Hotel [HotelChatter]
· Park Hyatt Madrid to Get 40 Million Euro Facelift [Business Traveler]
Tags: New York Times / Madrid Hotel Reviews / Andrew Ferren / → All Tags
No Tapas, No Problem in Madrid
The New York Times actually does us a favor this week with a helpful review of a stylish hotel--with rooms under $600 a night. It's the Hotel Alicia, which is part of the Room Mate Hotel chainlet, a minimal-service, stylish hotel group for the done-staying-in-hostels set.
Reviewer Andrew Ferren gives his room high marks, as does his friend:
We've often paid three times as much for rooms in which we constantly bump into each other, dodging faux wenge-wood consoles and manqué Mies Barcelona chairs. The place is comfortable and functional with a loft aesthetic of open, flexible space, with pictures propped on broad shelves rather than hanging in gilded frames.
Though the bathroom suffers from that boutique hotel affliction of being smack in the middle of the room, it isn't a deal-breaker, as the toilet's enclosed in its own room. Just don't hold your breath for room service--there isn't any. Then again, that gives you an excuse to binge on churros.
[Photo: Matias Costa for the NY Times]
Related Stories:
· Check In, Check Out [NYT]
· Hotel Alicia reviews [TripAdvisor]
Tags: Hotel Bars / → All Tags
A Westin-Hemingway-Madrid Connection
Sipping back a cocktail at the Palace Bar in the Westin Palace Madrid you'd think it was a place that Penelope Cruz likes to frequent. Yet, in actuality this hotel was a favorite watering hole for America's own Ernest Hemingway. Of course, back then it wasn't a Westin.
The hotel's bar, located just steps from the Prado (no, not Prada) Museum, continues to be hot on the Madrid scene. Its cocktails that once so impressed Hemingway are still the rage today. If you're wondering just how good these drinks are, consider this:
The famous Palace Bar, decorated in the purest English classical style, is famous worldwide for its highly specialized cocktail preparation, in particular for its dry Martinis that were especially appreciated by one of its most outstanding clients, Ernest Hemingway, who mentioned them in his work "The Sun Also Rises".
Now if this isn't a cultural experience, what is? Sipping back Hemingway's favorite cocktail in an English bar in Madrid, Spain is so hip you may have to dress like a beatnik while you're there. If you're able to refrain, at least impress your friends with the information before the bartender even gets to you.
Related Stories:
· Westin Madrid Reviews [TripAdvisor]
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