Terry

In June, my wife & I will have a 3 1/4 hour layover (Ibiza to Madrid to JFK) in Madrid. What can we see/do in that time and not miss our flight to JFK?

ger

Terry: <BR> <BR>I'd like to able to say that you have enough time to visit Madrid .. but I can't! Hopefully someone will know of interesting attractions around the airport. Please advise if the 3.5 hours includes/does not include customs/checkin. <BR> <BR>Is there a possibility of an earlier flight from Ibiza that might give you sufficient time to visit one of the many great museums in this city? I can guarantee that it would be worth it. Or even better, can you come in the night before? <BR> <BR>Regards .. Ger

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Terry

GER - Thanks so much for your reply. As of now, the flight from Ibiza is the earliest and because of connecting flight at JFK,I am not yet able to change our departure from Madrid. I am still hopeful that I may be able to arrange a longer (8 hours is my goal) Madrid layover. Do you know any interesting distractions in the Madrid airport to get us through the 3 hour layover if something longer can't be arranged?

ALW

I'm sorry, but I think you're in for a long, boring wait. Maybe you can use it to write postcards? (That wasn't sarcastic -- it's really what I do. That and nap.)

Maribel

Terry, <BR>I agree with Ger that your 3 1/4 hr. layover at Barajas, which could turn out to be much less (particularly if flying Iberia during the summer!), just doesn't allow you enough time to go in to downtown Madrid to do any sightseeing. The Puerta del Sol (dead center downtown) is a half hr taxi ride away at mid-morning, unless it's a Sun. (Madrid traffic has become even more horrendous lately) and about 45 min. by the metro with 2 transfers. And the area around Barajas airport is simply populated by the new highrises of multinational corporations, a few airport hotels, a Hypercor hypermarket along with a small branch of El Corte Ingles, a huge intl convention/conference center called the Parque Ferial Juan Carlos and suburban sprawl. Because the airport is extremely busy and congested during the summer, it may take longer to negotiate your way from T2 or T3 (domestic flights) to your gate in T1 (international departures) than you had anticipated. Our gate, the last one in the new section of T1, was a long, long hike! If you need to do some last minute shopping (here I go again, Ger, trying to give another boost to the Spanish economy!), you'll find a really impressive array of snazzy duty free shops to tempt you, the best ones being in the C and B departure areas-area A, the furthest out, only has one Aldeasa store with a much smaller selection of everything. I always take care of last minute gifts before leaving the B section. We had a 2 1/2 hr. wait at T1 recently, and we whiled away the time, which went by quickly, window shopping at the "luxury items" store, browsing the large selections of wines and brandies in the Aleasa store in gate area C, sampling cheeses in the Mallorca shop, picking up some last minute small gifts of ceramics, fans and leather at the Museu/Musei store, which handles the articles found in the gift shops of the <BR>"Reales Sitios", the Prado/El Escorial/La Granja/Alcazar de Sevilla, etc. , , listening to and buying a CD that we had missed, plus time to get our VAT refund forms stamped at the counter right after passing through customs, to write postcards and to have our last Spanish tortilla, croquetas and jamon serrano and a mini bottle of Rioja at the restaurant (upstairs) so we could forgo the very so-so US Air in-flight meal. I think that the wait might go by more quickly than you think-I hope so! <BR>If you're able to manage an 8 hr. layover, then there are plenty of great things to do and see in Old Madrid-let us know if you can-you'll get plenty of great suggestions from the Forum. <BR>Have a great time in Ibiza!