Asia board regular needs help with Europe!
 

Hello all!!!! My wife and I are over on the Asia boards almost everyday, since that is the part of the world we most often travel to.
We decided to take advantage of AA's low fares to Germany and do a mileage run in early March. To get the good fare I had to be creative in our routing, we are spending a few days with a friend in london, then we are off to Madrid, we only have 24 hours there and are looking for some help with hotel and something fun to do in our short time there? We are open to any suggestions, except museums! I think we would like to stay close to the airport since we are there for such a short time, is there anything to see around there???? After that we are off to Frankfurt for the same 24hours, and have the same question here as we did for madrid!!!!????? Any help with Hotel and fun stuff to do will be appreciated!!!!!!

Thanks in advance for your help, and look forward to reporting back to the Asia people about the wealth of info i got over here ;)

almost forgot, for hotels we are looking at about US $200 a night.

Jeffrey and April

Central Madrid is not that far from the airport and is much more fun!
The restaurants often open for dinner at 9:00 P.M. and the drinking and eating can go into the early dawn.
During the day you can take a bus tour and see the highlights.
What is your idea of fun?
If you are not interested in art, perhaps a flamenco show ? a flee market? just wondering around beautiful streets and parks? shopping?

The shopping and flea markets are up at the top of the list for my wife!

"El Rastro is a street market of medieval origin where one can find practically anything. Every Sunday between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., numerous posts offer books, antiques, clothes, shoes, flowers, fruits, collector’s items and an endless amount of new and used objects. El Rastro is one of the most emblematic symbols of Madrid and is a requisite visit while staying in the capital."

If you are looking for more affordable items shop around Sol area, if you are into luxury goods - barrio Salamanca

I guess I also forgot to say that we will be in Madrid on sat through sun morning, and Frankfurt on sun afternoon till monday afternoon.

Any ideas on hotels with easy access to the airport and a little something to do close by, in either city?
Thanks again

With 24 hours in Madrid, I would stay in the city. There are lots of fun things to do in Madrid, but none of them are near the airport as far as I know.

I would stay near the Plaza Santa Ana. I have stayed at the Hotel Room Mate Alicia, a new hotel with a fun, modern design in a historic building on the Plaza. There are tapas bars surrounding the plaza, lots of outdoor tables with a lively atmosphere until late at night.

I would go to the midnight flamenco show saturday night at Casa Patas (http://www.casapatas.com/). I have been there twice and really enjoyed it. There is also a restaurant attached, where I had a very nice meal, but with only one night in Madrid, you probably want to eat dinner somewhere else.