Will be in Madrid 2 days in July and would like to know of a **** or better hotel recommendations for two adults and 1 teenager . What is the best location to be at?
Have a total of 7 days and am trying to see what is the best way to maximize this trip.
Don't mind renting a car for some of the trip and taking the bullet train as well.
If anyone has suggestions that would be great - Thanks!

I just loved the Hotel Intur Palacio San Martin, which is a 4* hotel and very central and convenient as it's near several metro stops. It's also within walking distance of the Opera, Palacio Real, and Plaza Mayor, and the main shopping drags around there (I guess that is the Gran Via).

www.intur.com

I'm not a Madrid expert (hopefully they'll chime in) but we recently stayed at the Melia Madrid Princesa and really liked it. There's a metro stop right there, as well as a stop for the hop-on hop-off bus, which we found to be an excellent way of getting an overview of the city. It's also close to Plaza Espana and Gran Via. It's a big modern Spanish hotel chain, but after all the hard beds we slept on in Portugal and Spain, we were overjoyed to have a really comfortable bed at the end of our trip.

There are hotel recommendations and lots more at www.maribelsguides.com.

The location is pretty lousy, but I LOVED this hotel:

http://www.hoteles-silken.com/hotel-...merica-madrid/

Just awesome. A who's who of design.

And the location isn't that lousy, near a metro stop. We definitely sprang for cabs, but we didn't feel overly limited. The design was totally worth it. We stayed in the Zaha Hadid and the Ron Arad rooms. Preferred the Zaha Hadid.

My favorite 5 stars, conveniently located downtown, near the museum triangle

Palacio del Retiro
(across from Retiro Park)

Wellington
(on chic Calle Velázquez, near the park, but pool is closed for renovation this summer)

Westin Palace
(a Starwood)

Derby Villa Real
(exceptionally low rates this summer-pool privileges at the teeny, tiny rooftop "2 bath tubs put together" dipping pool of the sister Urban)

ME by Meliá
(your teen would LOVE this one-also competitive summer rates)

Urban
(teen would love this one too, but really compact standard rooms)


handy 4 stars with most sights walk-able:

Catalonia las Cortes
(in Barrio de las Letras, extremely handy to museum mile)

De las Letras
(hip, trendy, fashionable, chill-out roof bar)

Vincci Soho
(in Barrio de las Letras, same street as Catalonia Las Cortes)