My wife and I are spending 2 weeks in Spain in July.

We are going to start with 4 or 5 days in Madrid.

I would appreciate recommendations for medium priced, friendly, charming, hotels in Madrid - not in noisy locations - with perhaps interior courtyards. Air conditioning is, of course, essential.

We were thinking about staying near the Plaza de Mayor but would consider other similar locations.

Thanks in advance.

Bob

we rented an apt. for 5 nights in April from Spain-Select. It was a very good experience at a reasonable cost.
http://www.spain-select.com/

I guess it all comes down to your budget and level of confidence. As already noted, we highly recommend Spain Select for many reasons, one is the quality of their rentals and the other is the level of support from the staff.

Another would be the Ramon de la Cruz apartments, which belong to the Hotel Prado Group (www.ramondelacruz41.com/). These apartments are located in Barrio de Salamanca and are quite nice for a short stay in the city.

From my 2009 Spain trip report (you can find it here on this board as well) :


Our hotel - Hotel Preciados - is lovely (sf7307 thanks for your info and recommendations!!) it seems to be right in the midst of the center of town and the room is lovely. It is large enough by European standards and the bathroom is very large. Everything is clean and well organized. The beds are the most fabulous I have ever slept in a hotel room. They are hard and firm (makes for no backaches in the mornings!!) and they have two huge wonderful pillows for each of us. A/C or heating is controlled individually in each room so that is nice too. And they work well. We have no view from the room save that of an interior wall unit but that does not bother me. There is a large safe in the room, free Wi-Fi and free drinks in the mini-bar including beer and soft drinks, juices and water.

Thank you all.

I tried to get my inquiry posted on a "Spain" rather than "Europe" board but was unsuccessful. So I'm glad you found me.

I will try to locate Flame's 2009 report.

Bob

search Madrid hotels will give you a number of suggestions

In case you could not find my report, here it is :

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...for-advise.cfm