Madrid - Transportation from Madrid Airport to my hotel
 

I am travelling to Madrid on March 17 and wanted to know the easiest and most cost effective way to get from the airport to my hotel. We are staying at Comfortel Aclala Norte Hotel Madrid, Calle De San Romualdo 30 Madrid ES- 28027. Is the Metro easy and if so where would we get off and then how far to our hotel. Thanks for any suggestions!

The easiest would be to hire a private car or van from around 40 euros on up, or a taxi for a bit less once all the surcharges are added in. The least expensive would be the metro. There are various options in between like shared vans.

If no one answers your metro station question, there are many Madrid maps available online (including interactive maps), in guidebooks, etc. that will show you.

easiest is never cost effective.
take a look at the map, google your address and find the metro stop close to you hotel.

http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=h...ed=0CCIQ9QEwBg

If you have luggage you will not be happy with the metro as there are steps up and down, and more so depending on which line(s) you must take.

This hotel, according to its own website´s map, is not IN Madrid downtown at all.. it is in an industrial area with offices around, ( or so it says). It is not very near any metro stops. Seems like several blocks to one. Buses are sometimes more efficient in those cases, when there is one.

This is definitely not the most convenient area for touring.. but maybe you are going on business and your meetings are near here.

I would write the hotel and ask them to explain exactly how you are to get around on public transportation from there. Any rate savings may be spent on taxis in the end.

I'd get a cab. Your hotel is not far from the airport, half way between airport and city center. You should pay appr. €20 or less, incl. the airport surcharge.

There should be an option to go by bus with one transfer.
Take bus 200 or 204 from the airport (depends on which terminal you will arrive at), change at Avenida América (@Metro Canillejas, not "Avenida América (intercambiador)", the terminus of both lines downtown) to bus 105 towards Ciudad Lineal. Bus stop San Romualdo-Julian Camarillo should be right at the intersection where your hotel is located. I'm not quite sure if I want recommend this option for any first visitor, though.
Bus ticket costs €1.

I totally agree w/ Cowboy, just take a taxi.
As you leave the airport there is a line of taxis. Avoid anyone who approaches you inside the airport for a taxi though.

Taxis are expensive and you may be setting yourself up for a rip-off (speaking from experience).

Do yourself a favor and hire a shared shuttle transfer via Aerocity. They are very good and the price was about 21 Euros for 2 people, if I remember correctly.

I am very hesitant to recommend Areocity.

Based on recommendations on here and other places I used them for my trip last Spring

From the airport to the hotel, waited over an hour for the van to show up because we were 20 minutes early??????

Return guy was flat out RUDE and a horrid driver. He was weaving between lanes in the airport and stopped to CURSE out other drivers (I speak enough Spanish to know what he was saying!) He tossed open the back of the van and walked away to talk on his cell. (Needless to say he got 0 as a tip)

If there were other options I would take them and may just risk the taxi next time.

Checking the maps I see the Hotel is very near the Airport (T4 is farther than T1-2), so I would not bother and would take a taxi. The Metro station is (according to hotel website) 10 mins away, which you'd have to walk.
Checking taxi fares, you'd have to pay what the meter shows plus a 5,50 eur airport supplement, and nothing else. Best thing is to contact the Hotel asking how much is the fare from your airport terminal, they'll know. Some drivers get upset if the destination is near to the airport, and so they'll earn less than going to, let's say, Madrid center. Understandable as they have to waite a line too, but no excuse to be rude or refuse service. As usual: if a problem arises, call the police; and if you do not agree with fare, ask for a bill. Best thi

Just got back from our trip to Spain. We were very disappointed with the Aerocity van service. Because we had to catch a train to Sevilla and people had posted here that delays at the airport make it advisable to allow 3 or 4 hours to get from Barajas into Madrid, I reserved a private van thinking it would be quicker. Hah, hah. Spent 41 euros for nothing.

We landed at 7:15 AM, by 8 AM we were through immigration and customs. As instructed by Aerocity's email, I called their toll-free 900 number from the terminal. They told us the van would be there in 5 minutes and where to meet it, to go directly there and the van would pick us up at the curb. We went there. 5 minutes, 10, 15--no van for us though several passed us and picked up groups of people a bit further up the road. So I walked over and asked one of the drivers if he was an Aerocity driver--yes, he was. He told me to check with the booth inside the terminal.

Went to the booth--the guy in the booth was very rude and abrupt in stating that "everyone" must come to the booth first for van assignment and that we would have a van within 30 minutes. In the meantime they kept stuffing vans with people paying for the shared van rides. It seemed obvious to me that they got more money from these trips then from the 41 euros we would pay.

Fortunately, because it took us only about 45 minutes to get off the airplane and into the terminal, time wasn't an issue. To make a long story short, I began persistently bugging the guy in the booth, so in about 5 minutes instead of 30 minutes for him to come up with our private van.

Once we got in, the driver and the drive were fine. We'll take a cab next time. Though on the way to the airport at the end of the trip, the cab driver did try unsuccessfully to rip us off to the tune of about 10 euros with a variety of creative extra charges.

Just to balance the books. Some guests of mine who landed in Madrid used Aerocity. Service was acceptable. I was recently in the city and found the metro system good, but I did not have luggage

Hopefully someone in Madrid will realize that there is an opportunity. Areocity needs some competetion!!!!!

I find it strange that in Madrid there seems to a dearth of limo companies specializing in transfers to the city center or to nearby cities. Compare to Rome where there are many limo companies, many of them charging the same or slightly higher than the flat fare taxis charge between FCO and Rome.

Agre with Carol, especially now that there is high unemployment in Spain , maybe some entrepenurial individual can fulfill this need.

I was thinking about booking Aerocity for our trip next week, thanks for the heads up.
Taxi it is!

Spain has had control over those type companies making it difficult and expensive to have that service.. However, the law changed recently causing an uproar with the taxi companies as the license to have a car/ driver service ( not taxi per se) is a mere FRACTION of the price taxis have to pay for their permit. Not sure what will happen. There are many illegals doing transfers from outlaying areas who now can become legal. Hopefully it will all get ironed out soon.

Starting a business legally in Spain is more expensive /complicated than one imagines. This curtails any out-of- work entrepeneur to even THINK of it.

Not sure it will affect airport to city transfers though as there seems to be a surplus of taxis. If they didn't have such a bad reputation everyone would take them.

I think the best route to offer from the airport would be Barajas-Toledo a few times a day as a set service. One could be in Toledo before even getting on any train at Atocha.

Too bad they have so much red tape, not conducive to economic growth.

I still plan to give Aerocity a try from the airport to hotel. If it works fine I'll book the return as well. I have been scammed one time too many by the cab drivers!

cruiseluv, every country has its red tape in some form or another. Personally I would hate to find myself riding in something with doggy insurance and maintenance, plus a driver with little understanding of anything trying to rip me off.
If any of you have a problem with the services ask for a receipt, note the times & dates of travel; along with the registration of the vehicle. Then write to the City council of Madrid and say you want make a “hoja de reclamacion”
Use Google to translate the following page from Madrid, if you do not read Spanish.
http://tinyurl.com/yb8fppq

And her is another bit of information;
http://tinyurl.com/y8fasls

We, too, heard that taxis would rip us off in Madrid. But we just hate being locked into any type of shuttle reservations system and decided to take our chances with taxis. No problem at all with our two trips into the city from Madrid airport. We nabbed a cab easily and were into the city quickly with very friendly drivers. Both trips were 25E or less. For three people, not bad. Just be aware of the various surcharges the drivers MUST charge you so you don't feel as though the driver is making up stuff and make sure to get your taxi from the airports LEGAL taxi rank.

I must be the only living person who used numerous taxis in Madrid and Barcelona, to go from/to airport or for shorter city rides, and never got ripped off. I assume that some think they got ripped off because they paid more than someone else here but traveled on a holiday vs. working day, or late at night vs. during the day, or had to pay for luggage in one city but not in the other city. I won't say that there are no rip-offs but from an overall perspective you still pay a lot less to ride a taxi in Spain than in many/most other Western European big cities.