My husband and I are going to spend 3 or 4 nights in Madrid in mid-September at the end of a tour. We prefer an apartment rather than a hotel. We'd like to stay in the central part of Madrid so we can walk to sites such as the Royal Palace and also the museums/sites near the Prado. We live in a rural area of the US so we're not used to noise - I know it's noisy in Madrid, but we're looking for a place that's reasonably quiet. Does anyone have advice on places they've stayed or services they've used. We've used VRBO in the US and Malaga Spain and Trip Advisor in Australia in the past.
Thanks
Posted by
Washington DC
27103 posts
I usually stay in hotels, but I know that booking.com lists a lot of apartments as well as more traditional lodgings. An advantage of that platform is that you cannot leave a review there if you haven't actually stayed at the property. I've found the hotel reviews generally quite accurate about things like noise, quality of Wi-Fi, etc. For a September trip to Madrid, reliable air conditioning would also be important. If you don't get suitable recommendations from the forum, I suggest trying booking.com. If you come up with some good options, people here can probably at least comment on their locations.
You can use Google Maps to get walking-time estimates from the apartment to the Prado and to the Palacio Real. I see that the total walking distance between the palace and the museum is just over 1 mile, so a place sort of in the middle would work well, logistically. Madrid has a good subway system, but the Prado and (especially) the palace are not super-close to a Metro station.
Posted by
Hudson Valley
2267 posts
I've used both VRBO and AirBnB in Madrid with no issues. Another option would be to look for 'Aparthotels', which are like they sound- 'all suite', extended-stay kind of hotels, with kitchens in the rooms and limited common area hotel services.
Noise per location can be very specific. The above rental sites allow for communication with the host before booking, so if the listing or its reviews don't give enough info, you could reach out to address the concern/ask the question.
Posted by
OP
8 posts
Thanks for the ideas. I will look at all of these sites. It's still a ways out but I know some of the apartments I've looked at are already partially booked for September. In looking at Booking.com, they seem to have some of the same properties that are shown on VRBO. They also have vendors that seem to have whole apartment buildings with rentals. I had not found 'Aparthotels in my searches so thanks for that suggestion. Lots of ideas. Thank you again.
Posted by
Calgary
1647 posts
We stayed at this aparthotel and liked it: https://www.jardinesdesabatini.com/en/ We had a gorgeous view of the palace and could walk to it and to the centre. We took the metro to the Prado and the Reina Sofia, but it was easy, because there was a metro stop very close by.
It's not in a residential area, but I can't remember being bothered by noise at all. It probably had good windows, as many places in Europe do.
Posted by
Los Angeles
954 posts
I also am looking at apartments in Madrid. We use AirBnB or a recommended vacation rental organization when traveling. Some of the Rick Steve travel guides list agencies (like the London book) but I don't see any in my Spain book for Madrid.
I see that Plum Guide has some rentals in Madrid but I have never used them, nor do I know anything about them other than some mentions on this Travel Forum.
Posted by
OP
8 posts
Thank you all. After tossing around several options, we decided to extend our stay in Madrid and rented an apartment through VRBO near the Puerto del Sol. From reading the Madrid section of the RS Spain book, we've identified several tours to take as well as Rick's walking tour suggestions. From Madrid we've decided to rent a car and drive through the Pyrenees for 5 days before ending up in Barcelona for 4 days. Should be quite the trip.