Arriving in Madrid at 6 am

When I have an early arrival time, I get the hotel room for an extra night so I can get into my room right away. If you don’t want to do that, most hotels will hold your luggage for you.

Most hotels will store luggage for arriving guests until the room is ready. Best to be prepared with sightseeing or cafe ideas until check-in time. Or sit in the hotel lobby?

I was delighted that my room was available on an arrival hours before check-in earlier this year. Serendipity occasionally happens.

If staying somewhere where you have high status points, immediate access is more common.

Edit - the extra night idea above is good advice. Let the hotel know when you will arrive.

We are on the west coast, so long flights and jet lag are tough.

We get a hotel for arrival the night before and let the hotel know that we will be arriving early in the morning.

We do this because we arrived in Dublin once very very early. We dropped off our luggage at the hotel, begged for the earliest possible check in. Went exploring but after a couple of hours felt beyond exhausted. Went back to the lobby. Was so tired we could not stand how miserable we were and sat for hours looking miserable, The front desk staff were probably sick of looking at it, so the managed to get us in an hour earlier than check in time.

Next time we arrived in Europe early morning, and since we had that previous night reserved we got into our room, took a quick shower, explored a while until we got too tired then went back to the room. It was wonderful.

Ditto what others are saying: book the room for the prior day - do tell the hotel in advance about your arrival the next morning so they don't think you are a no show - and this problem is solved. We have been doing this for years...worth every penny.

When are you going to Spain? If it’s fall or winter, the sun doesn’t come up until a surprisingly late time. Right now, nine into days November, sunrise is 7:55 A.M., so with a flight arriving at 6:00, it’ll still be dark for another couple of hours.

If it’s May, you’ll obviously have more daylight, starting sooner. As for sightseeing readiness, a few years ago, I actually fell asleep while standing against a wall at the Prado. Late Spanish dinner hours don’t exactly help with adjusting the body in the next few days after an overnight flight.

Arriving in April