Hotel recommendation

We are long time fans of Hotel Europa in the center of Madrid --- five or six trips. Don't the name in Barcelona but it was in Steves' guidebook.

We too have stayed at Hotel Europa in Madrid on 3 of our last 4 visits there. Earlier this month the Puerta Del Sol was a big construction zone. Hopefully it will be finished by the time you visit. If you do decide to stay at Hotel Europa, don’t get the breakfast it offers. It isn’t worth the price and there are better places to get breakfast.

Hi BG,
I always start my lodging searches right here on the forum because I value the personal recommendations offered here by forum contributors. I do a search here for “lodging in X” or “BnBs/ hotels in X”, make a list of those that appeal to me. Then I usually move on to look at additional reviews of those specific hotels/bnbs/apartments on Tripadvisor.com and Booking.com or AirBnB. That narrows down my list. Then I go directly to the property website. Here on the forum there are numerous recommendations for both Madrid and Barcelona. The search function can be found in top left of page by clicking on the menu icon ( a set of five short parallel lines.).

I am a fan of booking an apartment when in a city for more than a few nights. And when in apartments, I prefer to be in residential neighborhoods near, but not smack in the middle of tourist areas. I shop for groceries with locals, I have coffee in the neighborhood place. Not only is this often a good value, but also lets me experience a place in a more integral way, a way that's harder to achieve when in a hotel.

In Madrid, I'd look at places outside of the triangle drawn by connecting Gran Via, Sivilla Metro, the plazas Sol & Mayor, and the Royal Palace. Just north, south, or east of there is the sweet spot.

In Madrid, we have rented apartments that you can find through Airbnb and VRBO under the name “At Home in Madrid.” Gorete, the owner, is very responsive and the properties are very clean and well maintained. I think most of her apartments are near Plaza Santa Ana, so centrally located.

Regarding Airbnbs in Barcelona, it's important to double check to see if a particular listing has a H.U.T license/number (Habitatge d’ús turistic), this is required for short term tourist stays in Barcelona. If the listing does not have/provide one, then it's probably an illegal listing and I would look for another one.

It's been a while since I was there, but the Vincci Capital on the Gran Via was a great place to stay for my trip. It's extremely centrally located, prices were very reasonable. We got a room with a balcony overlooking the Gran Via, perfect for a glass of wine in the evening. At the time, they had a spa you could rent for private use. It was a wonderful way to unwind after a couple of long days of exploration.

We will be doing a trip to Spian (and Portugal) in Sep/Oct, and plan to stay in Madrid as well. We found Airbnb in Europe was not as good/trustworthy as in NA during our past two Europe trips, so we have been mostly using booking.com since (and became a "genius" member with 10%-15% discount after some usage), without any issue.

FYI: when using booking.com, we always choose:
- free cancellation
- 9+ (out of 10) review score (with lot reviewers)
- good/central location
- comfortable bed (based on reviews)
- not noisy (based on reviews of the same room/apartment)
- Entire homes & apartments (with kitchen) for 2+ night stay
(- washing machine would be a bonus for 5+ nights stay)

For our Madrid stay in Oct, we booked "New Point Opera" on booking.com.

In March, I rented a 2 bedroom apartment from Casp74 Apartments in Barcelona and loved it. Good location and nice 24 hr staffed office. They also have 1 bedroom units.

In Madrid we stayed at the Westin Palace Hotel - highly recommend. Loved the location.

In Barcelona we have an airbnb- will post after we stay there.

In 2017, we stayed at the Hotel Artrip, and would gladly stay there again. It's an easy walk from Atocha.