Hola! We hope to find a lovely historic inn in the country or a small village within an hour of the Madrid airport. Ideas?
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
6522 posts
I’ll suggest looking in Alcala de Henares. It’s about 34 miles from the airport on the same side of the city and accessible by train. One hotel option is the Parador. It is housed in what used to be a 17th century monastery school and centrally located. Of course, there are plenty of other hotels in that city too. 26 miles south of the city is Chinchón. It’s smaller but I’m not certain about public transportation to the airport from it. There is a Parador there too that was formerly the monastery of St. Mary of Paradise.
Posted by
Washington DC
27092 posts
I've been to both those places and liked them. Alcala de Henares feels, and is, much larger. I was surprised to see its population is over 200,000. I would never have guessed anything like that. But if you really, really want a "small village", this may not be the time for Alcala. It has a beautiful historic center, though. It's great for strolling. It's 19 miles from the airport and 20 miles from Madrid.
Chinchon is about 1/40 the size of Alcala. It has a strollable historic area as well, but there's definitely some uphill walking involved. It's 28 miles from Madrid and 34 miles from the airport.
I am guessing you'll have a rental car you plan to drop off at the airport so I won't get into the public-transit situation. If driving, you would not drive through Madrid on the way from Alcala to the airport. Driving from Chinchon, you wouldn't go through the center; you'd be skirting Madrid on the east side. I have no idea what driving conditions would be like from either.