Opera Hotel, Madrid

...of the Royal Palace, the Opera Theatre and Puerta del Sol as well as Gran Via with its traditional shops, fashion centres and big stores. Being at the centre it is also close to the area of museums such as Prado, Thyssen and Reina Sofia, the restaurants and cafes and the parks and gardens. We used it as a great central base to explore the wonderful sights of Madrid.

We stayed in a twin room. It was not a problem to remove the bedside ...
...a double. However, the cot that we pre ordered was initially not available and took some awkward explaining to hotel staff that what we needed was a cot and not a sofa bed for our one year old child. Who says the continentals are better at understanding the needs of children? Some knowledge of Spanish was helpful and was finally successful. It was not a cot we'd use at home but it was safe enough.
The floor, though, was a different matter. ... more

This traditional hotel is situated in the very centre of historical Madrid. Therefore the transfer time from the airport is one of the least. We took the train into the centre and then walked to the hotel. Without children this is a fairly reasonable distance to cover on foot but it was a bit too far with our small child in a buggy so we would advise a taxi if you travel with children. (I mean from the train station in the centre, not from the airport, as that would be far too expensive.) The neighbourhood of the hotel consists of the Royal Palace, the Opera Theatre and Puerta del Sol as well as Gran Via with its traditional shops, fashion centres and big stores. Being at the centre it is also close to the area of museums such as Prado, Thyssen and Reina Sofia, the restaurants and cafes and the parks and gardens. We used it as a great central base to explore the wonderful sights of Madrid.

We stayed in a twin room. It was not a problem to remove the bedside table separating the beds and push them together to make a double. However, the cot that we pre ordered was initially not available and took some awkward explaining to hotel staff that what we needed was a cot and not a sofa bed for our one year old child. Who says the continentals are better at understanding the needs of children? Some knowledge of Spanish was helpful and was finally successful. It was not a cot we'd use at home but it was safe enough.
The floor, though, was a different matter. Throughout the bedroom and walk-in bathroom, the floor was very shiny and very hard. It was virtually impossible to walk in socks because we slid all over the place and we were very worried about our child falling and hurting herself. In fact we had to ban her from the bathroom after she wandered in and slipped in the shower. We were very lucky that she didn't have a serious injury from that.
The room was pretty spacious for our needs and gave our daughter somewhere to play on the floor. There was a television but with only Spanish channels. However we were amused by the Spanish version of "Who wants to be a millionaire?" You must catch it if you can. The presenter was unintentionally hilarious without having to understand any Spanish. But I digress…
A very useful object in the room was a little safe. We could set our own combination to keep all our valuables secure inside and yet still be instantly available.

We stayed on a bed & breakfast basis. However, on our first evening we ate at the restaurant that was also open to the public. It was rather crowded and didn't really serve anything my daughter could eat. We ate elsewhere after that. Not only for that reason but because as with most Spanish restaurants they served dinner too late for us. The locals eat much later than we do. A good thing was that they provided free milk for our child's bottle though we had to learn to ask for it to be cold as their warm was decidedly too hot for my daughter. We had to cool it ourselves under the cold tap!

Another thing I would like to point out was when we left. Our next leg of our trip was taking us to the main railway station. This time we decided to go by taxi as it was too far to walk with our luggage, having travelled the distance the previous day as part of our own walking sightseeing tour. Outside the hotel were parked a couple of taxis and the drivers were often inside chatting to the reception. So we asked for one of them as that indicated to us that they were unofficially recognised by the hotel. If they were, then they should be ashamed. We were ripped off by an extortionate fare due to the driver going a deliberately long way round via the outskirts of the city. However, we didn't have the time or the knowledge of Spanish to remonstrate with the driver, so all we can do is warn others.

Overall we had a pleasant enough stay at this hotel. After all it was just a base and we spent all day outside exploring. Just be careful about the floors!
 

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