Hotel Sofitel Plaza De Espana - Madrid, Spain     

If you want easy access to the sights and sounds of Madrid, a respectable price and a reasonable bed then this is ideal for you. We only had one full day to see all that Madrid had to offer, so chose the hop-on, hop-off tourist bus. There were two stops for that within 5 mins walk of the hotel. It's also an easy walk to Plaza d-Espana (NOT on the Plaza, as the address suggests). You can pick up the metro there. The hotel itself has a really good looking lobby, but the rooms themselves are dated. They are clean and the TV and bed were new, but the decor needs refreshing and is not the ultra-sleek look of many city centre hotels. One thing that stunned me was the cost of breakfast. It was 23.50 euros per person, for a buffet! We decided even before arriving that it was worth a walk to find food, but there are bars which open for breakfast on the doorstep of the hotel. If you want "chain restaurant" fare then there is also Starbucks, MacDonalds and Burger King, as well as some large Spanish chains. There's a VIPs store which is open until 2am. It seems like an average motorway service station, but in the centre of a city! It sells drinks and snacks, as well as souveniers, DVDs and magazines - wierd! The hotel has no restaurant and the bar costs a fortune, but again there is no need to use either. In summary, the hotel was just what we needed for a short stay. Nothing too expensive or flashy, but clean and perfectly located.

Just OK as the hotel sounds quite old for a Sofitel, and except the bed everything need to be refurbished. In addition, the personnel was just fine but not providing a high level of servce. It is important to notice that the district is not the more luxury and fency. If you stay in Madrid, I would recommend to go for an other hotel, and if you want absolutely to go for Sofitel, go to the Campo de Naciones which is very good.