Hotels in Madrid: ten places to stay, sorted by the neighbourhood that suits you

The heavyweight address

The hotel occupies part of Centro Canalejas, a block of former bank buildings between Puerta del Sol and the Paseo del Prado, and you feel the scale of it as soon as you step inside. The public rooms are tall and bright, the bedrooms have deep windows, and up top there is a terrace with the rooftops of the old centre spread out on every side.

You stay here to stop thinking. Everything works, the staff remember your name, and Sol, the Prado and Las Letras are all on foot. The price reflects that. It appeals to travellers who want one big hotel to solve the whole trip, less so anyone after neighbourhood character or a smaller, more local feel.

Art deco in the writers' quarter

On Calle Echegaray, a narrow street a couple of minutes from Plaza de Santa Ana, sits a hotel that looks as though it has always been there. The lobby is dark, warm and furnished in art deco pieces, and the bar is the kind of room where you stay longer than you meant to.

Rooms are generous by Madrid standards and the hotel is small enough to feel personal. It is a strong first choice if you have never been to the city: you are in the middle of Las Letras, tapas bars on every side, with the Prado ten minutes away on foot. Light sleepers should ask for a high floor, because this street does not go quiet on Friday or Saturday night.

Gran Vía from the top floor

The entrance is discreet, on a side street off Gran Vía, and that is deliberate. You take the lift up and the reception sits at the top of the building, beside a roof terrace that looks straight down the avenue towards the Metrópolis building. The distance from the traffic below makes the city handsome again.

Rooms are classic, with dark wood and big beds, and the mood is closer to a private club than a grand hotel. It works for couples and for anyone with theatre or concert tickets along Gran Vía. Families will miss the space and the calm, and the terrace is an adult place after dark.

The garden between the museums

The hotel stands on Plaza de la Lealtad with the Prado as its nearest neighbour and Retiro a couple of minutes away. The old palace hotel has been restored from top to bottom, yet the garden terrace is still the room that defines it. You sit under the trees and the traffic on the Paseo del Prado is a distant hum.

This is Madrid's most formal hotel, in the best sense: white tablecloths, soft-footed staff and bedrooms full of light. It is well suited to a big occasion, an anniversary or a trip built around the art. If you want things relaxed and local, it is the wrong place, and you are paying for a standard you need to actually want.

The station hotel that does not feel like one

The hotel sits on Paseo de la Infanta Isabel, right by Atocha station, where the high-speed trains to Seville, Barcelona and Valencia depart. Inside there is little to suggest a station: a tall, bright lobby with a restaurant and bar that locals use as much as guests, and bedrooms in calm colours.

It is the clever choice if Madrid is one stop on a longer Spanish trip, or if you are travelling with children and want big rooms and a lobby where they can sit with a juice while you repack. Retiro and the museums are a short walk. The drawback is that the immediate area is dead in the evening, so you walk or take the metro to Las Letras for dinner.

The Castellana, slowed down

Villa Magna faces the Paseo de la Castellana, the broad avenue that cuts the city in two, but the building is set back from the road behind trees and a small forecourt. The effect is a calm that surprises you once you know how much traffic is passing outside.

Inside it is bright, modern and hushed, with some of the largest bedrooms in the city. It is a hotel for shopping in Salamanca, for business meetings, or simply for peace. If you want tapas bars and busy streets outside the door, you are too far north here and will end up taking taxis down to the centre.

Salamanca without the Salamanca price

On Calle Hermosilla, a couple of blocks from Calle Serrano, is a hotel that has understood something simple: people who want to stay in Salamanca do not all want to pay palace prices. Tótem is contemporary, with dark panelling, good lighting and a ground-floor bar that pulls in people from the surrounding streets.

The rooms are not large but they are well thought out, and you pay noticeably less than the neighbours for the same postcode. It suits travellers who like a quiet base and an evening out in a district where they are the only tourist. If museums and the old centre are the point, you are better off further south.

A rooftop pool on Velázquez

Bless sits on Calle Velázquez among Salamanca's shopping streets, and the first thing to know is that it has a pool on the roof. It is not big, but in July, when the asphalt holds the heat long into the evening, it is worth more than anything else a hotel can offer.

The style is glamorous, all heavy fabrics, mirrors and gold, and the restaurant and bar are places locals go to rather than just guests. It is a good fit for a trip with some glitter in it, and summer visits in particular. If you prefer understated and Nordic, Villa Magna a few streets away is a better fit.

The townhouse with its own garden

Calle Orfila is a quiet residential street in Chamberí, and the hotel occupies an old townhouse with a small garden at the back. You walk in from the street and out into greenery in under a minute. With a few dozen rooms it is the smallest hotel in this guide, and you notice: the staff know who you are by the first evening.

The interiors are classic, with antiques and heavy curtains, and the garden hosts breakfast and dinner whenever the weather allows. It is our pick for a romantic weekend and for anyone who wants to stay somewhere nobody else has heard of. Sol is a twenty-minute walk or a few metro stops. If you want modern design and pace, look elsewhere.

Chueca with polish

The hotel is on Calle Barquillo, on the line between Chueca and the quieter Justicia quarter, in an old palace reworked with plenty of glass, deep blues and greens. The lobby runs straight into bar and restaurant, and on an ordinary Thursday it is full of people who live nearby.

Bedrooms are colourful and well equipped, and the location puts Chueca's bars round the corner and Gran Vía five minutes away. It is the choice for design-minded travellers who want to be inside the nightlife rather than near it. Sleep can be short at weekends and the hotel is more sociable than serene, so ask for a room at the back if you want to be asleep before two.