As in December 2010, we flew to Spain for Christmas vacations on December 27 from de. After few days in La Coruna, in the northwest part of Spain, we arrived in Madrid for the New Year's Eve and stayed again in Hotel Europa (we stayed from December 28, 2011 to January 3, 2012). This hotel is the best one if you decide to celebrate in Puerta del Sol Square. Most of the rooms are just in front of this place so you and your family or friends can spend the night in the balcony of your room looking the TV (the celebration is transmitted by TVE1, one of the television channel in Spain) and the crowded people in the Square. Really it is very excited! The room, as usual, very clean. The Staff are excellent, specially Raul, Javier and the other personnel who attend the Front Desk.

The hotel has Wifi and two computers in the Lobby, available for customers free of charge. As always be aware that the room rate rises considerably from December 29, 30 and 31. In addition, the security box should be requested and the charge is approximately 2 euros per day.
This hotel is centrally located so you have a lot of shops, restaurants and cafeterias around. The hotel has his own Restaurant-Cafeteria which opens very early in the morning and offers breakfast, lunch and dinner and also room service to the customers.

Just in front of the hotel you have the Sol Metro Station, which is very useful for your transfer to the Airport or to the AVE train to Sevilla, Valencia or Barcelona (you can take the Sol Metro to Atocha Station to connect with the AVE train). In addition, you can take the Sol Metro to Chamartin, another Rail Station in Madrid. Definitely, we recommend this hotel, specially for Christmas.

We enjoyed our stay at the Hotel Europa at the beginning of our European trip, so we asked for and got the same room at the end of our trip. Best features of the hotel were the great bathroom, room size, comfort, price, location and helpful staff. The large corner room had two balconies, both opening to the Plaza Sol – heart of Madrid, and a lively place to be with many choices of shops and restaurants and within walking distance to all the main attractions. The room was spacious and beautifully decorated, with comfortable beds and best quality for the price of any hotel we stayed on our 6 week trip. The hotel was only steps away from the Sol Metro Station, which has excellent connections to the Airport. The Sol station is confusing for a first-time user, but the locals were very helpful. In fact, one lady was so worried that we would find the right train to get us to the airport, that she rode with us on the entire 30 min trip even though she spoke no English and was obviously needing to go in a different direction. Madrid was a lovely city. We saw no pick-pockets and the people were friendly, helpful and fabulous.

What a great hotel in a great location. Clean, friendly staff, great restaurant attached, quiet despite being in the middle of the action. Rooms are not heavily decorated so don't expect an old style European Hotel, but everything is clean, bathrooms are modern, elevators are accessible. We booked four rooms and had a mix of locations... one with a balcony overlooking Puerta Del Sol (great for the party crowd), one overlooking the side streets (good people wathcing) and two on the interior (quiet and relaxing).

Metro and High Speed Rail lines are literally steps away...you are a 10-15 minute walk from every major attraction in Madrid and within steps to unbelievable restaurants, nightclubs, shoping...etc!

Last November, We visited for first time the city of Madrid and the Hotel Europa made our visit to this great city very memorable. After months of researching and based on the good reviews from TA travelers and also Rick Steves’ Madrid and Toledo guide, we decided to use the Hotel Europa as our second home away from USA while we were visiting the city of Madrid.

The reservation process was very smooth. As soon as we decided to stay at this hotel, I immediately sent them an e-mail inquiring about availability, prices, services and cancelation policies and Mr. Garaban, always responded to my e-mails in a very promptly manner. He answered all my questions and gave me all the information that I need it. After sent them a couple of e-mails and talked to them on the phone, I was able to send my reservation by e-mail and I received the confirmation e-mail from Mr. Garaban a few minutes later. Unfortunately, we were forced to change our entire trip itinerary a few weeks prior to our trip to Madrid due to changes on the airline’s schedule. So I had to contact the hotel in order to modify our reservation and without any problems Mr. Garaban updated our reservation.

Check in-out: When we arrived in the early morning hours to the hotel, the check in process was very fast. When it was time for us to check out they had our check ready and it did not have any hidden fees. The guys on the front desk were very friendly and efficient.

Room: Because we arrived around 8:00AM the room that I requested previously (double bed-matrimonial) was not ready, they told us that there was a room ready with a double bed which was like two twin beds put together. Honestly, because we were so tired, we did not care about the type of bed so we accepted that room. To our surprise, the room was located in the fourth floor and it was one of the corner rooms. It has two windows and we were right in front of Puerta Del Sol. This room overpassed our expectations. For us it was amazing!

The room had a double bed (two twins beds put together), an LCD TV with international channels, a big closet, a desk, a safety box which you need to pay a fee if you are using it and of course the room has a big and clean bathroom.

Noise level: Our room was sound and light proof BUT because this room is right on Puerta Del Sol, we heard some noise. Not a big deal for us but If you are a light sleeper, you should bring earplugs.

One thing that I want to add and please do not take this comment as a negative for the hotel on the contrary I think is more like an interesting fact is that if you are in the rooms facing Puerta del Sol and if you are in bed, you will feel some light tremors. These tremors are very light and are caused because underneath of Puerta Del Sol is the train-metro station, therefore every time that a train-metro passes, you will feel the tremor. I don’t know if the guests on the interior rooms feel the tremors but I did when we stayed in the rooms facing Puerta Del Sol. Interesting fact!

I would like to write more good things about this hotel but I don’t want to make this review like an essay. The only thing that I know is that if I go back to Madrid, I will stay again at the hotel Europa without any doubts.