Madrid Spain - Westin Palace

I had an opportunity to stay at the Westin Palace in Madrid in March of 2008, or as locals like to call it "the Palace".

The hotel is very centrally located, within walking distance to the Prado, Reina Sofia, and the Thyssen art museums, as well as a variety of great cafe's and shopping.

The hotel was built in 1912 and has 486 guest rooms. The hotel is large and can be quite busy at times, it is especially popular with American tourists and business people. The public spaces are grand and very nicely maintained.

Highlights:

Of the six floors only the second floor is designated a smoking floor.

We checked in at around 2:30 pm but our room wasn't ready, they gave us a standard room to relax in and take a quick nap while our room was being prepared, took about 45 minutes.

The Jr Suite was ample in size, king sized bed (a little hard, we had them place a couple of comforters on the mattress as a pad), nice closet, great bath with big shower. My only complaint was that the connecting door to the room next door allowed noise to come through, and our neighbors stayed up later than we did. The HVAC worked well. Good high speed internet connection, expensive if it is not in your room rate, I think 18.95 euro per day, ouch!

The breakfast was good, a lot of fruit and cheeses and cereals. we didn't have any hot items but they did look good, service was quick and efficient, it is served in the magnificent grand cupola area.

The lobby bar is excellent for afternoon tea or a pre-dinner cocktail, good service, great tapas/munchies.

The concierge made dinner reservations for us on three nights, two of the places where of our own choosing, Moroccan and Indian, and one night they made reservations at a place of their suggestion, Loft 39, very trendy and high tech, it was a great dinner. I was a little worried because I had read some bad reviews about the concierge selections.

We ate at the Asia Gallery restaurant one night, it was good, but not that different from Chinese food we get here in the states, just a little more upscale.

In the mornings they had a coffee and tea station set up in the lobby of our floor with an espresso machine, nice!