I'm going to be there for a week in September, can anybody give me advice on some cool places to check out and also maybe hotel recommendations? I'm not familiar w the city, so I dont know the best locations for accommodations, also I don't speak spanish so convenient spots help a ton. Ill be on my own for the week, planning on using couchsurfing to make friends. I'd rather stay at a hotel tho since its going to be a week long.

I'm also going to the canary islands for a week but I have a place already there. Anybody have any good rec's for there at all? Ill be w my family on the islands

Thanks!!!

8/19/2011 11:06:31 AM

we (4 of us) stayed at The Cats Hostel on Canazares 6. we would crew up with other travelers (mostly from other English speaking countries) and hit the town together. lots of fun doing it that way. see hostelz.com or hostels.com

Prado is definitely worth seeing. we saw a bullfight in thee quintessential arena - i forget which one, but its the main one in the area and you have to take a metro to get there. we were rooting for the bulls, since there is a small platoon of men in tights that comes at them before the matador even gets there - you'll see what i mean once you witness it. there's enough nightlife to keep you busy - the locals/folks at the hostel will have a better pulse on that. lots of neat eating and drinkery around the Plaza Del Sol. you probably want to use one or more day of that week to make a trip to neighboring towns via bus. we rolled to Salamanca on the way to Lisbon, but Toledo is closer to you.

have not been to the Canaries, but have been to the Balearics..

8/19/2011 11:46:08 AM

thanks. Any thoughts on what the people are like? I'm going by myself and am hoping to make friends pretty quick so i'm not just alone the whole time. Are they nice to americans? Do a lot of them speak english?

8/22/2011 10:26:10 AM

^^I stayed at the Cat's Hostel too, wild. Anyway, Spaid is great and Madrid is one of my favorite world cities period. They are nice to American's but it is a big city. You aren't in Raleigh so people aren't stopping to say hello on the street. Speaking a bit of spanish, hello, thanks etc will help.

The metro stop Chueca (spelling?) is where all the night life is. They don't eat dinner in Madrid until late in the evening. Starting around 6pm they bar hop. Hit as many Tapas bars as you can, you get light apps and drink wine etc. If you stay at the Cat's Hostel you'll meet plenty of young, international travelers that you can team up with. If i recall correctly, the hostel even arranges things, pub crawls, cultural stuff etc.

Absolutely go to a bull fight. I was lucky enough to be there in May for the San Isidro festival and got to go every day for a week. Buy tickets on teh SOL side, they are cheaper. Its a fun two hours. I sat next to an elderly spanish man who rolled cigarettes for the both of us and we had a good conversation in my broken spanish and his broken english. Bull fights aren't for everyone, but I loved it and would go again.

Enjoy your stay, don't be afraid to engage people in converstaion, but remember its a city, same rules apply. Don't go down alleys be aware of your surrounds etc.

Have fun

8/22/2011 1:14:03 PM

ok, cool. So i checked out Cat's Hostel and it sounds pretty sweet but i will be by myself. Looks like bookings are for multiple people. Will they just bunk me up with others?

8/22/2011 2:57:35 PM

^yeah, they will. I traveled alone from Madrid to the Czech Rep. met some really cool people in the hostels, though I did have a hotel in Paris and Munich so that was nice.

Anyway, at the Hostel in madrid I met a cool dude from London and one from New Zealand that I basically hung around with for a few days. I wouldn't worry about staying in a bunk room with randos. They all have to be under a certain age at Cat's so you won't get anyone too weird. You get your own locker with a cool magnetic lock to secure your shit. My stay was pretty non-eventful...except the random guy and girl that were fucking in the corner when they thought everyone was asleep.

Also, on over night trains you see interesting things. A french grandmother slept topless in my carriage...old boobs...weird

8/22/2011 4:49:29 PM

Hostels are awesome for meeting people since you are going solo. Defnitely safe and give you a chance to meet ready-to-party people from all over the world. If you would like to stay on your own, you can get an apartment (Apartamento Turistico) for much less money. They are set up kind of like hotels, except the person at the front desk is not there 24/7 and they don't have a restaurant/bar/gym (they do usually have a small kitchen, like you are gonna gook anything in Madrid anyways). Last time I stayed at Apartamentos Matute 11 right next to Santa Anna and it was cheap and chic, but literally tourist apartments are dime a dozen in Madrid. There are some awesome boutique hotels over there that cost just a little more but make you feel like a million bucks for less what would you pay in plain vanilla large-chain hotel. Check out any of the Vinnci, Navarrez Nunos (NN), and Roommate hotels. Location vise, anything in the downtown area will do as central Madrid is very walkable, but it is best to try to get inside the circle formed by Gran Via and Ronda de Toledo.

Chueca is happening, like someone mentioned before, but just FYI it's a gay district.
Bullfight at Las Ventas/Prado/tapas/flamenco (if you are not going to Andalucia) are the standard must-sees, but there a tons of other stuff like Reina Sofia modern art museum, the Royal Palace, Retiro park ets. There are also tons of unique city squares. There is a really HUGE park (casa de Campo) that is awesome for beginner-level mountain biking, or you can just take a scenic cable car ride there (teleferico) and chug Estrella beers while overlooking Madrid.

Downtown prostitutes can be found on Calle de Montera between Puerta del Sol and Gran Via.

8/23/2011 8:10:28 AM

excellent prostitution advice ITT


ok lemme snoop around google a bit for some more info and ill post more madrid questions

thanks everyone!!!

8/23/2011 11:09:38 AM

I too will be in the Madrid/Andalucia region in mid-September. I'm looking forward to seeing a bullfight and a soccer match while there. Not to thread-hijack, but if anyone can offer some tips/advice for the Andalucia region too, I would appreciate it.

[Edited on August 23, 2011 at 11:26 AM. Reason : !]

8/23/2011 11:25:31 AM

im gonna be there from the 24th-30th, id be down to go to a soccer match if ur there on those dates

8/23/2011 1:44:09 PM

I'll just miss you - I'll be there the 13th - 25th.

8/23/2011 1:48:25 PM

^^^ Sevilla is boss. Catch a Flamenco show, but see if someone local - waiter/concierge/hostel employee can recommend a place. we were recommended a real "neigborhood" type joint by a waiter. it was awesome. when we rolled up we got the stinkeye from the locals because we had the "not from 'round here" look, but once we made conversation with the barkeep and asked his permission to stay (as our waiter recommended doing), we were made to feel welcome. there were no professional performers. it was everyday people playing the music, singing passionately, and doing the flamenco dancing. its almost hard to explain how good it was. we stayed at the "Hostel Bueno Dormir" (i think thats the name) & it was pretty good -- felt more like a hotel than a hostel.

Go to Granada and see the Alhambra. in Granada we stayed in some chill hostel run by a friendly old couple. met some pretty cool American chicks next door, with whom we went drinking. at night everyone goes barhopping, and at each bar they give you free tapas when you buy your drink. these tapas can be bread, olives, fries, or some other little snack. late night, get a Shwarma or kebab.

Cordoba is good for a daytrip/pass through, as the Mezquita (spelling?) is definitely worth seeing.

Andalusian women are beautiful.

8/26/2011 4:45:01 PM

local flamenco shows can sometimes be too local. Some touristy shows may be a better fit for a first-time spectator, just need to find a good one. Older groups seem to put together better performances (like dancers are in their 50's). I concur with asking conierge/waiter to get the scoop.

If you are planning to visit Granada, try to save some time for seeding the city outside the Alhambra. Alhambra is definitely cool and worth spending a day (or at least half of a day) in, but it seems like there is more to Granada and I wish I alloted more time to it during my trip. Driving in Granada is not fun.

There are also a ton of awesome little fishing and mountin villages in the Andalucean region, some very touristified (Mijas for example) and some are still just villages. Driving to these villages is fun.

If you get far enough South, Costa Del Sol is just a big equivalent of Myrtle Beach for European tourists, so you may as well speak English or German over there and be OK (when i was looking for a sim card, I was trying to explain it in Spanish to a shop owner, wo turned out not to even speak any Spanish as he was a British citizen). Beaches are OK, but I like ocean beaches better. Topless women are very common at the beaches and there may even be some nude people hanging out.

If you have a chance, drive out to Gibraltar. The view from the Rock is amazing, you can see Spainish coast and north Africa very clearly. There are some caves, fortifications, and a castle up there, and famous monkeys which are the only primates living in the wild in Europe. And the city of Gibralter itself it a little piece of Britain, complete with pubs, fish, and chips. Walking across the airplane landing strip is something you can only do there as well.

Have not been to Sevilla or Cordoba, but those are another two places i'd like to visit in the region.

Andalucian women are beautiful.

8/31/2011 9:53:54 AM