Hotels in Madrid

The wealthiest and most exclusive neighbourhood in Madrid, Salamanca is the land of luxury five-star spas and expensive shops. The museums here are specialists and getting past club and bar doormen is quite the achievement.

If the refined atmosphere gets too much, Madrid’s historic centre is just a couple of Metro stops away, so you can mingle with the masses any time you want.

Less than 10 minutes on foot from Puerta del Sol, characterful and colourful Huertas is packed with interesting restaurants, cute shops and some of Madrid’s cheapest city-centre boutique hotels.

By day, sightseeing opportunities abound: it’s close to Madrid’s Museum Triangle and the city’s biggest avenue, La Castellana. After dark, though, is when Huerta shines brightest. Try Calle León or Calle Huertas for excellent tapas bars.

If all La Latina had going for it was El Rastro flea market, it would still be worth considering staying here. This is, after all, not just any old flea market but one of Europe’s biggest.

La Latina has more up its sleeve, including attractive 18th-century architecture, atmospheric narrow lanes and faded pastel streetscapes – some of which have featured in Pedro Almodóvar movies.

Most of all, it’s pleasantly down-to-earth and stuffed with charming and cheap Madrid hotels and boutique guesthouses.

Home to rising-star restaurants, hip cafés and indie shops, Malasaña is one of the coolest areas in the city centre.

Though it’s close enough to Puerta del Sol for all the touristy stuff, Malasaña remains a little planet unto itself at night and is always packed with young Madrileños at the weekend.

It was here in Malasaña that the countercultural movement La Movida Madrileña was born after the fall of Franco in the late 1970s, and the tradition of freethinking and creativity is still going strong. If you like your evenings lively, long and intriguing, book a cheap Madrid hotel here.