Madrid 2013: Holiday Inn Las Tablas Review

• Planning Wife’s First Mileage Run
• Finnair JFK-HEL-MAD, Layover in HEL
• Finnair Business Class Lounges at HEL
• @home British Airways Lounge at HEL
• Aspire Lounge at HEL with Priority Pass

So a few weeks ago before the trip, IHG announced their points break list for Q4. I saw two hotels in Spain, only one of which was in Madrid. I thought, wow that’s great luck. I clicked on the link and double checked where it was and thought that it was centrally located and had decent reviews. It was a few train stops of my original reservation but I thought saving a bunch of points was worth it. I cancelled my existing reservation and pat myself on the back on a job well done.

After I got a cheap sim card (10EUR with Lebaramovil), I brought up the email about the hotel and asked the person selling me the sim card where I can find this hotel. She said that it was quite far from here. I asked her if it was close to the city and she said no.

At this rate, I started to panic. What did she mean it was far from the city. I checked and it was only a few stop from Puerta de Sol. I checked the name of the hotel and then put it in Google Maps. Yep it was far. Pretty far.

Here it is on the map:

It was about 20km from the airport and then another 20km from Puerta de Sol. Yea real far. At this point, I really started to panic.

This is where I highly praise Madrid’s metro system. There were two trains that go there! Go figure. None were really convenient from the airport but whatever, it was still open when we need it and it could get us there. Sign me up.

We looked at the map and tried to see which way was faster. Google said for us to change trains three times to get us there but we decided to just change once, even though Google Transit said it would take us 10-15 minutes longer.

My wife took it in stride. I’m not exactly sure why she was smiling but she was definitely a trooper, especially when she had a redeye from Boston and had a long layover in Dublin.

This line also has a transfer point at Tres Olivos. I believe that they are trying to have two different set of frequencies, one for the inner city and another for the outer part of the metro line 10. This took us another 10-15 minutes to wait for another train.

It was also a good 15 minute walk from the train station. The area was pretty dark and not many people walking around. I kept an eye out for anyone near us and got to our hotel safely. After looking around, this seems to be a new industrial park with many white collar jobs here.

We checked in at the Holiday Inn. There was a small seating area right in front of the entrance with the check-in counter to the left and the hotel bar and restaurant to the right of the entrance.

The room was nice and had a view that looked towards the city, despite not being able to see much as we were so far from the city. We were on the top floor (6th) but the hotel seemed to be fairly empty and also still under construction with some rooms on the 2nd floor not being finished. It was really weird to use the stairs to go downstairs as some floors were dark.

The room had a large king bed with a coach near the window and a work desk.

The bathroom was a nice size with the full glass shower on the right side. There is no door but the nozzle is far enough away from the entrance so the floor doesn’t get wet.

As a platinum amenity, I received a free soft drink and snack (chocolate, chips, pretzels, nuts, etc). She couldn’t find the candy bars so she gave me two soft drinks. Afterwards, she did find one and just gave it to me right before I got to the elevator.

The gym was in the basement and it was really creepy to go there. It is in a few long concrete hallways and I was a bit creeped out by it. I also did it at midnight so adds to the creepy factor.

There was a sauna there and also a clear glass shower. I guess this is where you can rinse off rather than take an actual shower. The last picture shows a small space with a black yoga mat that you can do some yoga. Overall it was an adequate gym but just a really creepy walk to get there.