We are planning a trip to Madrid and Barcelona next month and are busy scouring the net looking for good places to stay. Thank you MM for this site... its absolutely fantastic!!

I have a question.... if you absolutely HAD to choose between Hostal Martin (which has got great reviews on this site...) and Hostal Persal (which also comes well-recommended) which would you chose? Since both are centrally located we are essentially concerned with having clean attached bath&toilet, SAFETY and to a certain extent NOISE. (Martin I hear is VERY noisy... is that true? or are they all equally noisy?
Thanks again...

Hi there,

I've stayed in Persal at the end of september and i can say it's a nice Hostal/Hotel. Location is perfect, just behind Sol next to plaza Santa Anna. The Rooms and the whole hostal were nice and clean. The bathroom was a bit small but adequate. Generally it's not a noisy hostal but beware of the metro construction site on plaza del Angel . They looked to be cleaning up on the surface though on sept 27. Another noise source could be the large masses of , drunk , people walking past the hostal at 6AM sunday morning.

I have only great things to say about Hostal Martin. I stayed there for 5 nights in May, and I was very happy with it. The location was great, rooms were spotless, and it was very quiet. As a single female traveller, I was very concerned with safety, but I felt very secure and the hostal is in a decent area. The people working there are also very nice and helpful. It cost a bit more than other hostals, but I think it's worth it.

Thanks for your replies. Just returned from Madrid, and yes, you're right, there is still quite a bit of construction work going on just outside Hostal Percal, but otherwise it did look nice from the outside. We however, finally decided to stay in another Hostal called Hostal Lopez , which was also in a great location and priced right. It was a bit noisy and our room opened-out into a not-so-nice looking walled "back-area" (for want of a better word)which in turn looked into other rooms/bathrooms, so we couldn't keep the windows open like we wanted to. They also had problems with the hot water which meant that the water would alternately run completely cold or VERY hot while you were bathing!! This was definitely bothersome.... but other wise it was a safe, convenient place to stay and one of the family speaks english, which was important since we didn't speak a word of Spanish!!