Hello! we are planning on picking up a car at the airport apon arrival in Madrid & returning it to the same location 2 weeks later. Our flight leaves at 7:35 am, which would mean, I assume, that we have to be at the airport 1-2 hours prior to that. All the car rental agencies I have called say that the airport doesn't even open until 7:00 am, and therefore I wouldn't be able to return the car until then. Isn't this pushing it to close to the time of departure? I'm sure there are others who have had similar circumstances, what did you do? Are we better off returning the car the night prior and taking a taxi/bus in the morning? Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!

Normally when car rental offices are closed, there is the facility to simply "dump" the car in a car park, and leave the keys somewhere. Check when you collect the vehicle. This seems to work OK.

I've been in this situation - We returned the car the evening before and spent the last night at a hotel near the airport (Hotel Diana - it was wonderful, there were several tapas bars in the hotel and we met some flamenco musicians who were more than willing to stage an impromptu oerformance). The hotel had a free shuttle to the airport - I think we left at 6 AM. Totally stress free. I recommend it.