We are thinking of staying at the Gran Via 65 apartment hotel in Madrid. I believe it is located on Gran Via roughly midway betwen Plaza de Espana and Emperador metro stations. Can anyone tell me what this area is like? safe? attractive? upscale? dingy? convenient to attractions? restaurants and shops nearby? thanks.

[ 07-21-2001: Message edited by: MadridMan ]

It's ok, but some of the little side streets are cruddy. But, being from a state which contains Newark and Camden, you shouldn't see anything which will scare you.

Asterault: I do not know how to interpret your information re. Gran Via, as I have never been to Camden nor to Newark, except to the airport and Penn Station. There are many pros re. New Jersey and some cons, which we could discuss, but I believe this message board is about Spain. Your post does not seem to be the quality of the others on this board.

Ooooooohh... Thems is fightin' words! Now now boys. No name calling, okay? Now shake hands and make up.

I can't find any Emperador metro stop on my map, but I can tell you that I thought Plaza de España was a really good place to be. (Yes, there was a little bit of criminal action in the Plaza that was taken care of by Madrid's finest...if you want to check previous posts on crime :)) I'm afraid I don't know a thing about the hotel you asked about, though!

I had a reservation at a hostal on Gran Via, and after checking it out, we decided to cancel it and stay somewhere else (luckily we had enough time...) The place we were going to stay was further down Gran Via though, closer to Calle de la Montera, it was #15, and the hostal itself looked nice, but the area, mainly the side street, kind of gave us the creeps!

I was unable to find an 'emperatriz' o algo asi, metro stop, although I think #65 would be closer to Opera o Callao, which is next stop down from Plaza de Espana. What's the name of it? Is there a link on the MM board?

Buena Suerte!!

There is no EMperador mmetro station in Madrid, the place you are going to be at is very close to Plaza de España (200 yards), so what is said about P. de E. applies to it. It is not close to the worst areas ( Montera, Ballesta, ...)

Here it is

[ 07-24-2001: Message edited by: Ignacio ]

Sorry the link is not displayed correctly, but you can cut and paste it to your browser address bar, and the map will be shown (may be you will need to reload the page if it takes much time).

We had the oportunity to "explore" this area in two different occassions the first was in 1998 while staying at the Crown Plaza (right across Plaza de Espana) and the second time was just last month when returning our rental car at Avis (maybe a block or two) from Plaza de Espana.
Overall we loved the area and wondered why we didn't stay there this time around rather than the Puerta del Sol area (Plaza Mayor Hotel). There are great places to eat tapas, many, many shops (quality shops), movie theaters etc..
No offense but sometimes I do feel that some people on this board are "a bit over paranoid" about different areas in Madrid.
We liked this particular area of Madrid as is a great area to walk around, people watch and enjoy a tapa(s) with a cana at your leasure. Hope this helped.

Ok Mister Sensitive... have a good time and maybe you can pick up a sense of humour in Spain.