Will be in Madrid the end of November for a week with 3 adults and 2 children. Any recommendations for a nice clean apartment, possibly in the Old Madrid area or convienent to major points of interest. Our daughter is at the university in Alcala and we will also be visiting with her. This is our first trip to Spain and have been previously sucessful with apartments in Rome and Vienna. Any help on locating a nice Apartment would be most appreciated. John L

Hello John L.,

In Oct. 2002 I stayed at Hospedaje Madrid . It is located on Calle Esparteros? I believe. This is between Sol and Plaza Mayor. Can't get much more central than this. If you do a search, you can find my review which is better than I can remember about it right now.

I remember the price was around 90 Euros a night, it had a complete kitchen, a good size bedroom and washing machine. It was a little noisy, but being on the fourth floor, not really bad by Madrid standards. And most important, it had a good working elevator.

Huespedes Jaén, www.hjaen.com has a nice 3 bedroom apartment at 100 euros for 5 people. One double bedroom, one single, and a twin, plus a couch in the living room.

We stayed there in June 2003, liked it, and reviewed it. Good location, airy, nice folks, quiet yet easy stroll to most places. Down: wimpy A/C and tiny slow elevator.