In the travel books, they make a tapas crawl sound like an easy thing, We don't speak Spanish, other than a few phrases and on on own did not find the tapa crawl adventure that easy. Had read about this service. Cost 50 euros each. I don't have money to blow nor am I a "tour" type person, but at times tours are good. This was one of the very good ones. Had a wonderful time. Experienced things, we never would have on our own. Great memory. Husband and I are 60.

I visited Madrid on the 5/5-10/5/2009 for the first time and I was very impressed. A beautiful CLEAN city, full of life, with polite people, excellent food, well organised tours and user friendtly to the tourist. Very impressed with the amount of cleaners cleaning the streets where thousands of tourists wonder, and how easy it is to walk to all the attractions when you stay in the center. Thank you Madrid!!! I hope you get the 2016 Olympics:)

We were pleasantly surprised by this hotel. New, clean, spacious rooms. All of the staff spoke English very well. Outstanding breakfast also. Free shuttle service. One thing is that it is not near downtown Madrid, so expect to pay 23 Euro or so if you take a taxi.

We traveled to Madrid Spain for the first time at the End of Feb 2009. That a great time to go as its not hot and not cold the weather is wonderful. I would recommend going to Plaza Mayor in downtown as its fun to sit at a cafe and watch all the things going on around you. I did alot a research on place to go and shop. The best place to shop is downtown be sure to walk around the whole circle on both sides as I did not and missed alot of cool stores. DO ride the Merto every where as the different parts of town have different atmosheres going on. I read before going to look up. You will miss alot of neat buildings if you dont. People in Spain are nice but if you got any where to eat they will take awhile to serve you. I think its because they have a hard time understanding english. Pointing at the menu worked great for us. I would recommend trying imberica ham and different cheeses they are wonderful. We had some of the best coffee at Albes Cafe on the cornor of lopez de hoyes and manutano. metro stop prosperidad. If you get a chance go there the wait staff are awesome.