Hotel Fénix Gran Meliá

Fénix belongs to the part of Madrid that dresses well and lunches late. It stands beside Plaza de Colón, at the top of the shopping streets, close enough to the museums to make a morning of one and near enough to the Castellana to hear the city working.

The hotel makes no attempt at reinvention. Its rooms keep the proportions and the manners of a grand hotel rather than a design statement, and the suites add a proper sitting room. There is a spa of quite unexpected character, and a fitness room for anyone still resisting Madrid’s hours. It suits people who want the city outside and the last century inside.

Colón, Serrano, Castellana

The address is Calle de Hermosilla 2, which puts Plaza de Colón at the end of the street, the boutiques of Serrano a street away and the Paseo de la Castellana running past. The National Archaeological Museum is a few minutes on foot. This is a quarter organised around shopping, offices and long lunches more than monuments, which makes it the better base for a second or third visit to Madrid, once the obligations have been discharged.

A room from another century

Pale walls, traditional furniture and soft patterned fabrics give the rooms a settled, residential feeling, closer to a private flat than a hotel floor. The suites open into connected sitting rooms, which is what makes the longer stay worthwhile: somewhere to dress for dinner, somewhere to read at four in the afternoon, somewhere to have a drink before going out. Madrid begins late, and a room worth spending the interval in is not a small advantage.

Thai Room Wellness

Thai Room Wellness is the least expected part of the hotel: an intimate treatment space furnished with Burmese, Chinese and Tibetan pieces, and a complete change of register from the streets around Colón. A fitness room handles the more prosaic version of the same instinct. Both earn their place in a city that eats at 10 and thinks nothing of it, and both belong to the hours between the walking and the evening.