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Hi all,
Hopefully someone can be of assistance here.
On Saturday, all going to plan, I should be arriving in Madrid Airport with the prospect of a 12 hour gap between flights.
We are arriving on Iberia on long haul business class eta 10am but departing via easyjet to get back to Edinburgh at 10pm
I was wondering what lounge options might be (not sure if Iberia have an arrivals lounge?) I also have Amex platinum and priority pass but guessing I won’t be able to check in for my easyjet flight so early.
Also not sure if there is an option to leave bags somewhere and go into central Madrid for the afternoon and get lunch somewhere?
If anyone has any experience or advice of what they would do in this situation it would be appreciated.
Thanks
I would look at a day room in a hotel.
Yes , wander into Madrid for some Tapa and a beer. It’s not far, 30 mins at the most – you can take the train for about €3 each or cab for about €30.
There are three left luggage offices at the airport:
In Terminal T4, Floor 0 in the Arrivals Hall. Open from 7am – 11pm / 365 days.
In Terminal T1, Floor 0, Exterior Area next to the VIP Car Park. Open from 5am – 10pm / 365 days.
In Terminal T2, Floor 1, Arrivals hall, 30 metres from the T1-T2-T3 Underground Station. Open from 8am – 8pm / 365 days.
Hopefully that’s up to date ,it was when I used it last year.
There was an arrivals lounge but I think it’s still closed. If its open you need to follow the signs to the train station on level -1 of Terminal 4.
The lounge is located within a transit hotel which is opposite the Madrid underground and commuter trains access points. When you get to level -1, do not enter the station but walk in the other direction – it will be in front of you although not well marked – I THINK IS STILL CLOSED POST COVID.
From the T4 where your flight arrives you can take a direct train to Atocha. There are a few places where to leave your luggage there (not at the station where it is closed unfortunately).
You can visit the city centre and I would recommend you use Uber, FreeNow or Cabify to go back to the airport (EasyJet used to be T1). Prices are usually low (€15-20).
If you want to relax from the flight and rest maybe visit the Hammam Al Andalus before going for lunch.
Your trip back home is late but remember dinner in Madrid is also late starting at 8-9pm. Haven’t been at T1 for a while but I think you will find a few places for a snack before your flight there.
It’s presumably not a direct flight to EDI? I ask as Easyjet don’t fly that route on a Sat. Only reason I know is I had a Fri flight a few weeks hence which they removed from the schedule, and their next flight isn’t until Sunday.
We flew into Madrid (from Panama) last month, and then took the direct Easyjet to Edinburgh (been burnt too many times with fog at Heathrow and schedules in chaos!)
The arrivals lounge in -1 at T4 is long closed – and no intentions of re-opening, the hotel staffer said.
There is a sign next to the left luggage in T4 about a lounge – presumably landside? In Hispanic countries they tend to signpost all lounges as VIP Lounges, which was the case here. But whether it was for true VIPs, or just Priority Pass punters, I don’t know.
We took an Uber (3-5 euro) into the nearby town and went to this restaurant for lunch:
https://www.deleiterestaurante.es/
Great tapas-style options, and an interesting red wine from Madrid (which was a surprise to my wife, who had lived in Madrid for a few years and never heard of wine growing anywhere near the city!)
First of all, we took the airport bus to T1. Easyjet leaves from T1 and the staff there were happy to check in our luggage for the c6pm flight at 11:00am – and offered to check in free our larger bit of hand luggage.
(The Uber pick-up is across the road from T1 and up some stairs at the side of the car rental offices).
The non-Schengen Priority Pass lounge in T1 is a nice bright space, comfy seats and a surprisingly OK selection of food.
Hope that all helps.
ps The day room hotel in T4 was fully booked when we visited to check out the (closed) arrivals lounge – sign looked like it was permanent!
If you go to Atocha, then I can recommend the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. Half a mile from it is the Mercado de San Fernando – loads of eateries. However, in the area behind the museum towards the market there is meant to be a lot of street crime, particularly pick-pockets. The market has security guards at the doors and is quite safe inside, but outside you just have to be careful – just like in Barcelona!
Thanks for all the helpful advice everyone, lots to work with…and sorry I meant Sunday rather than Saturday, we are leaving Cuba on the Saturday and got my days mixed up.
Will probably look into the option of just leaving the bags at left luggage somewhere and getting something to eat/drink in town…
Does anyone have an idea of the rates for day room hotel (if its available)?
Thanks
Joe
You need to check using one of the day room websites as even the same hotel will charge different amounts depending on the time of day as well as the length of the stay.
Hi all thought I’d post back on this in case anyone was interested in an update.
Our flight arrived early in Madrid so we did indeed have 12 hours until our Easyjet Departure. We went straight to the day rooms hotel in terminal 4, this was full, However, this may have been a blessing in disguise as I think it is quite expensive and had it not been full we would have been tempted to just pay it for the convenience and never have left the airport.
We went to grab a coffee at one of the airport cafes and found a hotel on a dayroom site online. We ended up booking the Tach Airport hotel that is only one tram stop away from the terminal in Barajas. The rate to stay until 6pm was listed as 60 Euros but we phoned them directly and they told us that it was only 55 for booking by phone.
We were at the hotel within 30mins of making the phonecall, it was modern, perfectly pleasant and well appointed. We managed to get a couple of hours sleep and felt a bit more refreshed after our Redeye. We then ventured out to the local neighbourhood where we found a brilliant place for lunch called BarraCruda. As we had time on our hands we went for the 10 course tasting menu for 40 Euro per person which I would highly recommend.
Following this we had time to chill out at the day room for another hour before we had to check out, grab our bags and head to Terminal one for our flight home. We arrived just under 3 hours early at terminal one and used priority pass to get into the Sala VIP Cibeles lounge which I have to say is one of the nicest lounges I have experienced. Very spacious, not too crowded, good selection of drinks and snacks and the food actually looked good (though we didn’t have much as we were full from lunch)
So thanks to everyone here for the advice as it made a potentially long boring wait very pleasant overall. The trip back on Easyjet was probably the worst flight experience I’ve ever had in my life but that’s a story for another time!
. do tell about Easyjet? How bad, and why?
. do tell about Easyjet? How bad, and why?
Yeah, we are all for some LCC p0rn
Come back and tell us more about the Easyjet p0rn, @Joe G! Due to take this flight a couple week so would be a good read! 😉 Thanks for the recommendations of what to do during your long-layover and the Sala VIP Cibeles lounge.
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