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Madrid's vitality and character will soon have you hooked.
This is Spain's headiest city, where the revelling lasts long into the night and life is seized with the teeth and both hands. Strangers quickly become friends, passion blooms in an instant, and visitors are swiftly addicted to the city's charms.
'I do not believe anyone likes [Madrid] much when he first goes there. It has none of the look that you expect of Spain...Yet when you get to know it, it is the most Spanish of all cities, the best to live in, the finest people, the finest climate.' - Ernest Hemingway
Madrid may not have the Roman origins that get city historians hot and bothered, and it may be a comparative parvenu, selected from rural obscurity to become the capital only in the second half of the 16th century, but it oozes an ebullience that rarely fails to move.
Madrid is Europe's highest capital city (650m/2100ft), and it's also surprisingly compact. The main north-south artery, Paseo de la Castellana (which turns into Paseo de los Recoletos and Paseo del Prado), connects the city's two main train stations, Chamartín and Atocha. The oldest quarters are squeezed in between Paseo del Prado (where you'll find the city's great art galleries) and the Palacio Real to the west. Midway, the barrios southeast of Puerta del Sol leading to the working-class district of Lavapiés are filled with seemingly endless restaurants, bars and cafes. The densest concentration of accommodation can be found around Puerta del Sol, Plaza de Santa Ana and the barrios of Malasaña and Chueca (for pensiones and hostales), and along the Gran Vía (hotels).
