I’m in the very beginning of planning a trip to the U.K. and Spain this year. I was think of ending the trip in Madrid and flying home to Chicago O’Hare from Madrid airport.
Can anyone assuage my feelings that MAD isn’t as bad as London Heathrow or especially CDG airport in Paris which I hate with the passion of 1 million burning suns?
The flights I am looking at would depart MAD at 1135 AM and I will be there at least 3 hours before departure. I’m staying in the Chueca neighborhood in Madrid, is that fine for the last night or is there a compelling reason to move to an airport hotel?
I flew in/out of Madrid a few times. Nothing really out of the ordinary that I can recall. Uber there, wait on lines, sit and wait, get on plane and leave type of airport.
I’ve flown in and out of the Madrid airport, and it was fine. I’m not sure what things you hate about CDG and Heathrow, but they are much bigger and busier airports. I was in Madrid about 10 years ago, so take that for what it’s worth. We stayed near the Prado Museum, took the underground to and from the airport, and had no problems at all.
Madrid has several terminals. They’re accessible by Metro and there’s an airport shuttle bus. You should be fine if you find out beforehand from which terminal you’re leaving. As long as your hotel is near a Metro stop, just look at a Metro map. It’s easy to navigate. I was there last spring and stayed at a hotel a few stops away in Barajas.
I’m not sure what’s going to assuage your fears about Madrid. It isn’t as large as Heathrow or CDG - the 2 largest in Europe - but it isn’t far behind. All large airports have their stresses. Madrid doesn’t stand out in my mind as any better or worse than others. It’s certainly better than Amsterdam Schiphol which is my personal nemesis!
The airport is easily reached by public transport in about 30 minutes so for a flight at that time it wouldn’t occur to me to stay at an airport hotel.
I feel like something’s happened to Schiphol in recent years, I’m not sure if it’s a massive increase in passenger numbers or issues with security and customs processing, but these days it always seems heaving with people, not enough space and shocking queues - worse than you might normally expect in airports, even Heathrow and CDG.
I have flown in and out of Madrid a few times, and I think even transited there once or twice. I cannot remember a single detail of the airport, which suggests to me that it was perfectly fine, if not terribly awesome. I make sure to remember the airports I hate.
