CoolRooms Palacio de Atocha

Style

Revitalised historic beauty

Setting

Literary Las Letras

Look for the bold-as-brass scarlet façade at 34 Calle de Atocha (the main drag in Madrid’s literary district): behind it lies boutique hotel CoolRooms Palacio de Atocha, a stay awash in vintage glamour. Staff clad in tailcoats and top hats welcome you into this 19th-century townhouse, where you’ll rest in skillfully restored rooms with additional art deco flourishes. When you’re not counting cherubim, swooshing down the grand staircase or musing on the murals in the lounge you can swap tasting notes over El 34’s tapas plates…

Facilities

Rooms

35, including 22 suites.

Checkout

Noon, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm. Reception is open 24 hours.

More Details

Rates usually exclude breakfast, but à la carte options are €30 per adult.

Also

Public areas and the sizeable Junior Suite number one are wheelchair-accessible.

Free Internet Access

Laundry

Pool

On-Site Restaurant

Room Service

At the Hotel

Interior courtyard, garden, salon, laundry, free high-speed WiFi. In rooms: a 43” Smart TV, Beoplay M3 wireless Bang & Olufsen speaker, Nespresso coffee-maker, kettle, private bar, GHD hair-straighteners, robe and slippers, Molton Brown bath products.

Our Favourite Rooms

Cool Suites by name, cool suites by nature… These elegant 92sq m penthouses are ballroom big and rather romantic, with a terrace overlooking Madrid and a hot tub made for two. Book Number 43 and you’ll get a 360-degree view from a hidden tower room. Guests should note that each room comes with a unique layout, some on the eccentric side.

Poolside

Tall trees shade the courtyard pool and planters with their spread branches. The turquoise-tiled, unheated swimming spot is all set for cooling off and chilling out in a sunlounger – drinks and tapas plates can be summoned to your side too. After sunset, poolside partying starts – the pool can be turned into a dancefloor for late-night sessions.

Packing Tips

A notebook and pen to note the gold-inscribed pavement quotations in Las Letras, and the slinkiest swimwear.

Children

Welcome. Cots are available for free; Junior Suites and Suites have sofa-beds that can be made up on request, and the Master Suite fits an extra bed (€50 for ages 3–7; €70 for over-7s).

Gallery

Food & Drink

Top Table

In the El 34 tapas joint, prop up the bar, or take your spread on the terrace to make the most of Madrid’s balmy weather.

Dress Code

Belle bookworm by day, Spanish siren by night.

Hotel Restaurant

Chef Joseba Guijarro has won a Michelin star previously, and could well be on course for another: his menu at Mediterranean eatery El 34 deftly marries traditional flavours with modern technique in dishes such as cecina (dried) beef with tomato tartare, foie gras with apple and tomatoes with an emulsion of Empeltre olives. For a bite-size spread of Guijarro’s hits, and casual yet cosmopolitan surrounds, order up a table-full of plates at El 34 tapas bar.

Hotel Bar

There’s a laid-back approach to drinking at the hotel: wines, signature cocktails and rare whiskies can be swilled and sipped in the fresco-clad lounge, on the terrace or poolside.

Last Orders

El 34 serves breakfast and lunch from 7am–11am, Monday to Friday (till 12 noon on weekends); dinner runs from 1pm–11pm, Sunday to Thursday, and till midnight Friday and Saturday. You can drink at the pool bar from 1pm–11pm.

Room Service

Guests can dine in around the clock.

Planes

Madrid-Barajas Airport is around a 25-minute drive from the hotel. A number of carriers run direct flights from major cities in Europe, and it’s possible to fly direct from New York and LA (flights from Asia and Australia usually stopover in Europe). The hotel can arrange transfers in a private limousine or luxury car for €60.

Trains

Madrid’s biggest rail hub, Atocha Station, is just a 15-minute walk (or 10-minute taxi ride) away. From the airport, you can ride the light rail (metro ligero) from Terminal T4 direct to Atocha.

Automobiles

Madrid is slap-bang in the centre of Spain: Valencia is about a three-hour drive away, Bilbao is a four hours and to reach Barcelona, Seville or Porto in neighbouring Portugal will take you roughly six hours. The hotel has a valet, but parking is nearby and costs €32 a night.

Worth Getting Out of Bed For

Aside from lazing in the lounge or by the pool – and practising floating down the staircase, of course – there’s little to do at the hotel. But, luckily, it’s in a buzzy corner of Madrid, the Las Letras neighbourhood, where all the main players of Spain’s Golden Age of literature (over the 15th and 16th centuries) lived: playwright and poet Lope de Vega; rhyme-master Calderón de la Barca; sonnet-scribbler Góngora, post-romanticist wordsmith Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, dramatist José Echegaray and Don Quixote don, Miguel de Cervantes… Las Letras (AKA ‘the letters’) is well-read and has a lively gastronomic and nightlife scene. Start the story in Plaza de Santa Ana, paying homage to the statues of Federico Garcia Lorca and Calderón de la Barca. This spirited meeting and mingling spot sets the tone for the rest of the quarter. Along Calle de Atocha, step into the 16th-century the Church of San Sebastian, site of many famed funeral services. For live music and livelier conversation, hit the iconic Café Central on Plaza del Ángel and pick up a posy in fully blossomed flower shop El Jardín del Ángel. Cervantes is buried in the suitably flamboyantly named church Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians, and along the street named in his honour, you’ll find the Lope de Vega House museum.

Many of Madrid’s must-sees are within a 10-minute walk of the hotel’s super central location: the Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor; Gran Vía’s shops; El Rastro Market; and the Prado Museum, and the Royal Palace is just a little further at 15 minutes’ walk, placing you at the centre of the action. And, if you want something a little different, try wild swimming in the rocky pools at Río Manzanares en La Pedriza, an hour’s drive away at the Cuenca Alta Manzanares Regional Park.

Earn or Redeem Points with World of Hyatt

This Mr & Mrs Smith hotel participates in the World of Hyatt loyalty program. As a member, you can earn and redeem points and enjoy exclusive benefits for qualifying nights. .