Urso Hotel & Spa

Enter the sunlit lobby of the Urso Hotel & Spa for the first time and you'll be greeted as a friend.  Set between the elegant Chamberi and trendy Chueca neighborhoods, the Urso is where new and old Madrid meet. Set away from Madrid's busiest areas, you're still within an easy walk from the Gran Via's incredible shopping, the San Anton Market and El Retiro Park while the city's famed museums are a 20-minute stroll or a five-minute taxi ride.

The Urso's home is a palatial early 20th century building and thoughtful restoration has left behind typical tilework and what has to be the most glamorous elevator in Spain - a mahogany and wrought iron fantasy with a seat built for two. Lounge areas downstairs are decorated in muted creams, greys and beiges and offer overscaled sofas and coffee tables piled with design books, while quiet corners for two abound, inviting guests to stop for a tete-a-tete or head into the Bar where the mixologists will conjure the perfect cocktail and live jazz can be enjoyed every Thursday night. Up a flight of stairs, a light filled atrium houses The Conservatory, complete with vertical garden, where breakfast is served,  and the Media Racion restaurant by renowned the renowned Cuenllas family who have been cooking for Madrillenos since the 1930s.

The hotel has 78 rooms ranging from standard doubles to suites. All have separate bath and shower, minibar, Nespresso machines and many other thoughtful amenities within their calming, cool toned greige interiors replete with wood floors and large windows. Junior suites and up typically offer iron four-poster beds and several rooms have a private terrace. True to its name, Urso Hotel & Spa has a hydroptherapy pool, three rooms offering treatments from Euro-luxury brands Natura Bisse and Sisley, a hammam, and a small gym open 24-7.

Madrid's many museums, parks, shopping, and fabulous restaurants are at your beck and call thanks to the hotel's incredible concierge team. When you tire of some of the world's greatest art and the city's great monuments, within an hour, you can reach Toledo - Spain's ancient capital with its Moorish, Jewish and Catholic history, Segovia with its incredible Roman aqueduct that cuts through the heart of the town, & Avila still entirely enclosed in its 12th century medieval walls.