AC Hotel Carlton Madrid

We decided to book Marriott hotels in Madrid and Barcelona since my cousin Sharon is an elite member and she was able to get us good rates. In Spain Marriott’s hotels are called AC Hotel. Sharon chose the Carlton Madrid property for it’s proximity to the top 3 museums in Madrid which were only a block away.

The lobby/lounge was small but it had free wifi which was the most important thing for us.

The staff in the front desk spoke very fluent English and were quite helpful in referring churches and restaurants. That’s Sharon on the left and Rochelle doing a quick stretch.

When we arrived at around 10:00 am only one room was available and we gave it to Sharon first. She let us take a speedy shower then we rushed to the Prado museum which was opened on Sunday, the day we arrived and closed on Monday. The room was small but very clean.

When we returned in the afternoon Rochelle and I finally went into our room we were ecstatic that it had two beds and it was much bigger than Sha’s room. We later found out this was supposed to be her room since she was an elite member of Marriott and she got upgraded. We did offer to change rooms but she declined since she was all settled in already.

This room was on the 6th floor and the free wifi from the lobby didn’t reach us. It did reach Sha’s room on the 1st floor though.

Unbeknownst to Sha we did a dance of joy and there was room for it! We paid the same rate for both rooms.

This were the only toiletries and amenities given by AC Hotels. Not in the picture was the silly golf ball soap that kept rolling around the counter.

Sha’s room had the typical digital safe but out room’s safe required a key from the front desk. On the right is our stash from our flight and lounge of Qatar Airways.

We had the best breakfast in our entire 3 week trip in this hotel. Why? First because it was a buffet, second it came free with the room and third the quality was just darn good. The AC Bar where we had our breakfast was located just off the lobby.

Not your usual breakfast condiments.

bread, croissant, muffins and cookies

My favorite among all the breakfast goodies were these whole wheat pastries specially the palmiers (middle) which seemed to be a Spanish favorite since I saw it in so many pastelerias but this was the only whole wheat version I saw.

I was able to liberate quite a few palmiers straight into my ziploc bag. It provided a great snack for our long drive to San Sebastian. This is one of the reasons why zip top bags are a must-bring when you travel.

quick bread

hard boiled egg, margarine, cereal, jam

Even the bacon had a divine smokey flavor different from the typical American bacon. Even though it wasn’t crispy I liked it more.

Spain’s national dish is good for breakfast or as tapas any time of the day.

tortilla patata / potato tortilla

This was our first taste of Spain’s famous hams.

The Iberico ham was wonderful.

Iberico ham

dried fruits

cheese

I don’t know what the brown squares were on the left.

smoked salmon

fresh fruits

yogurt

orange, peach and pineapple juice

This is what I ate on the first day. I didn’t quite like the veggie pie but I loved all the hams, cheese and dried fig.

On our last day there was churros but only terrible instant hot chocolate.

I loved their coffee and had at least two cups everyday. I still had my plain yogurt with fresh orange slices.

AC Hotel Carlton Madrid
Paseo de la Delicias 26 · Madrid, Madrid 28045 Spain
telephone: 34-91-5397100
website