ME Madrid Reina Victoria

With a popular penthouse bar and proximity to several tapas bars, the sleek hotel is ideal for singles and young couples.

• Location overlooking the Plaza Santa Ana, with its many cool tapas bars
• The duplex Suite ME, with 360 views over the city
• Reasonable prices make the ME Madrid an excellent value

Frequent package deals make this hip hotel overlooking the historic Plaza de Santa Ana a downright steal. But just because it is inexpensive doesn’t make it cheap. The 192 rooms have quality finishes and decor that feels vaguely Scandinavian. Space is at a premium in the city center, so the ME has kept furnishings simple and sleek. Plasma televisions are built into the wall, and the simple platform beds, framed in pale wood, are dressed in crisp white linens. Bathrooms contain hydro-massage showers and Aveda products, a rarity in Spain. Perhaps the coolest features are built-in surround sound and iPod connections in every room. The hotel also has a small but functional fitness facilities—a good idea given the Plaza de Santa Ana’s many tempting tapas bars nearby.

The hotel’s common areas are equally appealing. Nightlife impresarios Rande and Scott Gerber designed the ground floor Midnight Rose lounge and the penthouse rooftop bar, The Roof, a trendy nightspot popular with celebrities and athletes. Jaime Renedo, star chef behind the gourmet speakeasy Asiana, created the menu. Despite the late crowd drawn to both the hotel and the neighborhood, ME’s management has done its best to keep the peace. Special soundproof windows provide a good, if not 100 percent effective, barrier between sleepy travelers and the crowds outside at nearby bars or queuing to enter the Penthouse. Plus, you can use your savings on the room rate to buy some earplugs.

Guests tend to be younger couples or groups of friends. The location, halfway between the museums and the Royal Palace and close to less expensive tapas bars and cafés, is ideal for travelers on a budget that doesn’t accommodate Salamanca’s shopping and dining. There are connecting rooms for families, but it may be too much of a party scene for those with young children.