Silken Puerta America Hotel Madrid Review

Spain is well known for its architecture and design. Although Barcelona is famous for Gaudi’s historic architectural masterpieces, if you are traveling to central or western Spain, odds are you will be traveling through Madrid. Madrid is not as known for its architecture, but it has punctuated its skyline with a number of aesthetic contemporary projects and when I learned about Silken’s Puerta America Hotel I knew I had to stay there. This is my review of the Puerta America Hotel in Madrid.

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Puerta America Hotel 4th Floor Hallway

The Silken Puerta America Hotel in Madrid has 12 floors with each floor being designed by a different architectural group.  Despite Puerta America’s published room rates usually appearing to be quite expensive, there are also a number of reasonable deals to be had. When I was searching for a hotel to sleep in for a weekend before flying out of Madrid’s Airport, I stumbled on a room at Puerta America for around 100€ per night. Despite that being more than I would usually pay at a hostel, I decided to book the hostel as a fun experience for Sara and I.

The hotel is located on Avenida de America which is not too close to Madrid’s tourist areas but thanks to Madrid’s great transit system and the nearby metro stop we found getting around Madrid from the hotel to be very convenient. Upon arriving, I was disappointed at the hotel’s exterior. It was bright and colourful but sort of ugly as well. After reading so much about the Puerta America’s fantastic interior design, I began to worry that I had made a poor choice in booking a room for Sara and I.

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Exterior of Puerta America Hotel Madrid

At reception, Sara and I were handed an iPad which had photos and descriptions of each of the hotel’s floors. Although each floor was unique in its own way, Sara and I finally decided on the 7th floor, which was designed by Ron Arad, an Israeli architect who pioneered creating designs with recycled goods. When the elevator doors opened on the 7th floor, we were greeted by a unique round lobby area with a circular couch and table and numerous television screens rounding out the walls. It felt like we had gotten of on the spacecraft. The hallways were equally unique with white rounded capsules inviting us to our room. Although the whiteness made me think of a sanitary hospital environment, the lighting and cool room numbering got me into the design.

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Puerta America Hotel Madrid 7th Floor Hallway

We hadn’t chosen our 7th room for the lobby or hallway though, we wanted the round bed, big screen tv, and cool circular shower jacuzzi! I love gadgets and our 7th floor room provided plenty of those. From the retractable projector screen to the toilet capsule to the hidden lights and cabinets I kept discovering unique aspects of the room design during our weekend stay.

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Puerta America Hotel Madrid 7th Floor Circular Bed

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Puerta America Hotel Madrid 7th Floor Projector Screen

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Puerta America Hotel Madrid Bathroom

We didn’t plan to stay in our room for the weekend though and instead got out continuously to explore Madrid. Every time we left the room to go somewhere we’d make a point of stopping on another floor to check out the design of the lobby and hallways and Sara and I would discuss what we liked or didn’t like about the design.

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Puerta America Hotel Madrid 1st Floor Lobby

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Puerta America Hotel Madrid 3rd Floor Hallway

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Puerta America Hotel Madrid 1st Floor Hallway

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Puerta America Hotel Madrid 4th Floor Hallway

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Puerta America Hotel Madrid 6th Floor Hallway

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Puerta America Hotel Madrid 8th Floor Hallway

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Puerta America Hotel Madrid Meteor Lobby Sculpture

The Puerta America Hotel features some great bars and restaurants as well. Sara and I took advantage of the main floor bar for morning coffees and were also given free drink coupons by reception when we checked in. One evening I used my free drink coupon and decided that I’d like an Old Fashioned. The bartender warned me that it would take him 10 minutes to make the drink and I was immediately excited as I knew he was going to prepare me a wonderful drink. Sure enough, it was the best Old Fashioned I’ve ever tasted and I’m yet to find a better bartender.

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We also made use of the hotel pool during our stay but I must admit that I was somewhat disappointed in it. Although the steam room and showers were great, the pool itself was quite small and floor to ceiling windows put us on display in our bathing suits to the attendees of a large business reception, all formally dressed in suits, on the other side of the window. That pool “aquarium” experience is the only negative thing I want to report in this review of the Silken Puerta America Madrid Hotel.

On our last night, Sara and I went up to the Penthouse Skynightbar for a drink. Madrid does not have a particularly attractive skyline but the views from the 13th floor were still stunning. The crowd at the rooftop bar was very well dressed with men in suits and women in sky-scraping heels so I felt under dressed in my backpacker attire, but we still got in and were still served drinks so I was happy. I ordered an expensive Gin & Tonic, but luckily in Spain the bartenders still free-pour drinks and take care in their mixology so it was well worth the money. Sara and I were also given complimentary glasses of sparkling wine later in the night by the nightclub host which was a nice touch.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my stay at the Silken Puerta America Madrid Hotel and would highly recommend it to anyone as a unique hotel experience. I definitely recommend checking out each and every floor as Sara and I did and trying a drink made by one of the hotel’s fantastic bartenders. Cheers!

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