Madrid Hotels With a Pool, and Which Ones Are Open When You Visit
Best all-round: Dear Hotel MadridMadrid's rooftop pools are the city's summer signature and most of them are shut from autumn to spring. The only question that matters is whether the one you booked is open on your dates.
Which Madrid hotel has the best pool?
Dear Hotel Madrid is the safest booking, because its own site states the rooftop pool is heated from October to April and open to guests all year. Most other Madrid rooftops are summer-only. Riu Plaza Espana has the most dramatic setting on Gran Via. Check the months before you book, not the photographs.
Which one fits how you travel
Find the row that sounds like your trip. Every pick below names the traveller it is wrong for, so you can book on fit rather than on rank.
| If you are | Book | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Visiting outside high summer and want to swim | Dear Hotel Madrid | Its own site commits to heated water October to April, all year, guests only. |
| Here for the view more than the swim | Hotel Riu Plaza Espana | The 27th-floor terrace over Gran Via. Outdoor pool, so summer only. |
| Wanting a rooftop without the upper-tier rate | Catalonia Gran Via | Heated rooftop, nine flat minutes from Sol. Small, so go early. |
| Building the trip around the Prado | The Westin Palace Madrid | Across the road from the museum. Spa rather than rooftop, so book it for the location. |
| Staying in Salamanca to shop | BLESS Hotel Madrid | The best rooftop on that side of town, though it sells day passes and fills. |
| Staying a week, or driving | Exe Moncloa | A pool and parking away from the centre, at the cost of a daily metro ride. |
- Free cancellation on most rooms
- No booking fee
- Prices on Trip.com
What the bands mean
Rates are shown as bands, not numbers. Madrid hotels run live booking engines and none publishes a fixed nightly rate, so a figure printed here would be stale within days. The live rate for your dates opens through the button on each card. What does not move is the seasonality, which is why this page leads with months rather than money.
- €
- the cheapest tier with a pool at all, which in Madrid is not very cheap
- €€
- mid-range
- €€€
- upper tier, where most of the good rooftops sit
- €€€€
- the city's most expensive addresses
The 8 hotels, and who each one is wrong for
Walking times are to Puerta del Sol. Walking times are real pedestrian routes to Puerta del Sol, measured through OpenStreetMap foot routing at 4.5 km/h, not straight lines. Madrid's centre sits at about 660 metres but it is close to flat, so unlike a hillside city the distance is the whole story and no climb figure is quoted. Pool details come from each hotel's own published information where it was reachable, and where it was not the entry says what is known and stops.
Gran Via at Plaza de Espana
Dear Hotel Madrid
€€€Best all-roundA rooftop pool and 360-degree terrace at the Plaza de Espana end of Gran Via, and the one Madrid pool with a published year-round policy.
- Walk to Puerta del Sol
- 13 minutes, 970 m to Puerta del Sol
- Right for
- Anyone booking specifically for the pool outside high summer. It is the only entry here whose own site commits to opening all year.
- Wrong for
- Wrong for: Families wanting a splash. This is a view terrace with water in it, not a leisure pool.
- The catch
- The catch: The hotel's own site is explicit that the pool is heated from October to April and is open exclusively to Dear Hotel guests all year long. Good news for guests, but it also means you cannot buy your way in if you are staying elsewhere.
Plaza de Espana
Hotel Riu Plaza Espana
€€€An outdoor pool and the city's best-known rooftop bar on the 27th floor of the Edificio Espana on Gran Via.
- Walk to Puerta del Sol
- 15 minutes, 1.1 km to Puerta del Sol
- Right for
- The view. The 360-degree terrace is the single most dramatic rooftop in Madrid and the hotel's own material leads with it.
- Wrong for
- Wrong for: Anyone wanting quiet water. The rooftop is a destination bar in its own right and it is busy from late afternoon.
- The catch
- The catch: The pool is outdoor, which in Madrid means seasonal. The rooftop bar stays open when the water does not, so check what you are actually booking for.
Gran Via at Calle de Alcala
Catalonia Gran Via
€€Best valueA heated rooftop pool over the eastern end of Gran Via, at the most reasonable rate of the rooftop set.
- Walk to Puerta del Sol
- 9 minutes, 670 m to Puerta del Sol
- Right for
- Anyone who wants a rooftop without an upper-tier rate, nine flat minutes from Puerta del Sol.
- Wrong for
- Wrong for: Anyone expecting a resort. It is a good pool on a business-district hotel, not a leisure complex.
- The catch
- The catch: It is small, and on a hot afternoon in August a small rooftop pool in a full hotel is a queue for a lounger.
Chueca, Calle del Barquillo
Only YOU Boutique Hotel Madrid
€€€A design hotel in a 19th-century palace in Chueca, better known for its lounge than its water.
- Walk to Puerta del Sol
- 15 minutes, 1.1 km to Puerta del Sol
- Right for
- Anyone who wants the Chueca location and the building, with the leisure facilities as a bonus rather than the reason.
- Wrong for
- Wrong for: Anyone booking primarily to swim. This is not the page's strongest pool and it does not claim to be.
- The catch
- The catch: Chueca is one of the liveliest quarters in Madrid and the noise runs late at weekends. That is the trade for the address.
Calle de Atocha, by Barrio de las Letras
CoolRooms Palacio de Atocha
€€€A restored palace with a rooftop pool and terrace, eight flat minutes from Puerta del Sol.
- Walk to Puerta del Sol
- 8 minutes, 600 m to Puerta del Sol
- Right for
- Couples who want the pool and the old-Madrid building, close to both the Prado and the tapas streets.
- Wrong for
- Wrong for: Families. It is a small adults-leaning property and the pool is a plunge rather than a swim.
- The catch
- The catch: The rooftop is compact. It is a beautiful place to sit with a drink and a short place to actually swim.
Salamanca, Calle de Velazquez
BLESS Hotel Madrid
€€€€A five-star in the Salamanca district with a rooftop pool that also sells day access to non-guests.
- Walk to Puerta del Sol
- 34 minutes, 2.5 km, or the metro from Velazquez to Puerta del Sol
- Right for
- Anyone staying in Salamanca for the shopping who wants a serious hotel with a serious rooftop.
- Wrong for
- Wrong for: Anyone who wants the pool to themselves. Selling access to the public is exactly what makes it busy.
- The catch
- The catch: It is the furthest central option on this list from Puerta del Sol, and Salamanca is a smart residential district rather than a sightseeing base.
Plaza de las Cortes, opposite the Prado
The Westin Palace Madrid
€€€€A 1912 grand hotel across the road from the Prado, with a spa rather than a rooftop.
- Walk to Puerta del Sol
- 12 minutes, 890 m to Puerta del Sol
- Right for
- Anyone whose Madrid is the museums. You are twelve minutes from Sol and across the street from the Prado.
- Wrong for
- Wrong for: Anyone whose main reason for booking is a swim. This is a historic hotel with wellness facilities, not a pool hotel.
- The catch
- The catch: Listed here because people search for it in this context and deserve the honest answer: its water is a spa feature, not a rooftop pool with a view.
Moncloa, north-west of the centre
Exe Moncloa
€€A rooftop pool out in Moncloa, away from the tourist centre and priced accordingly.
- Walk to Puerta del Sol
- 34 minutes, 2.6 km, or the metro from Moncloa to Puerta del Sol
- Right for
- Longer stays and anyone driving, since parking out here is a different proposition from the centre.
- Wrong for
- Wrong for: A short first visit. At 34 minutes on foot you are committing to the metro every single day.
- The catch
- The catch: Moncloa is a transport interchange and a university district. It works well as a base and it is not somewhere you will want to spend your evenings.
Where not to book in Madrid
The mistake in Madrid is booking a pool for the wrong month. Most hotel pools here are outdoor rooftops and they run roughly from early June to late September, which means a listing photograph taken in July tells you nothing about a trip in March. Only a handful are heated or covered, and the hotels that are will say so on their own site. Treat any listing that says only pool, with no indoor or outdoor label and no months, as unanswered until you have checked. The second thing to watch is public access: several of Madrid's best rooftops sell day passes or Balinese beds to non-guests, which is pleasant if you are visiting and frustrating if you are staying and cannot get a lounger at four in the afternoon.
When to book
Pool-led bookings in Madrid peak in exactly the months the city is least pleasant to sightsee in. July and August are when the rooftops matter, when the interior tops 35 degrees, and when rates for a pool hotel are at their highest, so book those weeks two to three months out. The shoulder months of May, June and September are the sweet spot: the outdoor pools are open, the city is comfortable and the rates have not peaked. From November to March, book the heated exceptions or accept that the pool is decoration.
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Photo credits (8)
Photos via Wikimedia Commons, used under their respective licences.
- The fountain on Plaza de Espana at the western end of Madrid's Gran Via: Diego Delso - CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
- The Edificio Espana rising over the rooftops at Plaza de Espana in Madrid: Javier Perez Montes - CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
- The Metropolis building lit at night on Madrid's Gran Via: Rubén Vique - CC BY 2.0 · source
- Festive lights strung over a street in Chueca, central Madrid: Gerda Arendt - CC0 · source
- Atocha station in Madrid, at the southern end of the Paseo del Prado: Numenor - CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
- A carved facade on Calle Serrano in Madrid's Salamanca district: Zarateman - CC0 · source
- The Villanueva building of the Museo del Prado on Madrid's Paseo del Prado: Zarateman - CC0 · source
- The Arco de la Victoria at Moncloa, north-west of central Madrid: CARLOS TEIXIDOR CADENAS - CC BY-SA 4.0 · source