Hotel review: Miau

I was so excited that we stayed at Hotel Miau in Madrid! Last time I stayed there was in 2003 with my mom, so admittedly, I didn’t exactly remember what the hotel was like inside, but I just liked the idea of staying at Hotel Miau.

Hotel Miau, Plaza de Santa Ana, Madrid

The best thing about the hotel is its location – the Plaza de Santa Ana. This is my favorite plaza in Madrid. It’s just so charming, the square filled with tables from restaurants and surrounded by hotels, eateries and bars. Plus it’s easily within walking distance of Puerta del Sol and an endless array of nightlife options.

Our actual room was fine. The shower was kind of tiny, but we had nice balcony windows onto a side street leading to the plaza. But of course, knowing our luck, they were doing construction on that street, digging it up right outside our window! At least we had air conditioning so we could keep the window closed and keep most of the noise out. Plus, it was a small project that went on only a couple of days.

Temporary construction site right outside our hotel

Overall, I’d definitely recommend Hotel Miau for your stay in Madrid. The prices are extremely reasonable, the location is perfect, the rooms are nice enough, the staff is friendly – major points for letting us check in super early after a long, overnight journey to Madrid!

Hotel review: Au-Royal Cardinal

Our hotel room in Paris was pretty nice – even bigger than the one in London. No nightmares so far like the tiny box Adrian and I had in Barcelona.

The Au-Royal Cardinal offered us a really nice, clean room, with a big bathroom and two balcony windows. The windows provided some much-needed ventilation since it’s been non-stop hotness since we arrived in Europe.

Our hotel was a short walk from the Notre Dame & Ile St. Louis, which are not bad landmarks to be near. There was also a metro stop (Cardinal Lemoine) literally a block away which got us to all the major attractions.

Unfortunately, the location of the Au-Royal Cardinal is ridiculously noisy right now. I never really understood why noise was such an issue for some people on hotel review sites, but now I get it! Between the traffic, the people and the construction site outside our window, it was actually hard to fall asleep. The jack-hammering was borderline funny in its absurdity.

Other than that, I did actually really like the hotel:

1. It has an elevator
2. It has balcony windows – one of which is in the bathroom, which is a blessing
3. It has a safe (that’s free and that actually works!)
4. The staff was really helpful and answered our many questions. One guy even told me I was very beautiful (thank you for the self-esteem boost)!
5. It was close to a number of major attractions, and close to public transportation that got us to the further attractions.