The Hotel Claridge is an impressively towering, 15-floor upper-middle-range hotel set on a heavily trafficked roundabout in Madrid's Retiro district. The location isn't great with the city center a good metro ride away -- though the lovely Retiro Park is within walking distance. Rooms are perfectly adequate, but you need to shell out for a suite to get something truly special and lower-level rooms get some traffic noise (though bathrooms are pleasantly contemporary throughout). Nicely renovated interiors give the hotel a classy feel and the gym with exercise classes is certainly impressive. While rates are reasonable, tourists will likely find it just a little bit too out of the way.