82 hotels to sleep in before you die: Hotel Puerta América Madrid (1)

You know that I love hotels, I would live in hotels if I could. I worked in hotels and what I loved most at the time, was the fact that it was a complete world within the world. Lives passing by. Actually, it was not much different from one of my other passions, movies. Working in a hotel is kind of watching a movie all day long.

Are you the kind of person who wonders which story hides behind the people around you when you are waiting at the arrival hall of an airport? I am. My fantasy goes wild 🙂

Working or sleeping in a hotel is the same really. All those different people leading different lives, connected just by the hotel they are staying in…

Good hotel vs bad hotel

A hotel can have a lot of impact on your stay somewhere. Let’s say you are staying in Florence for the first time, just for the weekend. The town looks beautiful and when you arrive in your hotel, the receptionist is unfriendly, your room is cold, the bed uncomfortable and breakfast is horrible so you end up spending the next two days with stomach ache in bed.

You will remember Florence very differently if you arrive at the hotel and you feel welcome, the receptionist is super friendly and gives you all kind of good tips for your visit of town. The bed is comfortable so you sleep well, breakfast is fresh and good. You enjoy town to the fullest. The experience would be so different!

I must say I have had some hilarious experiences in bad hotels, I should write about those one day but I prefer staying in the good ones, logically.

Hotel bucket list

Some peope enjoy going to the zoo, a bar or a concert. I enjoy going to (new) hotels. So yes, I have stayed in tons of hotels but my hotel bucket list is still very very long.

In this top 82 hotels I will share my hotel bucket list with you, one hotel every week or every two weeks. You know, I’m not a good planner. I have visited some hotels on the list already and am planning on staying in the rest as well. I do not think an expensive hotel is synonymous to a good hotel, so I have some luxury hotels on the list but also quite some budget hotels.

Some hotels are famous like the Icehotel, located in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden and I would definitely want to stay there one time but I especially enjoy discovering the less famous hotels of the world.

Hotel Puerta América, Madrid

The first hotel on my list (no particular order btw) is Hotel Puerta América, close to Madrid city center. The 12 floors of the luxury 5-star hotel have been designed by some of the best designers and architects in the world.

Zaha Hadid and Jean Nouvel designed the club rooms and suites on the premium floors, which are the 1st and the 12th floor. The other floors have been designed by ten designers from various countries – among others – Norman Foster from Great Britain, Javier Mariscal and Fernando Salas from Spain, Eva Castro from Argentina) and German Holger Kehne, Australian Marc Newson, American Richard Gluckman and Arata Isozaki from Japan.

I absolutely love the use of colors in the hotel and the fact that people from all those different parts of the world worked together because that is exactly what hotels are. A place where people from all over the world get together. My favorite floors would be the 1st (yes, big Zaha Hadid fan here) and the 8th floor, designed by Kathryn Findlay. Really funny actually because I love color, vibrant colors, but these two floors are mainly white. What I really like though is that they look a bit out of this world (plus the price is interesting).

8th floor

Findlay studied at the Edinburgh College of Art and graduated from the Architectural Association in London. ‘Her floor’ is interactive and playful. Everything is white. The rooms don’t have any doors or walls, only curtains so it has this very light and poetic feel to it. She has also used quite a lot of round objects/furniture which I like.

The bed is towards the back of the room and in certain cases, the architect has placed a single bed that is suspended from the ceiling via a steel structure.

1st floor

Born in Baghdad, Iraq, Zaha Hadid was the first female winner of the Pritker Prize in 2004. Her work is a-ma-zing so it would be a honour to sleep in a space she designed!

The clean lines and flowing original shapes in the rooms are beautiful. A guest could easily forget this is a hotel room, it looks like a spaceship out of some futuristic movie.

Best views of Madrid

The restaurant and bar on the top floor, the 13th, offer amazing views of Madrid. A glass walkway connects the different spaces. The semi-circle with a glass floor reveals the whole façade of the hotel from top to bottom.

Hotel Puerta América is a work of art on its own and a really cool hotel to stay in if you are into architecture and design.

Don’t hesitate to give me hotel tips in the comments if you know a ‘hoteltosleepinbeforeyoudie’!