In early March I departed for Madrid for a few days of vacation. I flew KLM via Amsterdam to Madrid’s Barajas Intl Airport, but only after first meeting my mother in Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. I flew the JFK-AMS leg in KLM’s Premium Economy, and I already published my review of that (it was lovely!). We then also flew back together to Amsterdam, from where I flew back to New York-JFK by myself. However, before we fly back to Amsterdam from Madrid, we were able to get into the Puerta del Sol lounge at Madrid Barajas (MAD) Terminal 3, which is run by Spain’s Airport Agency, Aena.

Briefly, I liked this lounge a lot more than I thought I would. It wasn’t a big lounge but it has a good range of amenities, including meeting rooms and showers. There was a substantial breakfast/brunch buffet when we were here, and I thought the food was above average quality, with many things to choose from. Throughout our stay here, the lounge also never got particualrly busy. I’d be quite happy to stop by here again!

1. Location and Hours
2. Access Requirements
3. Seating and Design
4. Food and Drinks
5. Showers and Restrooms
6. Summary

Location and Hours

Published hours for this lounge indicate hours from 5am to 7pm.

For context, Madrid’s Barajas Airport has two large terminal buildings, with Iberia and many of its partners (oneworld and otherwise) departing from MAD’s newer Terminal 4. KLM and Air France depart from the older terminal, which is a combination of Terminals 1, 2 and 3, and consist of concourses A through E. KLM and Air France depart from concourse E, which is also where the Puerta del Sol lounge is located. There is however also the Puerta de Alcala lounge, which is located in concourse D.

How you get to this lounge depends a little on where you get through security. Since the Air France-KLM checkin counters are in Terminal 2, that’s where I went through security. Also because at that time a gate wasn’t being displayed on the information signs yet. As such we initially tried to enter the Puerta de Alcala lounge. The signs for the lounges initially don’t specify what lounge you’re going to, as they just say ‘VIP’. As you progress through the terminal, you’ll eventually see signs specifically for the ‘VIP Sala Puerta de Alcala’, pointing to the left. However, once there, we were told our flight would depart from gate E81 and the Puerta del Sol lounge would be closer to our gate. As such, we continued on our way.

As you keep walking you’ll see more overhead signs, though these will start to show Puerta del Sol in small letters under ‘VIP’. Ultimately you’ll enter the E concourse and take a right, walking by th Terminal 3 security checkpoint.

Keep walking to the end of the terminal and about halfway you’ll see a circular room hanging from the ceiling, with stairs leading into it, providing access from the concourse level. This is the entrance to the lounge, and there’s also an elevator right behind the stairs. Head up and you’ll be at the entrance of the lounge.

Access Requirements

The Puerta del Sol lounge is run by Aena, Spain’s airport operators. As such, it’s not related to any particular lounge, meaning entering can be done through various ways:

• The simplest way is to buy a day pass, which costs 48 Euros for adults and children aged 11 or older.
• The lounge acts as a contract lounge for a variety of airlines, including SkyTeam ailines. Premium cabin passengers (business class) flying with Air France, KLM or Air Europa, as well as those with elite status (e.g. Flying Blue Gold), can gain entry.
• Priority Pass and Lounge Key memberships are also accepted at this lounge.

Seating and Design

Overall, the lounge has a circular design. The entry stairs and elevator, lobby area and reception desk are roughly at the center of this circle, with the various amenities in roughly one half of the circle, and most of the seating in the other half.

As you enter the lounge you’ll get to the reception desk. There isn’t a ‘lobby’ as such, as the reception desk is part of the larger space without a clear separation. The attendants greeted us, and I explained I’d like to take my mother in as a guest. They scanned our boarding passes and we were good to go. If you go left you’ll get to some seating areas, whereas turning right will lead to the dining area with the buffet.

We turned right, and as my mother went to find a seat, I took myself on a tour of the lounge. As you can see, the dining area has a good number of tables, setup for four people, right by a buffet that consists of a big island, a counter, and some additional tables and fridges.

Immediately to the left of here (or just to the right of the reception) is another hallway. As you walk through here, you’ll find that the left side of this hallway provides entrance to one of two meeting rooms, with space for about 4 people. It’s nice that such a facility is provided, given that it’s actually not a very big lounge.

Proceeding through this corridor leads to a seating area. Here you will find lounge chairs arranged in pairs in several rows, with side tables outfitted with electrical plugs. A little further back is a single row of chairs oriented in the direction of the windows.

However, probably the nicest seats are actually along the edge of this space, as they are right by the windows and afford a (limited) view of the apron. From here you can see planes taxi by and park at the below gate, which is kind of cool. Though it’s definitely not the best view you can get in the lounge, as you’ll see later.

A little futher in this space is another corridor which essentially brings you back to the reception area. Along this corridor is a second meeting room, also arranged for 4 people.

And beyond the meeting room is also a locker and coat room. I thought this was a useful amenity for those that may be nervous about leaving their belongings alone as they go to the buffet etc, or perhaps have multiple bags and don’t want to carry it around while in the lounge.

Then, as you exit the corridor, you’re back in the reception area, which will be on your left. If you turn right, you’ll enter the main lounge area. As I said, the lounge is designed as a circle, so if you turn right and then follow the circle, you’ll find yourself back at the dining area again. Hence this seating area is one large space.

Before you get to that area, though, you’ll see there is a glass wall and a door. This separated a media room, with various lounge chairs arranged so as to view a television, which appeared to just be showing the news.

Entering the main lounge space, this is where the most lounge seating is. The first part of this space has more of the lounge chairs arranged in pairs, but also several swiveling chairs by the windows. It’s fun to sit there and look at what’s going on in the terminal, though note that unlike the paired lounge chairs, the swiveling ones don’t have easy access to electrical plugs, for as far as I could see.

Going beyond this area, you’ll enter the ‘main’ seating area. This is also where most people chose to sit. Most of this space is arranged in rows by way of the paired lounge chairs with the side tables. By the window are also low circular tables arranged with either two or three swiveling chairs. Those would certainly be my preferred places to sit, since you have a great view over the apron, taxiways and runway, allowing you to see all the planes that come by!

As you walk through this area, you ultimately make it back to the dining area and the reception, coming full circle. Overall, I thought this was a pleasant space that seemed well-maintained and clean. The design was a little generic, but perfectly fine, and I appreciated the additional amenities, such as the meeting rooms, locker room and media room. As you can see, when we got here it wasn’t particularly busy either, and although it got a bit busier later on, the lounge was at no point busy busy. And, given the windows on both sides of the lounge, you can get fantastic views of the traffic outside.

Food and Drinks

The dining area is right by the reception desk and the entrance to the lounge. Here you will find a counter with cold cuts, fruits and cheeses, a large island with breads, hot dishes and coffee machines, and then to the side there are a few more shelving units, fridges and a table with alcoholic drinks.

Starting with the counter with cold options, there was a beautiful spread of various fruits, salads, cold cuts and cheeses, and a large selection of vegetables. You could make your own sandwich, eat them as separate items, or just enjoy the salads. I was impressed with the selection, which I thought was quite a bit nicer than your average breakfast salad spread.

Over at the main island were a wide variety of options. Starting with hot options, there were potatoes, vegetarian paella (which was quite good), beans, scrambled eggs and sausages, which I thought was a nice blend of traditional hot breakfast items and some with a Spanish twist. There was also a large platter with various sausage and meat cuts, including a selection of chorizos, and salmon. Finally, there was a multitude of rolls, cakes and other bready desserts.

Off to the side of the lounge were two units with shelves and a table with further options. The table had two kinds of soup, whereas the shelves had cereals biscuits, chips, nuts and a variety of other snacks perfect for if you just want a glass of wine or beer or a simply a light snack.

Then, there were two big fridges. One was entirely dedicated to bottled drinks, which included water, various kinds of juices and sodas, which I thought was a very nice selection. The other fridge was a pretty genius thing that I think should be a staple of airline lounges: grab-and-go options. This is becoming more of a thing recently, with various airlines adding such options to their lounges or creating entirely new lounges around this concept, but I thought it was nice to see it here. And also how well-stocked it was! Here there were a multitude of packaged sandwiches and salads, and then in the bottom also a variety of beers (surely not to-go)

Finally, in terms of drinks, there were (identical) hot drink machines on either side of the island. These made a variety of things, including various coffees, hot cacao and hot water for tea. There was also a juicer, which I thought was a great addition. This was one of those machines that squeezes oranges with the press of a button, giving you fresh orange juice without the hassle.

In terms of alcoholic drinks, I already mentioned the beers in the fridge with to-go items. There was also a large table with all sorts of liquors, as well as a barrel with bottled of wine. I thought the selection was nice and should have something for everybody, most likely. Finally, there were also tow dispensers with infused water, though I thought it was an odd place to put them.

Recently, having been to a variety of lounges in Europe during breakfast hours, I’ve started to feel a little jaded with the breakfast spread in the average lounge. So, this was a very nice surprise. The number of options, from salads to cold cuts, and paella to sausages, was lovely. it remained well-stocked throughout my time here, too. I’d say the quality was pretty good as well, with some variability between items. Generally though, this was a great breakfast spread.

Showers and Restrooms

The lounge possess showers besides restrooms. To access these I believe you’d have to ask at the reception. The showers are located close to the restrooms. From either the space with the meeting rooms, rather than heading back through one of the corridors, you’d go to the very back of the space and turn left. Here is a short corridor that basically leads back to the main seating area.

Along this corridor you’ll first stumble upon a room where you can breastfeed or pump. Then after that there will be a corridor to the left, which has two showers. I wasn’t able to get in as they were locked, so I didn’t take pictures.

On the other side of the corridor is another corridor with the restrooms. The men’s restroom wasn’t very big, but had sufficient facilities for the size of the lounge. Upon entering the snks were immediately on the right. There were large windows with a view over the apron and one of the gates as well.

Taking a left are three urinals along the eft wall, and three toilet stalls along the right wall. All of these looked clean and tidy.

The facilities at the Puerta del Sol lounge were good, as they were sufficient for the number of people and were clean and well-maintained. That’s really all that you would want from a restroom, I suppose…

Summary

The Puerta del Sol lounge at Madrid’s Barajas Intl Airport is a very nice facility. It’s not very big but sufficient in size for the number of people visiting. There was ample seating throughout, in the dining area and lounge spaces both in the main spaces and in the smaller back area. I liked that there were a variety of additional amenities, including meeting rooms, lockers, a media room and showers. The design was a little generic but pleasant and generally nice and well-maintained. I really liked the buffet as well, which was serving breakfast when I was there. There was a good number of options, ranging from salads, vegetables and fruits, to paella, sausages, eggs and bread. Overall, I’d be very happy to retur to this lounge in the future.