This apartment is really great for its location! It’s easy to get to from the airport by taking the RENFE ceranias train to Recoletos station and then a short walk. It’s also walking distance to all the major sights. We found it easy to get to both Chamartin (by ceranias) and Atocha (we walked - about 30 minutes, or you could take ceranias) AVE stations for day trips to Segovia and Toledo. There are also many restaurants and shopping nearby. A large supermarket is right up the street.
The apartment was very clean and quiet. It is an interior apartment so we didn’t hear any street noise.
The terrace is basically a ground floor interior courtyard area, surrounded by other apartments, so as the previous review said, you don’t really get any sun (and as the only windows in the apartment are to the courtyard, the apartment doesn’t really get any natural light either). The apartment has no views. The picture of the terrace is pretty accurate - what you see is what you get. But, even though we were surrounded by other apartments, it felt private. The umbrella provides privacy from people above. Maybe it’s because it rained early on in our stay, but we would sometimes get a whiff of sewer from a drain on the terrace floor.
There is a floor air conditioning unit, but it is not that strong. I also agree with the previous review that in September it was stuffy.
Check-in could have gone smoother. We gave Maria our flight arrival time and she said she would calculate when we would get to the apartment. I really had no idea how long it would take us. With getting a train from the satellite terminal to the main terminal and then waiting for bags and the train, we were longer than she expected. Perhaps I should have sent her a message from the airport when we got on the train. When we got to the apartment we did wait 20-30 minutes outside the apartment because we didn’t have a buzzer number and I couldn’t get an international call to Maria to go through on my cell, and I sent a few messages through AirBnB but it took awhile to get a response. Eventually Jesus came out to greet us. It would have been easier if there had been a lock box, like some other properties we have stayed at.