6th September 2010 – On 2nd October 2010, Hotel Ritz Madrid (www.ritzmadrid.com) will mark its Centenary as Madrid’s most iconic hotel, providing guests with a luxurious and elegant base from which to explore Spain’s vibrant capital city for ten decades. Madrileños love to celebrate and the Ritz Madrid is no exception, with a year long schedule of events and parties planned.

As part of the Centenary offering, Hotel Ritz Madrid www.ritzmadrid.com has created a special accommodation package offering guests a rate of 100 Euro for the first night of their stay, when booking a minimum three night stay. The package is subject to availability, includes a daily buffet breakfast and will be available from 1st October 2010 until September 2011 (excluding 28th December – 1st January). Rates for a classic room are priced from 535 Euros (approximately £ 447) per room, per night.

Over the past 100 years, Hotel Ritz Madrid has been at the forefront of innovations in fine dining. To pay homage to his predecessors, executive chef Jorge Gonzales, will re-create a selection of dishes from the Goya Restaurant that reflect the evolution of cooking styles throughout the century. Iconic dishes, such as the Beef Tenderloin Centre Périgueux that was served for New Year’s Dinner on 1936, will take guests on a gastronomical journey from 1910 to the present day.

To kick off a year long calendar of celebratory events, Hotel Ritz Madrid will host celebrated Spanish songstress, Olga Maria Ramos, for several performances in October. Also scheduled for 2010 is a special Christmas gift for Madrid residents over the age of 100 years, who will be invited to the Hotel Ritz for an afternoon tea party, featuring a specially created birthday cake.

Celebrations will continue well into 2011, with the hotel hosting a 1920’s themed flapper carnival party in February and also sponsoring the Madrid Masters Golf Championship in May 2011.

Originally the brainchild of King Alfonso XIII, who noticed a distinct lack of luxury accommodation in Madrid at the time of his wedding, the Hotel Ritz Madrid was created to satisfy the tastes of the most distinguished and discerning travellers and was designed and built under the personal supervision of legendary hotelier, Cesar Ritz. The inauguration gala of 1902 was a grand occasion attended by the Spanish royal family including King Alfonso XIII, Queen Ena, the royal mother and Prime Minister Canalejas.
The hotel is one of the original grand luxury hotels of Europe and an architectural treasure, exemplary of the Belle Époque era. It continues to play host to kings, prime ministers, aristocrats, movie stars, authors and painters, such as Nelson Mandela, The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Yasser Arafat, Jennifer Lopez, Princess Diana and Prince Charles, Salvador Dali, George Clooney, Richard Gere, Tom Ford, and Penelope Cruz.

All 167 rooms have marble bathrooms, handmade carpets, embroidered linen sheets and stunning views of the Prado National Museum or gardens.

ENDS/….

Orient-Express, (NYSE: OEH, www.orient-express.com) the name behind an elite collection of travel experiences, first came into being in 1883 as one of the world’s most exciting and indulgent train journeys. Today that evocative name also embraces hotels, cruises and other luxury rail adventures in 24 countries, across five continents. The Company has offered exceptional luxury travel experiences since 1976, when it first purchased Hotel Cipriani in Venice and then shortly afterwards, recreated the celebrated Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, linking London, Paris and Venice, along with other European cities. Today, the company owns or part-owns and manages 50 businesses, 41 of which are highly acclaimed hotels, each unique in style, from the Mount Nelson in Cape Town and Rio’s Copacabana Palace, to the Grand Hotel Europe in St. Petersburg and Maroma Resort & Spa on Mexico’s Riviera Maya. There are six luxury tourist trains, two river cruise operations and ‘21’, one of New York’s most iconic restaurants.

For further information, please contact Vicky Legg or Sara Mirza at Orient-Express on 020 7921 4069 or vicky.legg@orient-express.com or sara.mirza@orient-express.com