7 1/2 hour layover in Madrid.....time for a tour?

We arrive in Mardid at 10:20 am, and connect to a flight to Alicante at 5 pm. We are wondering if there is enough time to get in a tour of some parts of Madrid, and get back to the airport for our flight. I see there is a hop-on, hop-off bus in Madrid.....What do you recommend?

Thanks, Andy

You can actually get from Madrid to Alicante by bus in less time than you are hanging around in the airport. I have a place in Moraira, an hour north of Alicante, and a couple of years back I caught a bus from Benidorm, via Alicante to Madrid Airport which took about 6 hours... http://www.goeuro.co.uk/buses_from_alicante_to_madrid leather seats, air con, wifi, basically better than most aircraft.

There is also a high speed train... http://www.eurail.com/trains-europe/high-speed-trains/alvia linking the two.

Back to your original question... Yes you have plenty of time to get into Madrid and back. If your bags are checked through then because it is an internal flight you can get out and back in pretty easily.