What should I avoid in Madrid?

The restaurants facing Plaza Mayor charge €16-22 for a paella that arrives lukewarm and tastes like it was reheated from a catering tray. You'll spot the warning signs from 50 meters. Laminated photo menus in 6 languages. A man outside waving you toward a table. Walk 4 minutes south to La Latina and eat on Cava Baja, where a €14 menú del día gets you three courses and a glass of Ribera del Duero. The same pattern holds around Puerta del Sol. That €7 tortilla española at a Sol-facing terrace is €3.50 at any bar on Calle de la Cruz, two blocks east. If you can see a major monument from your table, you're paying a 40-60% surcharge for the view.

Gran Vía between Callao and Plaza de España has three-card monte games running most afternoons. The friendly stranger who stops to explain the trick is part of the crew. You will not win. Near the Museo del Prado and Retiro Park, clipboard carriers approach asking you to sign a petition for deaf rights or similar causes. While you write, a second person works your bag. The friendship-bracelet variant runs at Puerta del Sol, where someone ties a string to your wrist, calls it a gift, then demands €5-10. If anyone touches your wrist uninvited, pull your hand back and keep walking. These are low-stakes cons that succeed because first-time visitors feel too polite to refuse.

Mercado de San Miguel, the glass-walled market 30 meters from Plaza Mayor, was once where madrileños bought their daily groceries. It has become a tourist food hall where a single croqueta costs €3.50 and a small plate of jamón ibérico runs €12-15. The food is fine, but not €15-fine. For the same money, Bar Santurce in Chamberí grills sardines over charcoal right at the counter, and the smell of burning oak and sea salt carries across the street. Sobrino de Botín on Calle de Cuchilleros, open since 1725, holds the Guinness record for the oldest restaurant in the world. The cochinillo asado costs around €26 and the 18th-century wood-fired oven in the basement is worth seeing. But the dining room at 9pm on a Saturday feels like a theme park. Book a 1:30pm weekday lunch instead. Same oven, half the crowd, and you can actually hear your table's conversation over the clatter of plates.

Madrid in July and August is punishing. Temperatures regularly reach 38-42°C, the concrete absorbs the heat well past sunset, and the city's granite facades still feel warm to the touch at 11pm. To be fair, August has one upside. Half of Madrid leaves for the coast. Entire blocks of Chamberí and Salamanca go quiet, and favorite restaurants post "cerrado por vacaciones" signs for 3-4 weeks. If you visit in summer, schedule Retiro Park and outdoor sightseeing before 10am or after 7pm. Midday belongs indoors. The Reina Sofía, which opened in 1992, stays cool and its Guernica room tends to be less packed on weekday mornings than the Prado at the same hour.

Metro Line 1, the oldest and most tourist-heavy route, is where pickpockets concentrate. Sol, Gran Vía, and Tribunal are the worst stations. Keep your phone in a front pocket and your bag zipped and in front of you. The metro is still the fastest way around at €1.50-2 per ride, and a 10-trip Metrobús card costs €12.20. Don't skip it out of fear. Do skip the unlicensed drivers who approach at Barajas Terminal 4 arrivals offering rides to the center for €50-60. Madrid has a fixed €33 taxi fare from any Barajas terminal to anywhere inside the M-30 ring road. Use the official white taxis with the diagonal red stripe on the door, or take Metro Line 8 to Nuevos Ministerios for about €4.50 including the €3 airport supplement.