What should I avoid in Segovia?

The restaurants directly facing the Aqueduct on Plaza del Azoguejo have laminated photo menus in 4 languages and staff stationed outside trying to wave you in. That's your signal to keep walking. A cuarto of cochinillo at these places runs €28-35, and what arrives is often pre-cooked and reheated, the skin rubbery instead of shattering under a fork. The whole point of Segovian cochinillo is that crackle. Mesón de Cándido, on the plaza since 1931, is the exception. They'll cut your pig with the edge of a plate and smash it afterward, which feels theatrical, but the skin snaps. A full cochinillo for two there costs about €50-55. If you'd rather skip the show, José María on Calle Cronista Lecea 11 is where Segovianos themselves eat for celebrations. Their cuarto runs around €23-25, with skin that crackles when you break it.

Don't drive inside the walls. The streets between the Aqueduct and the Alcázar were laid for carts in the 12th century, and they haven't gotten wider. You'll find yourself reversing 200 meters because a delivery van is coming the other way, while pedestrians squeeze against stone walls to let you pass. The municipal parking garage on Calle de José Zorrilla holds about 400 cars and sits a 3-minute walk from Plaza Mayor. The bus from Madrid's Moncloa interchange runs roughly every 30 minutes, takes about 75 minutes, and costs around €8-10 each way. That's the right answer for a day trip. If you're coming from Madrid by car, park at the Zorrilla garage and walk.

Most Madrid day-trippers arrive around noon and leave by 4pm. That means they hit the Aqueduct and Cathedral at peak crowd density, eat a rushed cochinillo, and miss the Alcázar entirely or see it while exhausted. The better pattern is the 8:30am bus from Moncloa, which gets you to Segovia by 9:45am. The Alcázar opens at 10am. By the time the noon crowds arrive at Plaza del Azoguejo, you've already climbed the 152 steps of the Torre de Juan II for the best view of the Sierra de Guadarrama and you're sitting down for a proper lunch. The same crowd logic applies to the Cathedral. Its €3 entry fee is the best deal in town, but the nave fills up between 12pm and 2pm. Go at 10am or after 4pm.

Segovia sits at roughly 1,000 meters on the Castilian meseta. In July and August, afternoon temperatures reach 34-36°C, but the dry heat and altitude mean shade works. Step off a sun-blasted plaza into the Monastery of Santa María del Parral, founded 1447, and the temperature drops 10 degrees. The stone walls feel cool to the touch. Winter is the opposite problem. December through February brings raw, biting cold, with temperatures around 2-4°C and a wind off the Guadarrama that cuts through anything short of a proper coat. Mind you, winter also means you'll have the Aqueduct's 167 arches to yourself at 9am, the granite turning pink in early light. No tour buses park on Plaza del Azoguejo before 10am.

Combo day tours from Madrid that bundle Segovia with La Granja de San Ildefonso and El Escorial into 8 hours tend to leave you about 90 minutes per site. That's enough to photograph the Aqueduct from the plaza and eat a rushed lunch, but not enough to walk the full perimeter of the walls or reach the Vera Cruz church across the Eresma valley. Take the La Sepulvedana bus from Moncloa and spend a full day instead. The tren turístico that loops below the city walls charges about €6 for a circuit you can walk in 15 minutes. Walk it yourself. You'll pass the Convento de los Carmelitas Descalzos and the Fuencisla sanctuary up close instead of from behind glass. The souvenir shops along Calle Real between Plaza del Azoguejo and Plaza Mayor sell 'Toledo steel' letter openers that are factory imports. If you want Segovian crafts, the ceramic workshops in the Barrio de San Millán still fire their pieces in wood kilns.