Segovia
Spain
A Roman aqueduct at one end of a ridge and a castle at the other, a thousand metres up with the Guadarrama behind
Photo by Diego Allen on Unsplash
Photos by Matteo del Piano, Dmitry Romanoff, Wei Huang and Hasmik Ghazaryan Olson on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Spain
April to October (a thousand metres up, so high summer is cooler than Madrid’s and the winter is properly cold)
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 53mm in Dec
Where it is
40.95°N, 4.12°W Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Stay the night to see the aqueduct lit and empty, which the day-trippers from Madrid never do
- Book a cochinillo lunch for about two, and plan nothing for the afternoon
- Walk down to the Mirador de la Pradera de San Marcos for the view of the Alcázar from below
- Take the bus to La Granja, and check which days the fountains run before you go
- Climb the Alcázar tower early, before the school groups
Segovia travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Spain
Mid-rangeEuro, and cards are taken everywhere that matters, the roast-suckling-pig restaurants included. Take the euro price when a terminal offers to convert.
ATMs & cards
Use a bank’s own machine — Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, Unicaja — and refuse the conversion. Avoid the standalone machines in the shops by the aqueduct.
Avoid these
- Euronet
- standalone machines in shops around the aqueduct
Use these instead
- Santander
- BBVA
- CaixaBank
- Unicaja
A Spanish bank may charge a non-customer; the fee is shown on screen before you confirm. Refuse the conversion either way.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Spain
Very safeVery safe. The day-trip coaches arrive mid-morning and the aqueduct square is crowded until late afternoon; mind bags there. It is a thousand metres up: winter nights go below freezing, the wind off the Guadarrama is cold even in spring, and the sun at this height burns faster than the temperature suggests.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (7 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- Plaza del Azoguejo — the square under the aqueduct, where the coach crowds gather and bags go missing
- the walk below the walls after dark — quiet, unlit in stretches, and steep; fine in daylight
- winter mornings — below freezing at this height, and the steep old streets ice over
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Spain visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Spain
Excellent and cheapRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date (MMR, tetanus, polio)
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodCochinillo asado, suckling pig roasted until it can be cut with the edge of a plate, which is how they serve it at Casa Cándido under the aqueduct. Judiones de La Granja, huge white beans stewed with pork; lechazo, roast milk-fed lamb; and ponche segoviano, a custard-and-marzipan cake. A cochinillo lunch is a three-hour event and you will not want dinner.
Travel tipsGetting around
Workable- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- CabifyWorks here
- FREE NOWWorks here
- Against a taxi
- About level with a metered taxi, and where a city sets a flat airport fare the taxi usually wins.
Several cities cap private-hire licences hard, so at peak the app may simply have nothing to send.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Madrid — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
eSIM
A data eSIM for Spain, installed before you fly and working the moment you land:
Works here
Works hereRevolutIn the app
Must-see
Travel tipsNearby day trips
Travel tipsSay a few words
Spanish
- HelloHolaOH-la
- PleasePor favorpor fa-VOR
- Thank youGraciasGRA-thyas
- Yes / NoSí / Nosee / no
4 more phrases
- Excuse mePerdónper-DON
- How much is it?¿Cuánto cuesta?KWAN-to KWES-ta
- The bill, pleaseLa cuenta, por favorla KWEN-ta
- Cheers!¡Salud!sa-LOOD
Religion
Catholic
Nominally Catholic and deeply secular in practice. Churches are working buildings as well as sights, and Semana Santa is taken seriously even by people who never attend Mass.
Travel tipsDo's and don'ts
Do
- Eat late — lunch from 14:00, dinner rarely before 21:00
- Greet with two cheek kisses, right cheek first, between women or a man and a woman
- Stand at the bar to drink; it is cheaper than sitting and more sociable
- Say buenos días on entering a small shop, and adiós on leaving
Don't
- Do not expect anything to be open between 14:00 and 17:00 outside the big cities
- Do not order sangria in a serious restaurant — it is a tourist drink; ask for tinto de verano
- Do not tip heavily; rounding up or a euro or two is normal
- In Barcelona, do not assume Catalan and Spanish are interchangeable — the distinction matters to people
Where to stay in Segovia
No Holistay rentals in Segovia yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Segovia on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Madrid Barajas MAD
1h 30mfrom the airport· 69 km as the crow flies
About 1h 30m: Cercanías to Chamartín, the Avant to Segovia-Guiomar in under half an hour, then the bus into town.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
