Segovia

Segovia is different! Apart from being a UNESCO heritage site, it manages to be so understated that you wonder why nobody else seems to have discovered it. So easily accessible, good hotels, restaurants and every other facility and still with cute old fashioned proper shops on the pedestrianised Calle Real.

If you are really into architecture, there is a perfectly preserved Roman aqueduct, towering over the lower town (and one of the best restaurants).

The castle looks like something out of Disneyland, which is not entirely surprising considering Disney nicked the design from Segovia!

And for serious architecture aficionados, in addition to the cathedral, there are enough Romanesque churches to write a PhD on.

In some ways, Segovia is the city that time forgot, but all this is sadly about to change. The Plaza Mayor is now more or less pedestrianised, so no tourist buses, but the recent completion of the motorway from Madrid and the imminent (although locals are sceptical about just how imminent) addition of a link to the high speed AVE railway, are bringing the city into easy reach of day trippers from the capital.