Things to do in Granada: Alhambra, Albaicín, cathedral
Granada's sights fall into two groups. The Alhambra needs planning: it sells tickets for a set day, and the Nasrid Palaces for a set time. The rest of the city, from the cathedral to the lanes of the Albaicín, can be fitted around it with little or no booking.
If you intend to see most of the major sights, look at the Granada Card, sold by the city council. The 72-hour card at €60 includes the Alhambra general visit, the cathedral, the Royal Chapel, the Cartuja and San Jerónimo monasteries, the Sacromonte abbey, the Parque de las Ciencias, the Andalusian monuments, nine city bus journeys and a ride on the tourist train; the 48-hour card at €55 leaves out the Andalusian monuments, and the children's card for ages 3 to 11 costs €13. It pays off when, beyond the Alhambra, you visit the cathedral, the Royal Chapel and several of the other monuments it covers; for the Alhambra alone, a normal ticket is far cheaper. The card's Alhambra visit is booked when you buy it, so buy the card as early as you would a normal ticket.
Two free entries are worth planning for: the Andalusian monuments cost nothing on Sundays, and the cathedral and the Royal Chapel are free on Wednesday afternoons for those who book a place online in advance.
1The Alhambra and the Generalife
Photo: Julio García Photos / Pexels, Pexels License
The Nasrid sultans, the last Muslim rulers in Spain, built their palace city on the Sabika hill in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the Catholic Monarchs took it over intact in 1492. A visit has four parts. The Alcazaba, the oldest fortress, is mostly bare walls and towers, but from the top of the Torre de la Vela you look straight down on the roofs of the Albaicín. The Nasrid Palaces are the reason for the trip: rooms where stucco carved as finely as lace covers every wall, ceilings of honeycombed cedar, and courtyards built around water. The Partal, a pavilion over a long pool, leads out to the Generalife, the summer estate of the sultans, with terraced gardens and the long Patio de la Acequia, where a channel of water runs between flowerbeds and rows of fountains.
Time
3 to 5 h
Setting
Both
Best time
The first entry at 8.30 am, or the late afternoon in summer when the heat eases
Getting there
Minibus C30 from Plaza Isabel la Católica, or on foot up the Cuesta de Gomérez from Plaza Nueva
Tip: Buy tickets only in the official Alhambra ticket shop and do it as soon as your dates are fixed: in spring and early autumn the morning slots often sell out weeks ahead. Each ticket carries the visitor's name, so bring the original ID you booked with; children under 12 enter free but need their own ticket. If the general ticket is gone, the gardens ticket still gets you into the Alcazaba and the Generalife, and the night visit to the Nasrid Palaces can be booked separately.
General ticket with the Nasrid Palaces €22.27, gardens, Alcazaba and Generalife without the palaces €12.73. Open daily from 8.30 am to 6 pm from 15 October to 31 March and to 8 pm from 1 April to 14 October; closed on 25 December and 1 January. Night visit to the Nasrid Palaces €12.73, to the gardens €8.48. The Silla del Moro and the Torres Bermejas are free at weekends.
Three palaces open one into the next. The Mexuar, where the sultan heard petitions, leads to the Comares Palace and its Court of the Myrtles: a long pool between hedges that mirrors the tower housing the Hall of the Ambassadors, the throne room under a dome of thousands of inlaid wooden pieces representing the seven heavens. Beyond it, in the Palace of the Lions, slender columns surround a fountain resting on the backs of twelve stone lions, and the side halls are roofed with stalactite vaults of carved plaster. Verses of Arabic poetry run along the walls, many of them praising the rooms they decorate.
Time
1 h to 1 h 30 min
Setting
Indoor
Best time
At the time on your ticket; the night visit runs on Fridays and Saturdays from 8 pm to 9.30 pm in winter and from Tuesday to Saturday from 10 pm to 11.30 pm in summer
Getting there
Inside the Alhambra, a good walk from the main entrance by the Generalife; follow the signs
Tip: Be at the palace entrance well before your time: it is on the far side of the complex from the ticket office, and the staff do not let latecomers in. Once you have left a palace, you cannot go back. At night only the palaces are open, softly lit and much quieter, a good second visit rather than a substitute for the day.
Included in the general ticket (€22.27) at a fixed time; night visit €12.73.
In the middle of the Alhambra, Emperor Charles V had a Renaissance palace built from 1527, a square block of sandstone wrapped around a perfectly round courtyard with two storeys of columns. The contrast with the Nasrid rooms next door could hardly be greater. The palace is now home to the Museum of the Alhambra, with tiles, woodwork and ceramics from the Nasrid palaces, and on the upper floor the Museum of Fine Arts.
Time
20 to 40 min
Setting
Both
Best time
While you wait for your slot at the Nasrid Palaces
Getting there
Inside the Alhambra, next to the Nasrid Palaces
Tip: The courtyard is open without an Alhambra ticket, and its colonnade gives welcome shade on a summer afternoon. The Museum of the Alhambra, on the ground floor, helps you understand the rooms you are about to see, so it is worth a short stop before you enter the palaces.
The Albaicín was a town in its own right when the Alhambra was being built, and its layout has hardly changed: narrow lanes that twist up the hill, steps instead of streets, and the high white walls of the carmenes, houses with walled gardens of fruit trees and vines. Together with the Alhambra it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. From the square in front of the church of San Nicolás the whole Alhambra lies opposite, with the Sierra Nevada behind it, the view on countless postcards of Granada. Further up, the Mirador de San Cristóbal looks over the Alhambra and the centre with far fewer people around, and Calle Calderería Nueva below is lined with tea houses and shops in the North African style.
Time
2 to 3 h
Setting
Outdoor
Best time
In the morning for quiet lanes, an hour before sunset for San Nicolás
Getting there
On foot from Plaza Nueva, or minibus C31 or C32 up the hill
Tip: Around sunset the square at San Nicolás fills up completely; come early to find a spot on the wall. For a view from above the crowd, climb the tower of the San Nicolás church (€3 with the church). Walk up and ride the minibus down, or the other way round, to save your knees on the steep paving.
The Catholic Monarchs chose Granada, the last city they won from the Moors, as their resting place. The Royal Chapel, finished in late Gothic style in the early sixteenth century, holds their marble tombs and, in the crypt below, the lead coffins of Isabella, Ferdinand, their daughter Joanna and her husband Philip. The sacristy keeps Isabella's crown and sceptre, Ferdinand's sword and the queen's collection of Flemish paintings. The cathedral next door, begun in 1523, became one of the great Renaissance churches of Spain: a bright white interior, and above the main altar a rotunda gleaming with gold and stained glass.
Time
40 min to 1 h for each
Setting
Indoor
Best time
Weekday mornings; the free Wednesday afternoon sessions start at 3.15 pm
Getting there
In the centre, on foot from Plaza Isabel la Católica or Gran Vía de Colón
Tip: The two buildings stand side by side but have separate entrances and tickets. If you plan to see several of the city's churches and monasteries, compare prices on the cathedral's official page: the combined ticket for six church monuments may work out cheaper.
Cathedral €10, Royal Chapel €7, combined ticket for six church monuments €33; under 12 free. Cathedral: Monday to Saturday 10 am to 6.15 pm, Sunday 3 pm to 6.15 pm. Royal Chapel: Monday to Saturday 10 am to 6.30 pm, Sundays and holidays from 11.30 am. Free on Wednesday afternoons with an online booking.
6The Carrera del Darro and the Andalusian monuments
Photo: Javier Gonzalez / Pexels, Pexels License
From Plaza Nueva a narrow street follows the Darro upstream, with the river on one side, small stone bridges crossing to the foot of the Alhambra, and on the other side the façades of Renaissance houses and convents. Halfway along, El Bañuelo, Arab baths from the eleventh century, keeps its vaulted rooms with star-shaped skylights. The street ends at the Paseo de los Tristes, a broad terrace of cafés with the walls of the Alhambra right above. The same ticket opens three more Moorish buildings: the Corral del Carbón, a merchants' inn near the cathedral; the Casa Morisca Horno de Oro; and the Palacio de Dar al-Horra, a small Nasrid palace in the upper Albaicín.
Time
30 min to 1 h
Setting
Outdoor
Best time
In the morning, before the minibuses and the crowds fill the narrow street
Getting there
On foot from Plaza Nueva; minibuses C31, C32 and C35 run along the street
Tip: On Sundays the Andalusian monuments are free for everyone; on other days a ticket for all four costs €8.48. From mid-September to April they open daily from 10 am to 5 pm; in summer the hours are split, with a long break in the middle of the day.
