GRANADA · ANDALUSIA, SPAIN
Red palace, white quarter, snow on the Sierra.
The Alhambra and its Nasrid palaces, the white lanes of the Albaicín, flamenco in the Sacromonte caves and a free tapa with every glass, with the Sierra Nevada an hour up the road.
Only here
Three things you only find in Granada.
Palaces, old quarters and tapas bars turn up all over Spain. The last Moorish royal city, flamenco born in the cave houses, and a free plate with every glass belong to Granada alone.
Eight centuries on the hill
The Alhambra
The Alhambra is the last and greatest Moorish palace-city left standing in Europe, a fortress, a royal residence and a garden raised by the final sultans of al-Andalus. The carved-honeycomb ceilings and the Court of the Lions in the Nasrid Palaces are the reason most travellers come to Granada at all.
- 1 Granada: Alhambra & Nasrid Palaces Tour with Tickets
- 2 Granada: Alhambra & Generalife Fast-Track Guided Tour
- 3 Granada: Alhambra & Gardens Tour w/Nasrid Palaces Option
Born in the caves
Sacromonte Zambra
Flamenco’s cave form, the zambra, grew in the Roma cave-houses dug into the Sacromonte hillside. The shows still run where they began, in whitewashed caves hung with copper pans, a few rows of chairs an arm’s length from the dancers and the guitar.
- 1 Sacromonte: Flamenco Show at Cuevas Los Tarantos Tickets
- 2 Granada: Flamenco Show in Albaycin – Jardines de Zoraya
- 3 Granada: Live Flamenco Show
A glass and a plate
Granada’s Free Tapas
Granada is one of the last cities in Spain where a drink still arrives with a plate you did not order and never pay for, a different tapa with every round. A tapas crawl here is simply dinner, taken standing up, one bar at a time across the old town.
- 1 Granada Tapas and Wine Small Group Tour
- 2 Granada Highlights Tour with Tapas Breaks by Electric Bike
- 3 Granada 3-hour Tapas Tour
Start here
The one most people book first.
If you do a single thing in Granada, it is this. More travellers plan a visit around the Alhambra than anything else, and its timed palace ticket is the first to sell out.
The classics
Granada's Most Popular Tours
The Alhambra, the Nasrid Palaces, the Albaicín sunset walk and a Sacromonte flamenco night. The handful of bookings most visitors come to Granada for.
Where to begin
The handful of things every Granada trip includes.
The Alhambra, the white Moorish quarters, the cave flamenco, the free-tapas crawl, the Nasrid gardens and the mountains behind. Start with a guide to each, and how to do it well.
The big ticket
How to do the Alhambra.
The Nasrid Palaces let in a fixed number of visitors every half-hour and sell out weeks ahead, so the ticket you pick matters as much as the day you go. Three ways through the gates, by pace and budget.
The Moorish quarter
White alleys and the Alhambra at dusk.
The Albaicín climbs the hill facing the Alhambra, a tangle of whitewashed houses, hidden garden-villas and tiled fountains left from the Moorish city. From the Mirador de San Nicolas the whole palace turns gold at sunset, the Sierra Nevada behind it. Where the white streets run out, the cave homes of the Sacromonte begin.
Walk the Albaicín and Sacromonte →Free with every glass
The city where tapas are still free.
Order a drink in Granada and a plate lands beside it, no charge and no menu, a different tapa with every round. It is the old Andalusian custom kept alive better here than anywhere, from the student bars off Calle Elvira to the terraces below the cathedral. A tapas crawl is just dinner, taken four or five stops at a time.
See the tapas crawls →The mountains
Snow on the skyline, an hour up the road.
The Sierra Nevada rises straight off the edge of Granada, the highest range in mainland Spain and the southernmost ski resort in Europe. In one morning you can be on the snow at Pradollano or climbing toward Mulhacen at over three thousand metres, and back in the city for tapas by dark.
Sierra Nevada tours →The Generalife
The sultans' garden across the ravine.
Above the Alhambra, the Generalife was the summer estate of the Nasrid kings, a run of walled courtyards, clipped cypress and long pools fed by channels that move on gravity alone. The Patio de la Acequia, twin lines of water jets over a still canal, is the picture most people carry home from Granada.
- 1 Granada: Alhambra & Generalife Fast-Track Guided Tour
- 2 Skip The Line Alhambra and Generalife Guided Tour
- 3 Alhambra & Generalife Skip the line Small Group including Nasrid Palaces
By pace
Granada at your speed.
A cultural city does not have to be a tiring one. Granada answers every pace, from a slow afternoon in an Arab bath to a high day on the Sierra Nevada ridgelines.
Gentle
Gardens, courtyards and steam.The Generalife water gardens, an afternoon soak in an Arab bath, a slow wander through the carmenes of the Albaicín.
The classics
Palaces and old streets.The Alhambra and its Nasrid halls, the Albaicín viewpoints at sunset, a flamenco night in a Sacromonte cave.
Up high
Into the mountains.The hanging bridges at Los Cahorros, hikes onto the high ridgelines, skiing and snow in the Sierra Nevada.
The Sacromonte caves
Flamenco the way it started, in a cave.
The zambra grew in the Roma cave-houses dug into the Sacromonte hillside, and the shows still run where they began, in whitewashed caves hung with copper pans. A few rows of chairs an arm's length from the guitar, the heels and the cante. The tablaos in the centre give a polished version; the cave is the raw one.
See all 33 flamenco shows →By place
Granada, six ways.
The Alhambra for the palaces. The Albaicín and Sacromonte for the old Moorish hills. The Generalife for the gardens. The Sierra Nevada for the snow and the trails. Los Cahorros for the gorge. The Costa Tropical for the sea.
By activity
Pick how to spend the day.
Walking tours for the history, flamenco for the night, tapas for dinner. Skip-the-line tickets for the palaces, bikes and hikes for the hills, and an Arab bath for the feet at the end of it.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time in Granada? A long weekend that covers the palace, the old quarters and the mountains without a wasted hour.
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