Things to do
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Alhambra
One ticket takes you from the old hilltop fortress through the carved and tiled rooms where Granada's Nasrid sultans held court, and on to the water gardens of their summer palace across the slope.
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Carrera del Darro
Cobbled and barely wider than a minibus, this street follows the river Darro from Plaza Nueva to the Paseo de los Tristes, crossed by small stone bridges, with the Alhambra walls rising above the far bank. Church fronts, old palaces and the Arab baths line the way. Minibuses and tour groups squeeze through, so avoid midday.
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Palace of Charles V
Charles V's square Renaissance palace sits in the middle of the Alhambra, its plain stone walls hiding a perfectly round, two-storey courtyard. Inside are the Museum of the Alhambra, with Nasrid carved wood, tiles and a great glazed jar painted with gazelles, and the city's fine arts museum upstairs. Entry to the Alhambra museum is free and needs no Alhambra ticket, so it still works on a sold-out day. It closes on Mondays.
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Abbey of Sacromonte
At the head of the Sacromonte valley, well above the cave houses, this seventeenth-century abbey stands over a set of underground chapels cut into the hill. Guided visits lead down through the caves and round a small museum of manuscripts and church silver. The road up is long and steep, and the abbey closes to visitors during Sunday mass at noon.
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Albaicín
The Moorish quarter on the hill opposite the Alhambra, a tangle of cobbled lanes between whitewashed walls that hide gardens with fruit trees and fountains. The terrace at San Nicolás has the classic sunset view of the palace against the mountains, shared with guitarists and a large crowd. Minibuses climb from Plaza Nueva. The lower lanes are lined with teahouses.
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Alcaicería
Where the Nasrid silk market once stood beside the cathedral, a tight grid of alleys now sells lamps, inlaid boxes, ceramics, tea glasses and leather, much of it imported. The market burned in the nineteenth century and was rebuilt with horseshoe arches and painted plaster. Quality varies from stall to stall, and the alleys make a short cut through to Plaza Bib-Rambla.
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Basilica of San Juan de Dios
Gold leaf, mirrors and painted saints cover almost every surface of this Baroque basilica beside the old hospital of the same name. Behind the high altar a small, gilded chamber holds the relics of the saint whose order founded the hospital. An audio guide leads the way round. It sits a short walk north of the cathedral and is rarely crowded.
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Carmen de los Mártires
Peacocks wander the terraced gardens of this nineteenth-century mansion on the Alhambra hill, past a pond with a small island, a grotto, fountains and statues. The upper terraces look out over the Realejo and the plain. The city runs it, entry is free, and it is rarely busy, which makes it an easy pause on the walk down from the Alhambra.
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Charterhouse of Granada
Plain from outside, this Carthusian monastery on the northern edge of the city holds one of the most extravagant Baroque interiors in Spain. Its sacristy is a white and gold cave of twisting stucco and coloured marble, with doors inlaid in cedar, ebony and tortoiseshell. It lies beside the university's Cartuja campus, a short bus ride from the centre, and rarely draws a queue.
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Corral del Carbón
Merchants once stabled their animals and stored their goods in this fourteenth-century inn, the best preserved of its kind in Spain. A tall horseshoe gateway carved with honeycomb plaster opens onto a galleried courtyard around a stone basin. It stands just off Calle Reyes Católicos, two minutes from the cathedral, and a look round the courtyard takes ten minutes.
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Dar al-Horra
Built for the mother of the last sultan, this small fifteenth-century Nasrid palace sits in the upper Albaicín, later folded into a convent. Rooms open off a courtyard with a long pool, and an upper gallery looks across to the Alhambra. It is quiet, takes half an hour and comes on the combined Andalusí monuments ticket, with free entry at weekends.
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El Bañuelo
Eleventh-century Arab baths on the Carrera del Darro, among the best preserved in Spain. Brick vaults pierced with star-shaped skylights cover the cold, warm and hot rooms, and horseshoe arches rest on columns taken from older buildings. A visit takes a quarter of an hour. Entry comes on the combined ticket for the city's Andalusí monuments, and is free at weekends.
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Ermita de San Miguel Alto
Higher and far quieter than San Nicolás, the hermitage of San Miguel Alto stands on the hilltop above the Albaicín, reached by a steep climb past the last houses and along the old city wall. Its esplanade looks down on the Alhambra, the whole city and the plain beyond. The path has almost no shade, so the climb suits early morning or the hour before dusk.
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Generalife
The sultans' summer retreat, on the slope facing the main palace and included in the general ticket. A long pool lined with arching jets runs the length of the central court, and higher up a stair has water flowing down channels cut into its handrails. The planting is largely twentieth century; the water engineering is medieval. Cypress walks give shade in the afternoon.
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Granada Cathedral
Granada's cathedral is the first Renaissance cathedral in Spain, white, bright and enormously tall inside, with a circular chancel ringed by stained glass. One of its two planned towers was never built. It sits beside the Royal Chapel, and the two fill a morning.
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Huerta de San Vicente
Federico García Lorca's family spent their summers in this white farmhouse, which now stands in a city park west of the centre. The rooms keep the family furniture, the poet's desk and his piano, and visits are guided in small groups at set times, so places are few and worth booking. The park around it, with its rose gardens, is free to walk.
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Los Cahorros de Monachil
Swaying suspension bridges cross the river in this limestone gorge above the village of Monachil, on the edge of the Sierra Nevada. The usual loop runs about 8 km, squeezing through narrow passages where hand grips are fixed to the rock. Grippy shoes and water matter more than fitness. Metropolitan buses run from Granada to Monachil village, and weekdays are far calmer than spring weekends.
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Mirador de San Nicolás
Facing the whole length of the Alhambra across the Darro valley, this paved terrace beside the church of San Nicolás sits near the top of the Albaicín, with the Sierra Nevada behind the palace. At sunset it is packed shoulder to shoulder, with buskers and hawkers working the wall. Mid morning brings the same view and a fraction of the crowd.
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Monastery of San Jerónimo
Enclosed nuns still live in this sixteenth-century monastery a few streets west of the cathedral. Visitors walk through the great cloister, planted with orange trees, into a church whose apse is covered floor to vault in carved and painted stone and gilded altarpieces. Entry is ticketed, it is seldom crowded, and it pairs easily with the cathedral on the same morning.
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Parque de las Ciencias
Hands-on halls on the human body, perception and the science of al-Andalus fill this large museum south of the centre, along with a planetarium, a butterfly house and a bird of prey display in the gardens. It is the obvious answer to a wet or scorching afternoon with children. The bus and the metro both stop close by, and half a day goes quickly.
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Realejo
Granada's old Jewish quarter climbs the slope south of the Alhambra hill, a lived-in neighbourhood of steep streets, convents and local tapas bars around Campo del Príncipe. Large murals by the street artist El Niño de las Pinturas cover walls around Calle Molinos and the Cuesta del Caidero. Hotels and apartments here sit a short walk from both the centre and the Alhambra.
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Royal Chapel
Ferdinand and Isabella chose to be buried in the city whose conquest completed their reign. Marble effigies lie above, and a short stair leads down to the plain lead coffins themselves, visible through a grille. The sacristy holds the queen's crown and sceptre, the king's sword, and her private collection of Flemish panel paintings, including works by Memling and van der Weyden.
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Sacromonte
A hillside of whitewashed cave houses beyond the Albaicín, settled by the city's Roma after the conquest and the home of zambra, Granada's own form of flamenco. Several caves stage nightly shows, of mixed quality, and a small museum explains how the dwellings work: cool in August, warm in January. The road along the valley gives a fine side view of the Alhambra.
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Sacromonte Caves Museum
Restored cave houses on the hillside above the Sacromonte road are fitted out as they were lived in, with the kitchen, the stable, the forge and the loom each in its own cave. Paths run between prickly pear and agave, and the terraces give a clear side view of the Alhambra. The climb from the road is short and steep, with shade only inside the caves.
