Ninety seconds on Alhambra
Early is best: with a Nasrid Palaces slot at opening time you reach the carved rooms before most tour groups, and the fortress and the Generalife gardens can wait until later in the morning.
Plan the day around the time printed on your ticket. That time is for the door of the Nasrid Palaces beside the Palace of Charles V, not the outer gate, so allow at least 15 minutes for the walk there from the main entrance. If you already hold your ticket, come in by the Gate of Justice: it is the nearer gate, and its scanners usually have the shorter queue.
Before your slot, climb the Alcazaba, the old fortress, for the view over the Albaicín to the Sierra Nevada. Then step into the courtyard of the Palace of Charles V, which is free to enter. Nobody hurries you inside the Nasrid Palaces, so wait for a tour group to clear a room before you go in.
Leave the palaces through the Partal gardens and finish at the Generalife. Each paid area lets you in once, so finish one before you move on. You can leave the site for lunch and come back the same day to any area you have not yet seen.
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