GRANADA · ANDALUSÍA
Red palaces, white-washed hills, snow on the Sierra.
Skip-the-line tours of the Alhambra, flamenco in the Sacromonte caves, free-tapas crawls through the old town, and the road up to the Sierra Nevada. Every good day in Granada, and every day trip out of it.
Only here
Three experiences that are pure Granada.
Skip-the-line tours and tapas turn up in every Spanish city. A Moorish palace this complete, flamenco in a cave dug into the hillside, and a free plate with every glass do not.
The last Moorish palace
The Alhambra
The finest Islamic palace left standing anywhere, raised by the Nasrid sultans on the hill above the city and never bettered since. Honeycombed plaster ceilings, the Court of the Lions, water running through every room, and the Generalife gardens spilling down the slope. Spain has nothing else like it.
- 1 Granada: Alhambra & Nasrid Palaces Tour with Tickets
- 2 Granada: Alhambra and Nasrid Palaces Entry Ticket
- 3 Granada: Alhambra & Generalife Fast-Track Guided Tour
Zambra in the caves
Flamenco in Sacromonte
On the Sacromonte hillside the gitano families hollowed their homes straight into the rock, and the zambra was born inside them. The guitar, the cante and the heel-stamp fill a whitewashed cave barely wider than a corridor. Not a theatre show — the real thing, where it started.
- 1 Granada: Flamenco Show in La Alboreá
- 2 Sacromonte: Flamenco Show at Cuevas Los Tarantos Tickets
- 3 Granada: Flamenco Show in Albaycin – Jardines de Zoraya
A plate with every glass
Granada’s Free Tapas
Order a drink in Granada and a plate of food comes with it, free, and it changes with every round. It is the last city in Spain that still does it properly, and a crawl from bar to bar is simply how locals eat dinner. Nowhere else in the country feeds you like this.
- 1 Granada Tapas and Wine Small Group Tour
- 2 Granada: Walking Food Tour
- 3 Granada Highlights Tour with Tapas Breaks by Electric Bike
Start here
The ticket to book before you arrive.
More Granada trips are planned around this than anything else — and in high season it is the one that sells out first.
The classics
Granada's Most Popular Tours
The Alhambra and its Nasrid Palaces, a walk through the Albaicín, a Sacromonte flamenco night and a tapas crawl through the centre. The days most travellers come to Granada for.
Where to begin
The days a Granada trip is built around.
The Alhambra, the Albaicín and Sacromonte, a flamenco night, a free-tapas crawl and the road up to the Sierra Nevada. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
Plan the big one
How to visit the Alhambra.
The Nasrid Palaces sell out weeks ahead and the ticket types confuse everyone. Three ways in, depending on how much you want explained — and whether you would rather see it by day or lit up at night.
The old quarter
Get lost in the Albaicín on purpose.
Across the river the old Moorish quarter climbs in a maze of white lanes, walled garden cármenes and tiny plazas up to the Mirador San Nicolás, where the whole Alhambra opens out across the valley with the Sierra Nevada behind. Moroccan teterías on Calle Caldería, washing strung between the houses, and a view worth the climb at sunset.
Read the guide: the best Albaicín & Sacromonte tours →After the sun drops
Granada only really starts at night.
The city saves its best for after dark. Zambra flamenco in the Sacromonte caves, the Nasrid Palaces lit up after closing with half the crowd, a tablao in the centre and a late tapas crawl where the plates keep coming free with every glass.
See the evening experiences →The view
The whole city in a single look.
Climb the Albaicín to the Mirador San Nicolás and Granada lays itself out in one frame: the Alhambra spread red-gold along its ridge, the old Moorish town tumbling below it, and the snow line of the Sierra Nevada closing off the sky behind. There is no better place to stand at sunset.
Walking tours of the Albaicín →The year everything changed
Two Granadas on one hill.
In 1492 the city passed from the last Moorish sultan to the Catholic Monarchs, and each left their masterpiece a fifteen-minute walk from the other. You can read the whole story in a single afternoon.
Plan by distance
Pick how far you want to go today.
Granada packs its big sights into a walkable centre, then sends you up into the mountains or down to the coast. Stay in the old town, climb the Sierra, or give a full day to the villages beyond.
In the city
Stay in Granada.The Alhambra on its hill, the white lanes of the Albaicín, a tapas crawl through the centre and flamenco after dark. Days you never leave the old town.
Up the mountain
Up to the Sierra.Europe’s southernmost ski slopes in winter, the high trails of Mulhacén in summer, barely an hour from the cathedral. Out in the morning, back by night.
A full day out
Out to the villages.The white Alpujarra villages of Pampaneira, Bubión and Capileira down the south face of the mountain, or the Costa Tropical and Málaga on the coast. The big days worth an early start.
The mountains
Spain’s highest peaks, an hour away.
The Sierra Nevada rises straight off the back of the city, with Mulhacén at 3,479 metres the highest summit in mainland Spain. Ski Europe’s southernmost slopes in winter, walk the high routes above the tree line in summer, or e-bike the foothills any time of year — and in spring you can do the snow and the coast in one day.
See all 22 Sierra Nevada tours →By place
The city, and the roads out of it.
The Alhambra for the palaces. The Albaicín for the white lanes and the view. The old town for the cathedral and the tapas bars. The Sierra Nevada for the snow and the trails. The Alpujarras for the white villages, and the coast for a day by the sea.
By activity
Pick what kind of day you want.
Skip-the-line tickets if the Alhambra is the whole point. A walking tour to read the old town. Flamenco and tapas if you want the night. A bike or the hammam baths if you want to slow it down.
Plan it
Three days that cover the essentials.
First time in Granada? Here is how three days plays out without a wasted hour.
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