The first weekend getaway during our stay in Cádiz. I was excited to visit Granada for a long time, especially to see Alhambra which was also the main aim of our trip. And it did not disappoint in the slightest. The Nasrid palaces are absolutely stunning piece of architecture. If you go to Alhambra and not visit the Nasrid palaces, you may as well not have gone there at all.
Granada has very rich history, and walking through the city itself is beautiful. In the center, it’s the Cathedral that dominates the view, once you start going up a hill, Alhambra and the stunning mountains of Sierra Nevada take over. To my own surprise I learnt that Sierra Nevada is one of the Spains very own ski resorts. For some reason I did not expect snow making an appearance in the south of Spain but apparently, on the odd winter day, even Granada itself gets a bit of dusting. And in fact Sierra Nevada also homes the country’s highest peak, Mulhacén, with its 3479m. We visited in October and despite the weather being brilliant, the temperature dropped to about 10 degrees in the morning and evening so if you go at similar time wrap up.
Alhambra
One of the most visited sights of Spain, UNESCO listed, and historically very important monument with influences from different cultures and a selection of architectural styles. There is plenty of websites that give you history run down. In short, the most significant period was during the Nasrid dynasty, whose generations of rulers built up Nasrid palaces. At that time Alhambra functioned as an entire palace city within its walls.
Granada was the last Islamic city on the Iberian peninsula before the catholic monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella took over. Interestingly once they settled in and Alhambra became the Royal Court, it also became the place where Christopher Columbus received endorsement for his journey to the Americas. It is a must see place and if it wasn’t on your bucket list it should be now!
Book your tickets in advance! As soon as you know you’re going, book them! They tend to sell out all year round. I would recommend buying from the official website, there are plenty of sellers that pop up if you search on Google but most sell at very high prices.
At the time of writing the best ticket on the official website is “Alhambra General” that includes everything and costs €19.09. You only have to select time slot to visit the Nasrid palaces, the rest of Alhambra is available all day long and you can come and go as you wish. The only thing you need is your passport that is linked to your ticket and will be scanned whenever you go through the gate to any of the monuments.
I would personally recommend to visit the Nasrid palace first, Alhambra is huge and you can easily spend a whole day there if you wanted (the recommend time is 3-5 hours for the visit) but it is a lot to take in and it’s good to enjoy Nasrid whilst you’re fresh as they are without a doubt the most beautiful part of that complex. On entry you can scan a QR code for a free audio guide, that loads in your mobile phone browser. Neither of us brought headphones so we unfortunately missed out.
Also if you are like me and really dislike crowded places, book an early slot! We went in at 8:30am and even though I wished I wasn’t that keen when my alarm went off, I wouldn’t change it for the world. By the time we finished Nasrid palaces it already started feeling a little too busy but enjoying the first part of our visit in a relative peace was absolutely worth it!
Getting to Alhambra is best by a taxi. If you’re staying in the hotel in Granada that is the first thing they tell you. Driving in the city center is not allowed unless you are a resident with a permit or a taxi. The taxi also brings you to the right entrance whether in the car you’d only be allowed in the designated carpark and then had to walk for up to 20 minutes to the gate of your selected start of the tour. We asked the reception in our hotel to call us one, and on the way back we just waited where we got dropped off for another taxi to appear. Our hotel was on the other side of the center, about 20 minutes drive and journey each way cost us about €10.
Alhambra viewing points
As you walking around to city there is plenty of viewing points that allow you to take in the beauty of Alhambra from the outside. Starting close to the Cathedral we walked from the Plaza Isabel la Católica, with the statue of Queen Isabel and Columbus, taking the Reyes Católicos street which offers a lovely stroll all the way to Paseo de los Tristes. From there we turned right and walked up to Mirador de San Nicolás.
along the river Darro
Mirador de San Nicolás
Mirador de San Miquel Alto
This would have been the perfect viewing point if it wasn’t unbearably busy. I would imagine coming in first thing in the morning would most definitely worth the early alarm. We got a few photos couple of streets below this viewing point, where the view was still beautiful but with less people.
From there we walked up to Mirador de San Miquel Alto which is a little higher and offers views of the entire city as well as the mountains in the background. It is a vast hill with plenty of space where people easily spread out. We sat down as the sun was going out and enjoyed the show in a full swing.
Flamenco
It’s very likely you’ll see some flamenco dancers performing on the streets, accompanied by a guitar player or two. I absolutely loved watching them, it fascinates me how fast they can move their feet. There is a certain structure to the flamenco dance that the dancer has to follow in order to perform the dance correctly.
Granada has an entire neighbourhood dedicated to flamenco shows, called Sacromonte, there is plenty to choose from. We have decided not to go due to an early start the next day but I have heard positive reviews. Majority of the shows are performed in the local cuevas which are historically caves that later became homes.
Initially Sacromonte was home to gypsies that brought a new type of flamenco dance called zambra which became unique to Granada and is nowadays performed for tourists.
There is also a museum dedicated to the caves of Sacromonte if you were interested in finding out more about that.
Food
The moment we arrived and checked in to the hotel our first steps led us to a restaurant. After a long drive, we needed to refuel before we could start exploring and enjoying the city. There were a few eateries that were recommended to me.
and suckling pick in the back
One one them was a tapas bar called La Vinoteca. This place was buzzing, we arrived at Spanish peak lunch time just after 2pm and we were lucky to get one of two last tables. This place might seem tiny from the front but it is huge inside.
We ordered a few of chefs favourites and salmorejo which apparently originally comes from Córdoba but is very popular in Granada. It is a creamy cold soup similar to gazpaco but a little thicker and much creamier. I thought it had an actual cream in it but it’s actual bread that gives it the consistency, and because of that it’s also very filling.
Other places that were on the list that we had to save for another time were Bodegas Castañeda and Los Manueles.
One thing typical for traditional restaurants or more the tapas bars of Granada is that you can choose between tapear (to have some tapas) or comer (to have a meal). We’ve not tried tapear as by the time we arrived we were absolutely ravenous and ordered half the menu at once, that we gobbled up within a few minutes of landing on the table…much faster than any Spaniard would allow, we got the looks. However the concept of tapear is that you get a tapa on the house with each drink that you order, be it wine, beer or coke. The drink comes to about €2-3 and the tapa is usually of a medium size. For many 2 tapas might be enough to fill you up, which gives for a very cheap meal if you ask me. You can even ask for extra tapa without the drink and only pay the price of the drink. Some places let you choose your tapa, in others it is a surprise.
After our lunch we stopped for some churros on Plaza de Bib Rambla. There are a few options, we wanted to go to Gran Cafe Bib-Rambla which is a very traditional cafe but unfortunately they were not serving churros until 5pm, for the Spanish merienda, which is a sort of afternoon snack to get you through to the late dinner. So we headed to to Alhambra Churrería next door instead.
I know churros to come with chocolate so we also ordered hot chocolate to go with it. I must say, both was absolutely delicious. Spanish hot chocolate is very likely not the kind of hot chocolate you’re used to, it’s more of a hot chocolate pudding and you won’t be able to get through without using a spoon, it is thick! The slightly savoury churros are the perfect complement. But if chocolate is not your cuppa, you can dip your churros in coffee instead. On the churro note, I am used to the ridged short churros whether we were served more of a smooth surfaced longer churros known as porras. There is a slight variation in the dough and the looks but I reckon if you like one you’ll like the other too, they are not that different.
you could possibly imagine
We usually like to wonder around with coffee so most of the time we are hunting for a good coffee places where we can get a good brew with frothy oat milk to take away and explore the city while sipping away. In Granda we tried Kona Specialty Coffee where we wanted to have brunch but they only had seating outside and it was a bit chilly in the shade so we got a take away coffee and headed for brunch to ATYPICA Coffee instead. Both places were great and would go there again.
The selection of good food and coffee places in Granada is great, even if you went for a weekend of just doing those two you would get easily entertained. You could try all the places, included a croissant only shop with a selection of freshly prepared croissants, made right in front of you (menu in the photo above), that we didn’t get a chance to try. I wish we went for longer, and will definitely return at some point, the city has a lot to offer.
Interesting fact, Granada’s symbol is the granada fruit which translates to English as pomegranate. The origins seem to be a little unclear, the fruit grows in the region but might have also been picked by the catholic monarchs as a symbol of their victory over the Moors. Either way, once you see it, you can’t unsee it – it is EVERYWHERE.
I hope you have a fabulous time in Granada, if you found this article useful or discovered some bits during your trip that I didn’t mention, let me know, I’ll be excited to check them out next time 🥰
