Do you think it's worth it to take a guided tour of the Alhambra. The hotel is offering one for $58 a person, which includes, ticket, transportation to and from, and the tour, of course. General admission is $14 - I tried to book using the link given at Slow Travel but when it asks to pick a day - nothing worked. I think they have audio guides there - has anyone used them?
My own view is that one of the most important things you can do at the Alhambra is to visit it at night. Since you also should see the gardens, which is only meaningful in the daytime, that means buying two separate sets of tickets.
I think the best investment of your money is two sets of tickets -- one night and one day -- and a good guide book or audio guides.
From here on it goes in Spanish, or you can click on English and go from there. You will have to select the date, time of day, how many tickets. Then you will move to the screen where the purchase process starts. You will have to give some personal information plus the type of card you wish to use, etc., as is the case with all purchases over the Internet using a credit card.
Having a guide is worth it if he is a real specialist . Specialist tours exist in Spanish only, and are done by University lecturers and historians, I think there are free but you have to register weeks in advance.
So if you don't speak Spanish, the audio phone system will do. I would also recommend to read a few books like the famous "Tales of the Alhambra" and "Leo the African" (Amin Maalouf).
At night you can only see the Nazaries Palaces, so you really have to come back during the day (not on a week end and very early in the morning even better).
The booking system is a bit complicated, but it works (you have to keep trying) knowing you have to book at least 6 weeks in advance and maximum 10 weeks in advance (mas o menos).
Thank you all very much. Unfortunately, I do not speak Spanish. I have tried the web site suggested several times and for some reason it won't let me pick a date. I do appreciate the phone number though and will try that. We are not going till March,so, I have enough time. I think we will pick the afternoon visit, since it goes to 8pm - it should be dark by then?
The reason I recommended the night visit is because so few people go at night. You have the run of the palace and at least a few other places -- especially the magical courtyards -- and it is an utterly different experience than going during normal opening hours with the press of other tourists, especially those on group tours or coming on school tours.
When I went to the Alhambra one April, it was still twillight at 9. Spain is so far west in the European time zone, the sun is setting quite late by the clock -- but I hope someone who lives in Andalucia will stop by to give a more accurate picture of when you might expect the sun to go down.
I don't think you'll have this problem in March, but the reason I would not want to take an afternoon tour of the Alhambra is that it's the hottest part of the day. I would prefer to see the palace at night and come back the next morning to see the gardens.
My daughter and I used the audio guide and it was excellent.
You will need a guide of some sort to appreciate and understand what you are seeing. I wouldn't use a book as you wouldn't be able to read and look at the same time (at least I couldn't) - so looks like an audio or a person guide!
If you have a person to take you around(those Spanish guides that Christine mentioned sound wonderful - if only you spoke Spanish!) make sure that their English is fluent and comprehensible. You'll have enough to concentrate on in this most marvelous of palaces without having to decipher the English.
I've only been during the day but I would love to go at night - it must be like a dream world.
The Alhambra can be visited in different ways. A private guide is good option: you'll have the guide just for your party and visits can be arranged for 2h30 or 3h30. With a good private guide the 2h30 visit will do - and they are so full of enthusiasm it usually takes them 3h. With a private guide you also have the advantage you don't have to line up in the long queues at the entrance gate nor to wait unill the last one of the group arrives. You define the rhythm and all your questions will be answered. Of course this is the most expensive option - but worthwhile considering since the Alhambra is one of the most important monuments in Spain and Europe (more than 2 million visitors in just one year).
The guided visit your hotel offers is a group tour which is not to bad neater, but it all depends on the group size and the composition (nationalities) of it.
I suggest to book first hour in the morning. It will get very busy during the day. Tickets have to be booked a long time in advance since the Alhambra & Generalife are the most visited monuments in Spain!
In my opinion, with some pre-emptive reading, the presence of a guide can be more of an annoyance. Guides tend to concentrate on a few specific points, both because they don't want to lose the group's concentration and because they need to tailor something that will fit everybody.
Alhambra's beauty and uniqueness are such that you will want to stop everywhere, take your time, maybe take photos, and this will not be possible with a guide, unless you pre-agree precisely on what the tour will include. We chose the latter approach on a Vatican visit and it worked perfectly well.
If you will stay long enough in Granada, and if it is really important to you to have a guide (and there is nothing wrong in this preference), I would recommend a return to Alhambra without guide, for a personal visit.
And, again subject to time available, I highly recommend a night tour, no guide, for a magical personal experience.
A good professional Private Guide for a group of 6 with entrance tickets is around 280Euro - 320Euro, depending on the day of the visit, weekends are more expensive.
Many years ago when planning a visit to Spain I stopped at a second-hand bookstore in London to see what they had about the Granada, since it is my habit to find out as much as I can about a place before going there. I explained my mission to storekeeper, and told him that I was particularly keen to pick up Tales of the Alhambra. Although he had a beautiful old edition as well as a cheaper popular one, he recommended that I not read anything about it until I got there. I was disappointed and somewhat doubtful, but there was something about him which made me pay attention, so I followed his advice.
On the recommendation of some friends who had said it would be worth scrimping for the rest of my trip to be able to stay there, I had made a reservation in the 14th-century convent/mosque section of the Parador and so found myself staying in the very midst of the Alhambra complex. The palaces were open that early spring night, and the first that I saw of the them was the illuminated visit, at which I was almost alone. The full impact hit me without preconceptions.
In the course of the next few days I wandered through the gardens and palaces almost as though they were my own territory. I read about them while I was there and listened to the guides, and on the last night of my visit saw the illumination of the Generalife (the upper gardens), enhanced by the historical and romantic information I had since garnered.
I would not have traded the magic of that introduction for anything. Certainly knowledge adds richness, but if you have the option I would try to experience the Alhambra first without intermediary, and afterwards with a guide or audioguide. It has a presence which communicates directly.
After I wrote the above post I googled to see if the Parador has a website. I didn’t find one right away, and don't dare pursue that avenue of distraction; but I did notice a TripAdvisor review from last year which mentioned that the writer had paid around E250 for a room. Some visitors considered it not good value for the price.
My stay was so long ago (1975) that saving up all my pennies meant paying about $30-35 for a single room. To put that in perspective, when I arrived in Cordoba on graduation night and could find nowhere to stay, I was finally directed to a student hostel where I had a tiny room and 3 delicious meals for $4.
The luxury of the Parador at that time (don’t know what it’s like now) was not in racey amenities but in unparalleled location, hand-crafted detail (soft, locally embroidered bedspreads & curtains, for example) and gentle courtesy.
Dorothy, we had the same experience in 2002 (see trip report). No guides. Just two books: The Tales of the Alhambra (Washington Irving) and A Stranger in Spain (H.V. Morton), 4 days in Granada, a day visit of the Alhambra and one at night. Two of the four days we stayed at the relatively modest Hotel America on the Real de la Alhambra, right next to the Parador and at about half the cost, between the Alhambra and the Generalife. One of the most memorable travel experience of my life. I will never forget the first sight of the Alhambra in the golden light of the setting sun, as seen from down up, from Carrera del Darro and the Paseo de Los Tristes.
My daughter and I shared an audioguide and thought it was worth the extra few dollars. A private guide might give more insight, but I agree that you would want to take lots more time wandering around in the complex, in addition to time spent with the guide.
About the booking, I dont' know if anyone else has had this confusion, but I didn't get it that the time you reserve for is for the Nasrid Palace. I thought that once I was in the whole complex, I had made the deadline, so we relaxed and spent some time checking out the bookstore after running up that big hill. When we picked up the audioguide, a woman looked at our tickets and told us to quickly head to the Nasrid Palace as we were about to miss our entrance time. It's a long way, and we got confused as to how to get there, so made it just in time. Luckily, this was November, so there were no lines and they were being very lenient. Since the Nasrid Palace is possibly the highlight of the whole place, we went back later, too, so we could enjoy it all over again in a more relaxed fashion; it was much less crowded in the late afternoon. Plus the light was different so I got better photos of things that were previously in shadow.
We didn't go at night; that would be very atmospheric. But go when you can see the whole complex, too. Don't miss the Generalife, which is a bit away from the main part. And the views from on top of the Alcazar are great.
