In this post, I wish to make you discover the wonderful city of Granada in Spain where I spent 4 days in November. Granada, located in the Southern Spanish region of Andalucia, is incredible thanks to its mix of Spanish culture and the remnants of its Nazari Muslim history. If you wish to see the best nazari palaces in a small Spanish city full of charm, make sure to book your next trip to Granada!

OUR ITINERARY

• DAY 1: Town center + Mirador El Ojo de Granada + Calle Caldería Nueva + Carmen de los Mártires
• DAY 2: Monumento Andalusíes + Casa del Chapiz + Mirador de San Nicolás / Iglesia de San Nicolás / Mezquita Mayor de Granada + Museo Cuevas del Sacromonte
• DAY 3: Parque de las Ciencias + Alcaiceria + Tablao Flamenco La Alborea
• DAY 4: Guided tour of the Alhambra & Generalife Palace

DAY 1: TOWN CENTER + VIEWS ON GRANADA FROM HIGH POINTS

In this picture: Carmen de los Mártires (left), View from Mirador El Ojo de Granada (middle) and drinks at Tetería La Oriental (right)

Our promenade in the town center

After leaving our luggage at the hotel, we went to explore the town center of Granada. Our first stop has been Plaza de la Trinidad, a nice square planted with trees and with a fountain at its center. We paid a visit to a nice decoration store around the place called Cabal Home – https://maps.app.goo.gl/7J54QHhXhfcTCbxj6 – which had some lovely items.

Following our route, we continued to explore the various streets of the town center going in the direction of the main square, Plaza de Bib-Rambla where we later had lunch.

Where to eat in Granada town center?

Over the course of our stay in Granada, we got to try many great food places around the town center. Let me list the best below:

• Sibarius – https://maps.app.goo.gl/Mxv6njudBywjfsba6: This restaurant is situated on the main square called Plaza de Bib-Rambla. They make great paella-like rice dishes. We had the Rice with squid and prawns (photo above) which was delightful for 18,7€ per person. The restaurant also had a sommelier which recommended a great wine from the region to us.
• La Freiduría de Tere – https://maps.app.goo.gl/BeonXamJHsCqUfW46: This is the perfect place if you want to get something nice and cheap to eat on the go. A former fishmonger, this local now offers various takeaway dishes with fried fish. We ate a delicious calamari sandwich (“bocadillo de calamares”) there for 4€.
• La Tarta de la Madre de Cris –https://maps.app.goo.gl/wdZbrWyY27DqAhGT9: This local has only one specialty: the cheesecake. Their cheesecake, costing 3,7€ a slice, is so satisfying that real queues build up in front of this shop on weekends. It is also conveniently placed near the main square of Plaza de Bib-Rambla.
• Restaurante Árabe Sultán – https://maps.app.goo.gl/MPXbU2pfjM7hgSp5A: The first thing that will strike you about this restaurant is surely its marvelous decoration. Do not stop there and go have a meal inside as the food will not disappoint you either. I recommend the Lamb couscous (16€). In Granada, you will find many Arabic restaurants serving similar dishes to what you would find in Morocco. Having spent our honeymoon in Marrakesh, we were delighted with my husband to eat in such restaurants bringing back fond memories.

Time to go up to see panoramic views of the city

After recharging our batteries with a filling lunch, we got ready to climb up. Granada is definitely not a city with a flat topography so be ready to get up and down stairs a lot.

On this sunny afternoon, our first point of interest was the Mirador El Ojo de Granada. This is essentially a viewpoint where you can have a great view on all the city. Once having taken a few photos and enjoyed this scenery, we admittedly realized that we had gotten quite thirsty from climbing up under the sun. The weather can get warm even in winter in Granada!

To clench our thirst, we went to a great oriental tearoom. You will see some all over Granada and they are such cosy places! I absolutely loved them and would have loved to had had the time to try them all. Not all of them have the same quality of food and drinks, however. We particularly enjoyed the one we went to on this first day, called Tetería La Oriental – https://maps.app.goo.gl/u74GATaGDYJePFTA9.

The tearoom is located in the Calle Caldería Nueva that you should absolutely explore after. It has many shops with oriental goods, similar to what you can find in the souks of Marrakesh in Morocco. It is also home to many more oriental tearooms.

We then headed to our last attraction point of the day: the park Carmen de los Mártires. Located right next to the Alhambra, this public park is extremely big and offers some splendid view on the city and on the Alhambra in some spots (photo above). It is a great place to have a relaxing stroll in a peaceful place. All around the park, you will also find some poems written on little plaques. This is due to the fact that Granada organizes every year some poetry awards in the city.

DAY 2: HISTORICAL ANDALUSIAN MONUMENTS & THE SACROMONTE MOUNT

In this picture: View from Palacio de Dar al-Horra (left), Potteries at the Sacromonte museum (middle), Me at Palacio de Dar al-Horra (right)

We dedicated our 2nd day to marvelling at just how rich the history and culture of Granada are. We visited many historical Andalusian monuments and headed up to the Sacromonte mount which used to be the cradle of flamenco in Granada.

Discovering the Monumento Andalusíes & the Casa del Chapiz

For our second day in Granada, as we had decided to spend more time visiting the splendid historical monuments that the city had to offer, we bought the Monumento Andalusíes pass.

This pass will cost you 7,42€ per person and includes the entrances to the following monuments:

• Palacio de Dar al-Horra – House which used to belong to the mother of an emir. It is the typical residence with nasrid architectural style.
• Bañuelo – Old arab baths dating back from the 11th century.
• Maristán – Remnants of Granada’s 1st hospital dating back from the 14th century and which became the home to the royal mint of Granada during the 16th and 17th centuries.
• Casa Horno de Oro – Typical nasrid house with the rooms organized around a central patio.
• Corral del Carbon (although you can also visit this site for free without the pass) – Former warehouse and market for wheat which also served of housing for traveling merchants.

All of these monuments are quite small and quick to visit so you can visit them all easily in a day.

One monument not included in the pass and that we also recommend that you visit is the Casa del Chapiz (photo above). The entrance will cost you 2€ per person. Featuring the tradition andalusí architectural style, this residence from the 16th century is now home to the School of Arab Studies. It is one of the most stunning place to see in Granada and it has a beautiful garden with views on the Alhambra (see main picture of this post at the top of the page).

Around the Mirador de San Nicolás

On your way to Casa del Chapiz, make sure that you go check out the area around Mirador de San Nicolás. First of all, Mirador de San Nicolas is one of the most impressive viewpoint in the city on the Alhambra (photo above).

On the square of the mirador, you should also check out the Iglesia de San Nicolás (Church of St Nicholas). The way the church was decorated struck me as quite different and more colorful than what I usually see in other churches. Furthermore, having suffered from numerous fires, this church had to be renovated several times. In the process, a luminous glass dome was added to the church. This beautifully decorated work of art gives a lot of light to the church and is worth seeing.

Only a few meters from the church, you will find the Mezquita Mayor de Granada. You can visit freely the garden and the entrance patio of the mezquita but not the inside of the mosque. I encourage you to read the different panels placed in the entrance patio to learn more about Islam. I discovered so much that I did not know through reading this information and it was truly very interesting.

Climbing up the Sacromonte Mount

We dedicated part of our afternoon to visiting the Sacromonte Museum. Entrance tickets cost 5€ per person. On Sacromonte Mount lived mostly gipsy populations in troglodyte caves. In this museum, you will see a reconstitution of how the living conditions were in those caves (photo above) and learn more about local craftmanship. You will also discover how the Sacromonte Mount became the cradle of flamenco in Granada. Another part of the museum tells you about the hardships faced by gipsy populations during the course of Spanish history. Finally, you will get to find out more about the fauna & flora of the mount.

This museum was so interesting and I can only encourage you to go check it out!

DAY 3: A DAY OF SCIENCE, SHOPPING AND DANCE

Disclaimer: These pictures are from the Alhambra and from the Generalife Palace’s gardens as we did not take any photos on this 3rd day in Granada.

On our 3rd day in Granada, we distanced ourselves a little bit from town center in the morning to go discover the Parque de las Ciencias, meant to be one of the best science museum in Spain. We then went back to the town center in the afternoon to buy some souvenirs and attend a flamenco show.

Breakfast at Casa Ysla

During our walks in Granada town center, we encountered various bakeries advertising a specialty called Pionono. One of the main bakery chains offering it seemed to be called Casa Ysla and we saw various locations of this bakery chain in the city. We thus resolved to go have breakfast at Casa Ysla – https://maps.app.goo.gl/tdBfe6PJGhgbBn558 – and try the famous Piononos before starting our visits of the day.

Piononos looked quite similar from afar to the taps de Cadaqués, a specialty from a famous Catalonian coastal town. However, upon trying them, we realized the Pionono was a much more moist cake. Admittedly, Piononos are probably much more dessert material than breakfast material. They were nevertheless quite good and we were happy to try them.

Let’s learn about science!

After this nice breakfast, we headed to the Parque de las Ciencias. Entrances to the museum cost 10€ per adult and you’ll have to add 7€ per person if you also wish to see the Biodomo. The Biodomo is one of the main attractions of the Parque de las Ciencias. It is basically an indoor zoo where animals are free around you. You can thus have birds flying over you, for example. We started by this part of the park.

Once you are done visiting the Biodomo, you can go back to the museum to learn about other science topics. There are quite a lot of interactive elements in the museum. The topics of the various exhibitions are varied: space, the human body, food, safety in work environments,… It is a well-explained and interesting science museum overall.

Time for some souvenir shopping

In the afternoon, we headed back to town center in order to do some souvenir shopping in the Alcaicería. This old silk market is now full of shops offering oriental items similar to the ones you can find in the souks of Marrakesh in Morocco. The one advantage is that the prices are fixed and you do not have to negotiate everything there. There were so many beautiful items. It is really the best place to buy souvenirs in Granada.

Experiencing a flamenco show

To finish our day in Granada, we headed to a flamenco show at Tablao La Alborea – https://maps.app.goo.gl/HYZnNeKwLD21f9YA9. You will see it advertised all over town with many places where you can buy tickets. However, we had come prepared and had already bought our tickets online on Tiqets.com. Each ticket will cost you 20€. The main advantage of Tablao La Alborea is that it is conveniently located in the town center.

Seeing a flamenco show is definitely an experience I recommend while in Granada. First, you will pay a lot less to live the experience than in other cities of Spain such as Madrid. Second, the atmosphere during a flamenco show is intense and the mix between the guitar music, the singing, and the dance with the clacking of the shoes at every step is something beautiful to see.

DAY 4: THE ALHAMBRA AND THE PALACE OF THE GENERALIFE

In this picture: Details from the Alhambra

For our last day in Granada, we visited the monument which by itself attracts millions of visitors every year to this city: the Alhambra.

Important tip: Get your tickets early if you can as the slots of visits fill up quickly. If you see all the tickets as sold out, you have to options left to not miss out on visiting this wonderful place:

• Get the Granada Card in which the visit of the Alhambra and the Generalife Palace are included alongside many of the attractions of Granada presented above and more. I unfortunately only found out about this option later, after having bought a much more expensive guided tour. The Granada Card costs between 47€ and 56€ per person depending whether you want it for 24h, 48h or 72h.
• Book a guided tour. This is the option we took as we were not aware of the Granada Card alternative at the time and all individual tickets to visit the Alhambra were sold out on the official website. We bought our English guided tour tickets on Tiqets.com for 65€ per person. The guided tour lasted 3 hours in total. The commentaries were really interesting. The guide appeared to be very passionate and answered all the questions that could occur to us.

What will you see during your visit of the Alhambra and Generalife Palace?

Let me just say before diving in that the Alhambra and the Generalife Palace are absolutely beautiful and worth visiting! During your visit, you will see:

• The Alcazaba: Oldest part of the Alhambra complex. Military fortress
• The Nasrid Palaces: Most impressive monuments of Nasrid architecture that you can visit. Residences of the sultans during the Nasrid reign in Granada.
• The Generalife Palace and garden: Summer residence of the Nasrid sultans. The views from the garden on the Alhambra are incredible.

Our trip concluded after this visit of the Alhambra and Generalife Palace as our bus to go back home was leaving the afternoon.

WHERE TO STAY IN GRANADA?

During our trip to Granada, we stayed at the Gran Hotel Luna de Granada – https://maps.app.goo.gl/MG9HkEEXs5n5R3KNA. We chose this hotel for one reason: it is the only one with an indoor swimming pool in Granada. As it was November, we missed going swimming and so we were excited at the prospect of finding an hotel with a pool. This 4* hotel costed us around 100€ per night. There are, however, many good and cheaper options in Granada.