Alhambra Gardens, Generalife and Alcazaba Tickets Granada

Generalife gardens and summer palace

The Generalife was the summer retreat of the Nasrid sultans, a palace of courtyards and gardens on the hillside facing the Alhambra, where water flowed from the mountains through a long royal channel. Its most famous space is the Patio de la Acequia, where a narrow pool lined with flower beds and arching jets runs between two pavilions, with arcades that frame views over the Albaicín.

Beyond it, the Sultana's Garden surrounds a courtyard of pools and an ancient cypress, and the Water Stairway carries streams down its handrails under a tunnel of laurel. The lower gardens, with their clipped cypress hedges and rose beds, were added in the twentieth century. These Generalife tickets give you as long as you wish here; most visitors spend about an hour and a half.

Alcazaba fortress and the Watchtower

The Alcazaba, at the western tip of the hill, is the military core of the Alhambra and its oldest surviving section. Inside the thick ramparts you walk over the foundations of the soldiers' district, with its houses, workshops, baths and grain stores, and through the parade ground that once guarded the palace city.

The reward is the climb up the Watchtower, whose terrace opens onto a sweeping panorama: the white lanes of the Albaicín across the valley, the caves of Sacromonte, the cathedral and the modern city below, and on clear days the ridge of the Sierra Nevada. Plan 40 minutes for the fortress, and visit early in the day in summer, as the towers and terraces have very little shade.

The Partal, the medina and the Bath of the Mosque

Between the palaces and the Generalife lie the Alhambra gardens of the Partal, a graceful portico reflected in a large pool, surrounded by terraces of roses, orange trees and small towers set into the walls. Nearby the Paseo de las Torres follows the ramparts past some of the towers where the Nasrid court lived, offering quiet views down to the river Darro.

Along the Calle Real, the main street of the old palace town, you find the Bath of the Mosque, a small Nasrid bath once used by worshippers at the main mosque of the Alhambra, whose site is now occupied by the church of Santa María. Its vaulted rooms and star-shaped skylights show how bathing was part of daily life on the hill. Allow 30 to 45 minutes for this area.

The Renaissance palace and Alhambra museums

In the centre of the complex stands the Renaissance palace, begun in the sixteenth century after the conquest of Granada. Its square stone exterior hides a perfectly round courtyard ringed by two levels of columns, a remarkable space for photos and for hearing your own voice echo from the middle. Its stone facades, carved with columns and reliefs, contrast sharply with the plain red walls of the Nasrid buildings around it.

The building houses the Museum of the Alhambra, whose collection of Nasrid ceramics, carved wood, tiles and everyday objects gives context to everything you see outside, and a fine arts museum on the upper floor. Allow 20 to 40 minutes depending on your interest in the museums, and check their own opening days before you go.

Is the Alhambra worth visiting without the Nasrid Palaces?

Yes. The Nasrid Palaces are the most famous rooms, but they cover only a small part of the hill. With this ticket you still see the fortress, the summer palace, the gardens, the walls and the museums, which together fill three to four hours. The Alhambra opens every day at 8:30 and closes in the early evening, later in summer than in winter.

To reach the Access Pavilion, take the small Alhambra city bus from the centre, a taxi, or walk up from Plaza Nueva through the woods, about 25 minutes uphill. The best time to visit is a spring morning, when the gardens are in flower and the air is fresh, or a late autumn afternoon with golden light on the walls.