12 Top Places to Visit in Granada, Spain

Just east of the main Alhambra fortress, the Generalife served as the Nasrid emirs' summer retreat from the late 13th century. The name comes from the Arabic Jannat al-Arif, meaning 'the architect's garden', and that sense of calculated paradise still defines it. Long avenues of clipped cypress, water channels running down marble staircases, and reflecting pools full of carp lead through citrus groves and rose terraces toward the Patio de la Acequia, the central courtyard.

Although usually visited as part of an Alhambra ticket, the Generalife is a distinct experience. Where the Nasrid Palaces concentrate decoration indoors, the Generalife pours water and fragrance through every level of its garden architecture. The slope between the two complexes, the Cuesta de los Chinos, was historically the service path between palaces, and walking it gives a sense of how the Nasrid court moved between official duty and summer leisure.

The Albaicín is Granada's old Moorish quarter, a tangle of whitewashed houses and steep cobbled lanes climbing the hillside opposite the Alhambra. UNESCO added it to the Alhambra's World Heritage listing in 1994 as the best-preserved Moorish urban fabric in Spain. The lanes are deliberately narrow and shaded - medieval Andalusi planning designed for shade and breeze, not vehicles - and many homes hide cármenes, walled gardens with orchards and Alhambra views.

Plaza Larga is the everyday heart, with bars, an old gate (Puerta de las Pesas), and weekly markets. From there, Calle Calderería Nueva, lined with Moroccan tea-houses and spice stalls, runs back down toward the centre. The Iglesia del Salvador sits on the site of the quarter's old main mosque, and the Bañuelo on Carrera del Darro preserves an 11th-century Arab bathhouse.

Mirador de San Nicolás is the photograph you have already seen - the wide stone terrace high in the Albaicín where the Alhambra fills the view, framed by the Sierra Nevada when the peaks are snow-covered. The platform sits at around 800 metres above sea level, in front of the small 16th-century Iglesia de San Nicolás, and is open and free 24 hours.

Bill Clinton famously called the sunset here 'the most beautiful in the world' during a 1997 visit, and the quote made the spot a fixture on every Granada itinerary. The terrace fills up an hour before sundown - buskers play flamenco guitar, students drink beer, and tour groups jostle for the railing. Arrive early or come at sunrise for a near-empty platform and the same view across the Darro valley.

Granada Cathedral (Catedral de la Encarnación) was begun in 1518 on the foundations of the city's main mosque, finished only in 1704, and stands as one of the great Spanish Renaissance churches. Architect Diego de Siloé designed the soaring 30-metre nave with five aisles and a domed circular ambulatory at the east end - unusual for Spanish cathedrals - all painted in dazzling white and gold.

The interior holds two magnificent baroque organs, large polychrome statues by Alonso Cano (whose tomb lies in the cathedral itself), and 16th-century stained glass behind the high altar. Entry is via Calle Cárcel Baja and the visitor route includes the cathedral museum with treasures from the Catholic Monarchs era. Allow 45-60 minutes.

The Royal Chapel (Capilla Real) is the royal mausoleum that Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon built next to the future cathedral, and where their bodies still rest. Completed in 1521 in late Gothic Isabelline style, it contains the carved marble tombs of the Catholic Monarchs alongside those of their daughter Joanna of Castile and son-in-law Philip the Handsome - the lead caskets are visible in the crypt below.

The chapel's sacristy-museum houses Isabella's personal collection of Flemish and Italian paintings (Botticelli, Memling, Bouts), her crown and sceptre, and her illuminated prayer book. As one of the most historically significant sites in Spain - this is where the Reconquista ended and the funding of Columbus's first voyage was decided - it draws a steady stream of school groups, so morning visits are calmer.

Sacromonte rises above the Albaicín on the next hillside east, a steep slope honeycombed with cave dwellings carved into the soft tufa rock by Roma communities since the 16th century. Many of the cuevas are still inhabited; others have become zambras, the hard-edged cave flamenco venues that gave the world the Granadan style of bulería and tangos.

The Cuevas del Sacromonte Museum at Barranco de los Negros shows how families lived and worked the caves, with rooms set up as kitchens, weaving studios, and stables. Above, the 17th-century Sacromonte Abbey crowns the hill with views back across to the Alhambra. Evening flamenco shows at Cuevas Los Tarantos or Venta El Gallo cost €30-40 typically and last around 75 minutes - intimate, sweaty, and authentic.

This narrow, pedestrian-only riverside lane runs along the Darro between Plaza Nueva and the foot of the Alhambra, and is widely considered Granada's most photogenic street. The Río Darro - actually a stream most of the year - flows under an irregular sequence of medieval bridges, and on the south side rises the Alhambra wall, so close you can almost touch it.

You will pass the 11th-century Bañuelo (the Arab bathhouse, free to enter), the 16th-century Casa de Castril (Granada's archaeological museum), and several baroque chapels. The street ends at Paseo de los Tristes, the wider plaza named for the funeral processions that once climbed up to the Alhambra cemetery. Cafés here have head-on views of the palace floodlit at night.

The Alcaicería is the small grid of covered alleys behind the Granada Cathedral that once housed the city's grand silk and spice market under Nasrid rule. The original 15th-century complex was ten times larger - the current version is a 19th-century reconstruction after a fire in 1843 destroyed the medieval bazaar - but the look and the trade are recognisable. Stalls sell ceramics, marquetry boxes, leather slippers, painted fans, and Moroccan-style lanterns.

Most of what is sold today is imported from Morocco and Granada's Alpujarra workshops, but a few local artisans still work in nearby Calle Elvira and the Albaicín. The location, between the Royal Chapel and the Cathedral, makes it an easy 15-minute browse during a centre walk - and a good place to pick up small souvenirs without trekking further afield.

A short C5 microbus ride northwest of the centre, the Carthusian Monastery of La Cartuja looks plain from the outside but contains one of the great Spanish baroque interiors. Built between 1506 and the late 18th century, it is famous for its sacristy - a small chamber dripping with twisting marble columns, polychrome stucco angels, and inlaid tortoiseshell-and-silver cabinets, completed in 1764.

The church itself blazes with 17th-century Granadan painting (works by Sánchez Cotán hanging in the refectory) and elaborate gilt retables. La Cartuja is much quieter than the Alhambra or cathedral - on a typical morning you might share the sacristy with five other people. Allow 45 minutes inside plus 15 minutes' bus travel each way.

Realejo, the slope below the Alhambra to the south of the centre, was Granada's medieval Jewish quarter (Garnata-al-Yahud) before the 1492 expulsion. Today it is a residential neighbourhood crisscrossed with murals by Spanish street artist Sex (El Niño de las Pinturas) and laced with classic tapas bars where every drink still arrives with a free dish.

The heart of Realejo is Campo del Príncipe, a long sloping plaza ringed with restaurants and a 16th-century Christ figure at the lower end. Calle Molinos, Plaza Cuchilleros, and the lanes around Casa Museo Manuel de Falla offer a quieter side of the city. The Carmen de los Mártires gardens above are free to enter and have spectacular Alhambra-side views over the Vega.

Just 32 km southeast of Granada, the Sierra Nevada national park contains mainland Spain's highest peak, Mulhacén (3,479 m), and Europe's southernmost ski resort, Pradollano. From November through April, snow lies thick on the upper slopes; the rest of the year the park is a high-altitude hiking and birdwatching destination, with marked trails to the alpine lake of Laguna de la Caldera and circular routes around Veleta (3,396 m).

Reaching Pradollano takes about 45 minutes on the daily Autocares Tocina coach (Bus 24 or Bus 36 from Granada main bus station; around €5 one-way). In ski season, lifts run from 09:00, day passes start around €52, and you can rent gear at the resort. For a non-ski summer trip, take the Hoya de la Mora trail - the whole Granada plain spreads out below at 2,500 m.