Photos: Inside Granada’s Famous La Alhambra

A trip to Granada is not complete without touring La Alhambra. Our guide on our walking tour even said, “You won’t leave Granada without seeing La Alhambra.”

Tickets are difficult to get, especially during the summer high season. I tried to buy tickets online two days before we arrived in Granada but they were sold out for the next week.

When we got to our hostel in Granada, the receptionist told us if we went to the tourist information office straight away, we should be able to get tickets for the next day.

Unfortunately the next day was Saturday, the busiest day of the week. They had one ticket left and since there were two of us, we were not getting into La Alhambra.

After some consideration, we decided to book an extra night at our hostel in Granada and see if we could get tickets for Sunday.

On Saturday afternoon around 1:30 p.m., we went to the tourist information office and were able to get two tickets for the next morning. Our entrance time for the Palace was 8:30 a.m.

We arrived at La Alhambra around 8:50 a.m. We grabbed audio guides and were told we could skip the incredibly long line of people waiting to get in with 9 a.m. tickets. Score! I guess sleeping in late isn’t so bad after all.

I didn’t find our audio guide very interesting. The recordings were very long winded and thus difficult to pay attention to. It mostly just described the different architecture. I found that I only really listened to the recordings for the things I found particularly beautiful. In hindsight, I would have saved the 4.10 Euros and just walked through and enjoyed the architecture myself.

While the Arabic style architecture was stunning, the gardens surrounding the palace were my favorite part! I could’ve been lost in those gardens for hours. I would love to go up there with a pen and paper and write for hours. Anyone’s creative juices would flow up there.

Know there were a ton of people there! I was stuck behind two 20 person tour groups. I was dodging around people to get through the rooms and take photos. Unfortunately, that means my photos are not very nice. But it is a beautiful place so hopefully one day you can see it for yourself because as always, my photos just do not do it justice!