tips for a visit- morning v. afternoon?, if afternoon can you enter earlier than 1400 hrs, if morning can you stay later than 1400?
We went in January 2008. If I remember right- the time on your admission ticket refers to the time you enter the Nasrid Palace, and if you miss that time slot, you can't go in. They are very strict about that (learned that the hard way). But the Nasrid Palace is only one part of Alhambra. I don't seem to recall anything about having to leave at 1400 if you were there in the morning.
Based on that, my advice would be to go in the morning, you can easily spend all day there; we did! And loved it!
If you are in the morning period, you are supposed to be out by 1400 hours....and they do start checking tickets around 1430....at least they have the two times I've been there in the afternoon. If you are set for the afternoon period (1400 onwards) then they won't let you in until 1400.
Norm, your are off on something or else there has been a change in procedures. We were there on Jan 3rd and the only time restriction we had was for the palace. Our time was 11:30 and they were very strict and checked our entry ticket several times. We enter the grounds about 10 and left around five. And we need all that time just to see everything.
As I say Frank, they began checking tickets at 2:30 when I was there both times during the afternoon. But it was May and it was busy (school field trips galore) so perhaps they don't check that closely on quieter days. Otherwise, the place would be overrun!
Norm, are you reference entering the grounds or the palace? I just check our tickets and there is no indication of AM or PM entry only the time for the palace. And it was very crowded when we were there.
Frank...I'll have to look for my ticket. All I can tell you is that there was an indication it was the afternoon session, and guards at the gate ust before you get to the inn were stopping people and telling those that had morning tickets that it was time for them to leave.
They obviously were not doing that in January. We went through several of the internal check points and no one said anything. We went in around 10 AM and didn't leave till late afternoon. Our hotel had secured the tickets so I assume they were the standard tickets.
After reading Frank and Norm's posts, I would guess that if you're there when it's quiet, you can stay as long as you like. We were there on about Jan 3 2008, and we were able to stay all day.