Alhambra private guide

I do not think a private tour guide is necessary. I picked up the souvenir book the day before and I also did a fair amount of research/planning. All we needed was the RS guide supplemented with the Eyewitness Spain guide. There is also an audio tour for purchase.

Hint--It is counter intuitive, but we hung back so we were the last folks into our Nasrid time slot. Then they do not let people in until the next time slot. So we were getting time in many of the areas with fewer or even no folks.

Thanks, Jules, esp tip on enter towards end of time. Any idea how much time TOTAL to allow for the Alhambra? Always trying to time meals and also juggle the various parts of the A. (like: I don't want to start something that will take 2 hours just around lunch time, etc.) . We have all day, but likely to get a fairly early start. Also, do you agree with Rick Steves's advice to save walking by doing the Nazaries last? We're good walkers....

Do you mean the Nasrid Palace last? I don't have the Spain RS guide to check his advice. It takes my husband and I longer to tour places. We like to linger and take it all in and he reads absolutely everything and takes photos (and sometimes waits for people to move) Even though we had tickets, we entered the complex at the main ticket office at about 9am. Our palace time was 10. We visited the Charles Palace just before that and spent some more time there after the palace. It has an interesting museum of pottery and archeological finds. I really think that we didn't finish the palace until like 2. Then we wondered the grounds and we were at the Alcazaba at about 3, and the Generalife at 4:30 or so.