Hi Jebenna -
We’ve just come home from Granada and our apartment was in the Albaicin. If you have rolling luggage or worse, a heavy suitcase, the area is not your friend. The streets are narrow, steep and cobbled and favour those travelling lighter, with backpacks, which we were.
That said, the area is delightful with a number of small squares with bars, etc. One regret I have is that although we walked extensively we didn’t explore the Albaicin enough, but maybe next time……? For those who are not keen on, or able to walk the steep cobbled streets every day, there’s a very frequent, and cheap, city hopper bus which squeezes through the sometimes implausibly narrow streets. Like York, I guess they never anticipated the rise of the internal combustion engine!
Plaza Trinidad is flatter, definitely more central, but I’m going to guess rather noisier and busier, especially in the evenings (the Albaicin was largely deserted at night). It is easier to get to by transport certainly. We arrived in the Albaicin by private minivan at around 11.00 pm and due to the narrow streets and some absolutely boneheaded parking by others we ended up walking the last 150 - 200 yards to our apartment guided by our cell phones and Mr Google and His Fabulous Maps!
Personally I’d currently plump for staying in the Albaicin every time, but it would depend on what luggage you had to haul and how, and your attitude to traversing narrow, cobbled (not to mention a little disorienting at first) streets on foot.
Oh yes, you’ll need a full day at The Alhambra to do it justice. It is magnificent, especially the Nasrid Palaces, but there’s so much more to it. Book your tickets ahead of time - it sells out and there were no ‘on the day’ tickets when we visited - a tip I picked up from this very forum. There’s a nice terraced cafe (‘Jardin de……’ name escapes me…) opposite the official entrance for a coffee or a meal. The city hopper bus I spoke about also goes to the Alhambra - we walked there (steeply!) and caught the bus back to our apartment in the Albaicin.
Ian
