Alahambra- day or night?

We did both, and I am glad we did. We visited just the palace at night, to see it all lit up-very romantic and mysterious. Then we returned during the daytime to see it again, along with the other attractions of the Alhambra (Generalife and Alcazaba.) For the night visit we just went at our own pace and enjoyed the beauty. for the day visit, we rented the audio guide, and thought it was excellent. We went at our own pace and re-visited several areas, which we would not have been able to do with a human guide. We also did, on another day, a separate walking tour, the "Conquest of Water," which was a 5-hour tour of the waterworks and other features. This did not include the Nasrid palaces and does not substitute for a palace visit, but it was well worth it. We loved the Alhambra and were glad we spent the time and money to thoroughly explore it. But not everyone is that "into" it and may be happy with a single visit.

In fairness, my report is five years old. We also did both. The night lighting was laughably amateurish, with a few rickety, free-standing torchieres for the interior, and some out of date outdoor floods, maybe from World War II. The beautiful details weren't "romantic", they were in deep shadows. I'm glad they didn't Disney-fy the Alhambra, or risk damage by running new power conduits. But I found it a waste of an evening. I do recommend paying whatever you can afford to have a sunset dinner at a "Carmen" outdoor restaurant facing the Alhambra from the hill. Tim (member, Illuminating Engineering Society, member, United Scenic Artists-Lighting Designer.)

Hmmmm...Our experience was 5 months ago. Maybe things have changed since Tim's visit, or maybe we were just less critical regarding technical details of lighting. Yes, there were shadows, and the light was uneven. But that is probably close to way it would have looked at night when the palaces were in use, hundreds of years ago, before electricity. If you are only doing one visit, then night visit is not the best way to see the actual art and architectural details, for the reasons Tim states. But we still thought it was a wonderful addition to our Alhambra experience. (I will add that we stayed at Hotel American, inside the alhambra, so it was an easy stroll over to the palaces for our visit, and back to the hotel afterwards.)

We have done both. The lighting for the night visit is very atmospheric, but often too dark to actually see much and you need to be careful where you walk. If you were to do only one visit, I would definately recommend the day visit. While I am glad we did the night visit, I would have felt cheated if that was my only experience of the Alhambra, Seeing it lit at night from one of the restaurants, is lovely.

Both by all means! Look, you are spending how much and using how much vacation time to just get to Granada? Do you plan to return there anytime soon? So go for the full experience. And here is my night time visit tip for the Nasrid Palace. You will get a ticket allowing you to enter the palace within a specific time period. Be in line and ready to enter at the very start of the period. When you do, walk purposefully through the Alhambra to the Court of the Myrtles, ignoring everything in your path. With luck you will have the place to yourself, under the stars, for a good five minutes. Magical! Then backtrack to the parts you bypassed and start again.

My vote is to tour it during the day, so you can see the city views and the beautiful mountains in the distance, and then find your way to St Nicolas before sunset to see it light up at dusk....all of the locals hang out at St Nicolas and play music and sing and 'hang out'.

I would only take the night tour if I'd already taken - or planned to take - the day tour, too. A nighttime visit to the Alhambra is absolutely magical and VERY romantic, although much less-popular and thus less-populated. I was among, maybe, 25 other people when I went 6 years ago. Keep in mind that the nighttime tours CAN get downright frigid, depending on the time of year. When I went, it was only a self-guided tour, but I'd bet you could schedule a nighttime (private) guided tour as well. Saludos, GranadaMan/MadridMan @ you-know-where!