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Enjoying the Alhambra in the evening

My wife and I will visit the Alhambra during the day while we are in Granada in May. I've also heard that it's fascinating to go back one evening as well. Other than reserving tickets for each visit ahead of time, which I'll surely do, are there any tips or suggestions particularly for the evening visit? For example, is the view OF it from outside of it in the evening what I should really think about, vs. the views IN it in the evening? I have no idea if there's any important difference in those at all. All things considered, I tend to like views OF things more than views IN them or FROM them, so I am not really sure an evening visit should be on our must-do list! What d'ya all think?

Posted by
16403 posts

The views OF the Alhambra from the outside, lit up at night, are best seen from the mirador at San Nicolas. That is very different from the views inside the palaces themselves. The Nasrid palaces are magical at night when lit up, but you do not see the detail as well as you do during the day. On the other hand, it is less crowded. We actually did both (night visit and day visit). The pooint of a nigh tvisit it to see the palace rooms themselves, not the views from there, at least as I recall. Since the night entrance is not until 10 pm, you could easily have dinner someplace away from the Alhambra with a view of it, and then catch the minibus up to enjoy wandering the palace all lit up at night. Or skip the entry ticket and just come up and wander the grounds for free.

Posted by
931 posts

We loved the visit at the earliest entry time. It was great being one of the first visitors in the morning. The morning lite was wonderful. At night we enjoyed the view while dining across the valley in the San Nicolas area.