From visiting the Alhambra to skiing in the Sierra Nevada to sampling the delights of Tapas – Granada has something for everyone

Visit the Alhambra and the Generalife

World Heritage Site, the complex of the Alhambra and the Generalife is the most emblematic, well-known and visited monument of Granada.

City, fortress and palace of the kings of the Nasrid dynasty, its rooms and gardens are the higher expression of the Muslim art in Europe.

The great extension of the complex and the beauty of its rooms cause that the visit lasts at least two hours and average. It is almost necessary to book in advance the entrance, especially at times of great affluence of visitors. The nocturnal visit is a magnificent alternative for those who already know the monument and wish to perceive the unheard perfumes, sounds and images that the night arise in the Alhambra.

The monumental complex is formed by the Alcazaba, fortified military area; the Palaces, royal residence; and the palace and the gardens of the Generalife, summer royal residence. The water, something not very abundant in North Africa, where the Nasrid dynasty was original, is present in the main rooms of the monument: the famous Patio de los Leones, the not less well-known Patio de los Arrayanes, the Sala de dos Hermanas, the Sala de los Abencerrajes, the real Baños…

Built later, but already integrated in the monumental complex, it is the Palacio de Carlos V, initiated in 1527 by the architect Pedro Machuca in the purest Renaissance style.

All the history of Granada has passed in front of the Alhambra walls. The story says that there was a garden where the monarchs, persecuted princess between flowers. The walls of the Cuarto de los Secretos say that there is nothing that escapes from its ears. The Medina says that there were times of peace, and the Alcazaba that there were times of war. The Puerta del Vino says that there was joy and the jails say that there was sadness.

“Give him some alms, woman, because there is nothing in life as the pain of being blind in Granada”, their walls has listened to. Restored day after day, and with care, the Alhambra looks marvellous to more than two million visitors every year.

Visit the Park of Sciences of Granada

To visit the Park of Sciences is to enter a different world. A world where the visitor will have the knowledge of the science history on the tip of his fingers.

A place where it will be able to participate in that wisdom through experiments made by the most prodigious minds of the planet. It will be able to verify the principle of Archimedes, to play with the light and the sound, to experience with the electricity and the erosion or to understand the Earth movement visually.

The Park of Sciences has a permanent exhibition that it offers as interesting proposals as the Biosphere Room, where we can learn more about the human DNA or how the life in the planet began. The visitor also will be able to go inside a giant kaleidoscope in the Perception Room, to experience the wind force in the Eureka Room or to know the legacy Al-Andalus in a specific room for the history of the Spanish-Muslim state, which was a bridge between continents and cultures.

Of course there is also a place where the kids (from 3 to 7 years old) will be able to play and to experiment with science: the Explore Room.

Also, temporary exhibitions approach to the public the day to day of sciences in a practical and didactic way, as well as interesting biological proposals and some related to the environment.

But the Park of Sciences is not only this. The Planetarium has a capacity for 83 people and is covered by a celestial vault of 10 meters of diameter on which they project more than 7,000 stars, limit of the human sight in a clear night. In case it was not enough, an astronomical garden to follow the trajectories of the sun and the stars or a beautiful Butterfly section turns this complex in the most visited museum of Andalucia.

In order to make this experience complete, the museum has monitors and entertainers to solve any doubt the visitor may have. Besides, the arranged groups or schools could be received in an assembly hall where the general aspects and the organization of the visit can be explained.

Visit the Albaicin and the Sacromonte neighbourhoods

The Albaicín (World Heritage Site) and the Sacromonte are two of the districts with more colour, enchantment and history of the city of Granada.

To wonder around the Albaicín is to make a trip to its moriscs roots in as well as an enjoyment for the senses. To cross its labyrinth of narrow streets perfumed of blossom smell, to contemplate the gardens of cármenes (its typical houses) or to accompany an aromatic tea with delicious Arab sweets, are experiences that the visitor does not have to miss. Ivies and bougainvilleas hung from whitewashed walls. In their interior, beautiful gardens, cultivated areas and fruit trees turn the cármenes in small farmhouses. In them there is exuberance and a colourful atmosphere in which their streets participate as well. Also from this neighbourhood, precious views of the Alhambra, of the city and the fertile plain can be contemplated, as we can verify in, for example, the viewpoints of San Nicholas and San Cristóbal.

The Sacromonte neighbourhood is famous by its caves, in which the gypsies continue celebrating every night their flamenco songs and dance celebrations. It was here where the gypsies who came with the Catholic Kings troops when they conquered the city settled. The craftsmen worked the wicker, the forge and the copper, and the artists establish the roots of flamenco. Here the traditional zambra was born, as well as native dances and songs like the mosca or the capucha.

The main monument of the Sacromonte is its Abbey, where relics and testimonies of the first Christians of Granada are conserved and, among them, the first bishop of the city: San Cecilio. The Centre of Interpretation of the Sacromonte also allows knowing the history of the neighbourhood.

Ski in Sierra Nevada

In the south of Spain, in an earth blessed by the sun, the 3,478 meters of highest summits of the Sierra Nevada Massif guarantee the abundance of snow of quality in the most southern ski resort of Europe.

The resort, one of most modern and better equipped of Europe, has 79 tracks with different degrees of difficulty and an overall length of 84 kilometres, in which the ski as well as the snowboard can be practiced. One of the main attractive points of Sierra Nevada is the possibility of skiing at night in an illuminated and specially equipped track. It has as well, two circuits of 8.6 kilometres for cross-country skiing, discipline that can also be practiced in the second winter sports resort of the province, the one of the Ragua.

A great technical infrastructure guarantees the comfortable and fast access from the residential and commercial area of Pradollano. Two telecabins, 17 chair lifts, two teleski, two carpets and one telerope can transport to the tracks up to 47,000 skiers per hour. The resort has, in addition, more than 400 tubes for the production of snow that guarantees its quality and abundance.

In the Puerto de la Ragua, in the limit of Granada and Almeria, the second winter sports resort of the province is located. The Ragua is well-known for its excellent conditions for the practice of the cross-country skiing and for its strolls in sleighs tugged by dogs. Huskis and samoyedos lead them, sliding them at full speed by snow-covered places of great beauty.

Swim off the beaches of the Tropical Coast

There are tenths of beaches and small inlets of crystal-clear water, 320 sunny days a year and an average temperature of 20 degrees.

These are the credentials of the Tropical Coast, the 80 kilometres of coast of the Granada province. It owes its name to the exceptional good weather along the year. Two centuries ago, it became the only place in Europe where subtropical fruits such as mango, cherimoya, avocado and papaya could be cultivated. Fruits that evoke exotic flavours and places but, in fact, they are grown in one of the most privileged corners of Andalucía.

Nineteen towns form the “Tropic of Europe”. Founded by the Phoenicians one thousand years before Christ with the name of Sexi, Almuñécar is a place full of history that maintains the remains of a roman factory of a salted-fish business, five sections of an aqueduct and an Arab castle. This touristy area hosts a great jazz festival in the summer.

Motril is the biggest city of the province after Granada. Among its monuments stands out the Iglesia Mayor de la Encarnación an the Santuario de Nuestra Señora de la Cabeza, built over the old recreational palace of the Aixa queen, mother of Boabdil, the last king of the Nasrid dynasty.

Salobreña becomes, in the visitors mind, a huge mountain of sugar lumps. Its little white squared houses whirled in front of the sea surrounding a hill, topped with a monumental Arab castle. At a glance from the top we can contemplate delightful panoramic views of Sierra Nevada, the Mediterranean Sea and the fertile plain.

Next these places we find a great number of small and quiet inlets placed in Albuñol, Castell de Ferro-Gualchos and La Mamola-Polopos. Near you can find the towns of Albondón, Ítrabo, Jete, Lentejí, Los Guájares, Lújar, Molvízar, Murtas, Otívar, Rubite, Sorvilán, Turón and Vélez de Benaudalla, surrounded by an exuberant nature.

Apart from sea and culture, the Tropical Coast offers a great number of possibilities such as golf, paragliding, trekking in the villages which are located inland, scuba-diving in the rich depths of Cerro Gordo and the nautical sports that have their centre at the marina of Marina del Este (Almuñecar) and the Club Náutico of Motril.

The tropical fruits can be tasted in salads or desserts, in a cuisine that has not lack of rock fish like muttonfish or bream and seafood like shrimp. And, with coffee, we can taste the rum that is made in the area as well.

Know the Architecture of the Alpujarra

To know the architecture alpujarreña is to make a trip in the time until finding its origins in the Berbers tribes who inhabited this area.

Constructions of similar characteristic are found in the Riff and other places throughout the Mediterranean arc.

Its style adapts to the mountainous surroundings, following its geographic features. The houses have a staggered form, with a Southern or to opened spaces orientation to take advantage of the good weather. Nowadays all the whitewashed towns shine, but at other times their materials camouflaged perfectly with the landscape, obtaining a complete integration. The houses are built with stone, mud, slate, launa and wood of chestnut tree. Materials from the surrounding area that are perfectly integrated with the slopes and the weather conditions, providing an absolutely bioclimatic house.

The houses are arranged one on top of another, following the slope of the mountain, giving to the streets a winding and chaotic layout. Another typical characteristic of the architecture alpujarreña is the chimneys, topped with a hat formed by a laja and a castigadera stone.

Located between Sierra Nevada and the Mediterranean Sea, it is an almost virgin region, ideal for the rural tourism and the practice of adventure sports. The Poqueira Ravine, with its white towns, has received a great prestige as tourist destination. Towns like Lanjarón, Trevélez, Cádiar, Órgiva and all the located in the green and fertile plain of Lecrín stand out as well.

Sleep in Cave houses

To sleep in a cave house is an experience that allows the visitor to submerge completely in the culture and the form of life of more than 3,000 families from Granada.

Excavated in the Earth, these houses are a great example of the integration of the man with the nature and the landscape. Cave accommodation is typical of the Guadix and the Marquesado regions, in Baza-Huescar: The Plateau, and in the Granada’s neighbourhood of the Sacromonte. About thirty establishments are regulated and catalogued like tourist accommodation in caves. The common denominator of all of them is the service of quality and the respect to the environment. In them the guest will feel like at home, because all of them have the comforts of a tourist accommodation of quality.

Each cave house is different from the others and in them it is possible to observe how the popular architecture adapts to the characteristics of the environment where they are. The hard and parched soil that, without offering resistance to be excavated, are compact and provide natural waterproof, they stay cool in summer and stay warm in winter keeping a natural temperature all year round. To stay in a house cave is to participate in the recovery and conservation of one of more peculiar constructive and architectonic traditions of Europe.

Taste the Caviar of Riofrío and To Travel across Western Granada

The extreme purity of waters of Riofrío, in Loja, provides one of star products of the Granada’s cuisine: the ecological caviar.

A fish farm of this town has been able to breed the biggest population of sturgeons in captivity of the world. 400,000 units of Acipenser Nacarii swim in its waters. Species in danger of extinction whose females keep in their entrails the caviar of better quality: the beluga.

During three decades of investigation and tests this company has got to be the only one that develops its ecological production to the one hundred percent in all its products. Its offer includes, in addition to beluga, the sturgeon and the trout, fresh, frozen or smoked in heat as well as creams and pâtés made with them. All of them can be tasted in the numerous restaurants of Riofrío.

But the beluga is not the only attractive point of Western Granada. This region, located to the west of the province, is the cradle of ancestral cultures and its history is reflected in its monuments its main towns are Loja, Alhama of Granada, Montefrío, Íllora and Moclín. It has a vast Arab legacy that is noticed in all its streets and the numerous fortresses constructed during the reign of the Nasrid dynasty.

Of Loja, also well-known like “City of Water” by his more than two thousand springs, is remarkable the Arab Alcazaba, the Iglesia Mayor, the dedicated church to Santa Catalina, the one of San Gabriel, the Convento de Santa Clara and the Pósito Nuevo. Also in the region of the West, it impresses the magnificent monumental complex formed in Montefrío by the Arab fortress and the Iglesia de la Villa, located in the top of a rock in an audacious architectonic show.

Go Shopping

Granada is an ideal place to go shopping. To let you take and cross its streets visiting stores and markets is an attractive and colourful form to make contact with its culture and its people.

Land of craftsmen, the people from Granada are expert in making products like the artisan guitars, the pottery and the marquetry, luxurious wood work of detail decorating; furniture, boxes or any object with geometric drawings formed by hundreds of very small pieces of bone, silver, and wood. The Nasrid art has been reflected in some of its manufacturing techniques as it can be appreciated in Spanish cabinets, in cases, frames, chairs, tables, coffers, etc. The pottery conserves some Nasrids and andalusies arts that are shaped in jars, plates and pitchers decorated with green and blue colours. The neighbourhood of the Albaicín is the area of Granada that concentrates more craftsmen.

In the capital, the city centre streets are suitable to go shopping: Alhóndiga, Ganivet Angel, Great Via, Mesones, Plaza de Bib-Rambla, Recogidas, Reyes Catolicos and Zacatín, to mention some. In Granada modern and wide commercial centres with numerous stores exist. Another interesting area to go shopping is the area of Plaza Nueva, in the side streets of the Caldereria Nueva and the Caldereria Vieja. Their shops are adapted to the western tastes, but still and Arab scent can be breath due to its Nasrid perfume stalls, natural cosmetics and clothes of the sixties. In old zoco of the Alcaicería the stores with the most typical memories of Granada can be found. In Cuesta de Gomérez the guitars workshops and the marquetry craftsmen are located.

To go to the street markets is an amusing and colourful way to go shopping. The one of the Plaza Larga is in the Albaicín, between Cuesta of the Alhacaba and the Panaderos Street. There, between terraces of bars and benches with good shade, there is a daily street market of flowers and fruits. The one of the Chana neighbourhood is celebrated every Wednesday morning and flowers, fruits and clothes are sold. In the Zaidín, the most populated neighbourhood of the capital organizes every Saturday a wide street market. And the one of the Cartuja, in the Almanjayar polygon, is every Sunday morning, and fruits, vegetables, clothes and shoes can be found.

Enjoy the Tapas and the Cuisine from Granada

What is more Spanish than eating tapas??

Little plates of stewed snails, potatoes a lo pobre, battered fish, migas and pinchos constantly pass by the bars of bars and tascas in Granada.

The tapas constitute a sample of the food of the place that comes when the clients order a wineglass or a beer. Authentic food in miniature constitutes a tasty and varied alternative for informal suppers or lunches. To go to have tapas with friends is one of the more rooted customs in the province.

To go eat tapas will also captivate the visitor. To wander around the old historical city centre, a beautiful historical scene, while having tapas in local places is a full cultural activity. The Albaicín, Campo del Principe or the Elvira Street are places where you should go by if you want to know the tapas in Granada.

The tapas are just a small sample of what the cuisine from Granada offers. Throughout the centuries the creations and traditional recipes of the Jewish, Arab and Christian cultures have been merged to give way to an original and full cuisine. Thus, honey, spices and fruits are used to season and to accompany meats and fishes, providing tasty dishes like the lamb with apples, gachas with honey, chicken with almonds or trout with pomegranites. In addition, there is a wide variety of plates that have in common their touch “al ajillo” (garlic seasoned).

Others of the specialties of the area are salads and cold soups that match with the pleasant temperatures of the region. Gazpachos, pipirranas, ajoblanco (with flour of beans), salads of orange and cod are some of them. You should not forget the excellent sausages that are obtained from the traditional ´matanza´. Because all of this the cuisine from Granada can satisfy all tastes.

Article courtesy of 1Casa Estate Agency