Alhambra night tickets
 

Ah, the best laid plans....

My husband and I have plans to visit Spain (Seville, Córdoba, Granada, Madrid) in late March. One of our goals was to see the Alhambra, and we planned for both day and night visits. According to several websites, it appeared that night visits were available Tuesday-Saturday after March 16th. With that info, we planned to be in Granada Sunday-Wednesday, with the night visit to the Alhambra on Tuesday.

Today, I bought our daytime tickets for Monday, March 27th. When I went to purchase the night tickets, I discovered that they were offered only on Friday and Saturday. A bit more digging revealed--as best as I can tell--that expanded spring/summer tickets don't start until April 1st--contrary to several websites. Lesson learned; I should have made sure to discern which of the various websites was actually the truly official one.

I'm toying with changing the order of our trip, but we had otherwise hoped to avoid a weekend stay in Granada, with the hoping of visiting the Alhambra during the week--when it was hopefully a bit less crowded. But I'm not sure I want to hassle with it. The current order of our trip worked in our favor in several other logistical ways as well.

I share all of this only to vent a bit. No matter how many trips I plan, I always seem to make at least one seemingly rookie mistake!!

Since my original post, I tooled around a bit more on the Alhambra's official site. Under "schedules'" they indicate expanded hours by mid-March. If you look types of visits/night visit, however, you'll see that expanded hours don't start until April 1. So, it appears that even the office site is inconsistent. Sigh....

I hesitate to post this, as I have read so many posts about the absolute necessity of booking Alhambra tickets in advance. However, I am a very poor planner and very rarely book anything in advance. So when my husband and I went to Granada, we went to the tourist office and had no trouble getting Alhambra tickets for the same day or the next day. This was in October, so not high season, but I think March is also not high season. Just saying, when you get there you'll find out exactly what's going on and may be able to get the night tickets then.

indyhiker - it would be a shame not to see the Alhambra at night but if your trip is better as it is, then it's probably not worth changing it all round just for that. Actually I'm not sure that it will be more crowded at weekend - most visitors are on coach tours which can turn up at any time.

We loved the Alhambra and spend most of a day there, [and, lucky for us, and evening too]. Whichever way you decide to organise your visit, I hope you have a great time.

OK, I'll say it. We booked both the day tour and the night tour. In our estimation (all four of us), although semi-interesting to visit at night, we did not feel it added anything to our tour during the day. So, in my lonely opinion, if you don't get the night tour, don't sweat it. An extra night to play in Granada (a town we really liked) is not bad.

((H))

Tom, we saw the Alhambra at night too, having bought the tickets on a whim, but unlike you we loved it. Apart from anything else there were far fewer visitors which let us get closer to it, and in the morning we were more able to appreciate what we were seeing.

But I agree that it's not worth the OP completely rearranging her trip just to fit it in.

For me, a night visit to the Alhambra remains among my favorite travel experiences any where, any time -- and I've been fortunate enough to have some truly amazing experiences on my trips. For me, I would do anything possible to have that experience! To each his/her own.

Because tickets are rationed, I wouldn't worry too much about time of week. In particular, the evening visits are limited to very few, and as annhig notes, daytime visits can be swamped at any time.

If you do re-order your trip and you can book evening tickets for both the Nasrid Palace and the Generalife, I'd do that -- Generalife the night before your daytime visit, the Nasrid Palace afterwards.

Good luck with your decision!

P.S. I suspect many of us find that no matter how much we learn about travel planning, there's always a curve ball somewhere in the game!

I'll chime in with seeing the Alhambra during the day and not at night was still magical. I think seeing the sunlight hit the buildings, the beautiful gardens and the amazing plasterwork is more important then the night visit.

Plus there are many other things to do in Granada.

Thanks to all for your perspectives. I appreciate your input. Right now, we're not inclined to change the order of our trip--although my mind isn't quite made up. i think it will be fine either way. I just hope the Alhambra realizes soon that they're providing inconsistent info so that others don't make my mistake!