As annhig mentioned, you can now also book evening tickets for the Generalife gardens. If that had been an option when I visited, I would have done the Generalife one evening, the Alhambra day-time visit the next day, and the Nasrid Palace the evening after my day-time visit.

I love the idea of dinner at the parador, Dukey1!

I have already booked my daytime visit to the Alhambra but haven't booked my evening visit yet -- thank you for the awesome suggestion.

great idea, kja. When we visited the evening visit to the gardens wasn't an option, and like you, I'd have loved to see them at night.

let us know how you get on, Judy.

I will! I leave in 22 days, so excited!!

Just general rambling on above. Night time is a magical time at the Alhambra. Everything is just beautiful.

You can also stay on top of the hill. There is the paradore connected to the Alhambra, very expensive, but also a small very nice and reasonable hotel not connected to the Alhambra but very close,two minutes walking. I do not remember the name but I am sure if you google "hotels near Alhambra" it will come up, that is how I found it. Good Luck.

Found the hotel.. It is the Hotel America.

I'm staying at a hotel in town with my relatives -- but thank you for the information.

The only hotel I have left to reserve is for Barcelona, and I am bleary-eyed trying to find something I like that is within my budget.

You can also stay on top of the hill. There is the paradore connected to the Alhambra, very expensive, but also a small very nice and reasonable hotel not connected to the Alhambra but very close,two minutes walking. I do not remember the name but I am sure if you google "hotels near Alhambra" it will come up, that is how I found it. Good Luck.>>

there are also a couple of hotels on the other side of the road, across the car park from the Alhamabra - we stayed at the Guadelupe and found it very good for its price, and very convenient for seeing the Alhambra which we did in the day and at night.

The bus which goes from just outside the alhambra ticket office down to the square below made getting down to the town, [and more importantly getting back up] very easy.

Dukey1 (or anyone who might be able to help)...

I can book dinner at 8PM at the parador on either Monday or Tuesday night.

The Palaces are closed Monday night but I can book tickets for the 10:30PM viewing on Tuesday night.

The ticketmaster site states that the evening palace tickets should be picked up starting at 9PM on the night of my visit.

So....my question is:

If I book dinner at the Parador for Tuesday night at 8PM -- will I have enough time to have dinner and still make it over to the Palace to pick up my evening ticket?

Or....should I book dinner for Monday night, and simply enjoy the view of the gardens from the restaurant -- and book night tickets to the Palace for Tuesday night instead?

It is a question of timing -- I don't want to rush through dinner at the parador in order to pick up my tickets on time, but on the other hand, if it can be all be done (dinner and palace) in one evening I'd like to be able to do that instead so that I can visit the Mirador on the 'other' night.

Many thanks, as always...!

why not book tickets for the night visit on Tuesday, and on Monday have dinner at the Parador -and then go and visit the Mirador or vice versa?

8pm is very early for dinner in Spain.

You're right, I could do that!

8pm is too early for dinner? The Parador only serves dinner from 8 to 10:30.

Need to check what the average time the sun sets in April so I can coordinate this right.

Thanks!

Sunrise and sunset times:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldcloc...&afl=-11&day=1

8pm is too early for dinner? The Parador only serves dinner from 8 to 10:30.>>

trust me, that is quite early for dinner in Spain. They probably serve it that early to suit the tourists. We usually dine on tapas in Spain as they eat dinner so late. When we went to the Alhambra at night, we didn't start dinner til about 11pm.

Wow....that's incredible.

I always ate dinner on the late side when I was younger (my parents are Portuguese), but 11pm is really late!

But I will take your advice and go to dinner one night (9'ish) after going to the Mirador and then go the next night for the Palace visit.

Thanks again everyone!

Have a great trip, Judy.

I'm sure you will love the Alhambra.

a book that you may enjoy as an aperitif is Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra. [available on Amazon].

Thank you for the suggestion!

I am super excited -- the days are just flying by!

Now I need to figure out what to pack -- I am hoping it'll be spring-like, but from what I've read it's rainy season in Barcelona in April.