Alhambra tickets
 

Should I book tickets for the morning time slots 8:30 to 2:00pm or 2:00 to 8:00pm? The night tour seems to be sold out.

jagjag,

if you go for the morning, you can spend the afternoon in the Generelife, so long as you get there before 2pm. [a friend of mine just got back and she didn't! so she missed the gardens she'd gone to see!]

you might try to get tickets for the evening when you get there.

I am a little confused. It looks like I can see the gardens with either ticket? Or you mean we would be able to spend a longer time in the gardens?

yes, the gardens are included with each ticket. But if you have a morning ticket, so long as you arrive at the entrance of the Generalife before 2pm, you can spend all afternoon there, thus getting a full day in the site. if you get there later than 2pm, they may not let you in, which is what happened to my friend.

if you have an afternoon ticket, you just get from 2-8pm to see the whole place including the Generalife.

We four were too tired to spend all that much time in the gardens, probably an hour can cover it. Be sure to allow ample time(30-45 min.) for ticket pick-up time (not at all well organized) and walking to the entrance point at the Palace where the ticket will be collected. Warning: Do not toss your ticket into the trash upon first entering the property, it will be time-scanned again upon entering the Palace which is a walk of additional 5-10 minutes. Our friend tossed his out, and was unable to do the Palace tour despite our protests. We met him outside the Palace later. In April we had a 1:00 entrance time. It was simply divine!

Weather-wise (in July) and crowd-wise, does it make a difference between the morning and afternoon?

jagjag,

in July it's likely to be hot especially in the afternoon so I'd go for the morning. Can't help about the crowds as we were there in November, when it really wasn't very busy.

yes, the ticket is essential, not only for getting into the Nasrid palaces during your 30 min slot [that's up to 30 mins after the time shown on the ticket] but also for access for some other areas which you are only allowed into once; they take or mark that part of the ticket once you've been in there.