we'll be in Granada in mid Oct.for 3 nights.
Most of the hotels mentined on various threads are near Alhambra ( with a parking lot)
Since we won't have a car , is it still better to stay near Alhambra or is it better to be closer to the center?
Thanks

I think it's better to stay in the center of town. The city is vibrant and it's great to stroll around at night. We stayed at a fabulous hotel, the AC Palacio de Santa Paula which is right in the heart of the city. It's a converted monestary and probably the coolest place we've ever stayed.

Yes, stay in the center. Any hotel there will be in walking distance to the square where you hop the bus up to the Alhambra.

thanks so much, it helps a lot!

Palacio de Santa Paula looks beautuful, but it is a bit too exp. for us.
Any other hotels in the center you can recommend ( under 200 euros)
thanks!

We recently stayed at the Hotel Casa Morisca. It was easy walking distance to the center of town.

We liked Hotel Puerta de las Granadas, a small 3-star. Nice rooms, under 150E for a double in April 2005, nice location just off the main square on the road that goes up to Alhambra, great staff.

We just returned from our Spain trip and we stayed at the Hotel Guadalupe directly across from the Alhambra and loved it. We did have a car so the initial selling point on the location was that we could easily get in and out with the car.

That being said, if I were to do it over without a car I would still stay up by the Alhambra. We were able to take the shuttle buses down into town (never moved the car after it was parked) for 1 Euro each and they were so efficient and dropped us in the thick of the action. The benefit of being up near the Alhambra was when we got up in the dark to get in line at 7:30 for our 8:30 appointment for the Nasrid Palaces. It was so nice to just stumble across the street versus having to think at that time in the morning. When we found out the snack bar was open with hot beverages but no food we wanted to eat, my husband was able to run back across to the hotel to get some snacks for us while we waited in line. Since our prime motivation for going to Granada was the Alhambra, we wanted to get there early and didn't mind taking the shuttle back and forth into town to eat and see the sights there (I think it stops running at 11 pm but we were exhausted by that time and had to get up early so that was not a problem). And when we got off the shuttle at night we were able to take a leisurely stroll through the public areas of the Alhambra before going back to our room which was so beautiful and peaceful.