Grenada, Spain
 

I've been trying to find some recent info about visiting the Alhambra -- we will be going to Spain in late Oct/early Nov. Are we kicked out after 4 hours or can we stay as long as we want/go to lunch and then return/have a picnic in the gardens?

Also, any recommendations for gluten free restaurants or celiac friendly restaurants in Grenada, Cordoba, Seville, or Madrid are welcome.

Thanks, Lori

I haven't been in years but I can't imagine how they could track you.

But if you're asking about leaving and reentering I doubt that's allowed.

I wouldn't count on picnic weather come November. If you're lucky sure but don't count on it.

We visited Granada in early November 2022.

Curious why you think you'd be kicked out? The grounds are sprawling (over 26 acres), and as mentioned above, I don't know how they'd track any particular visitor.

When you leave, you have to pass through gates, so when you're out, you're out. I don't think you can return.

The weather during our visit was glorious - we didn't need air con in our accommodation for the first time during an otherwise very hot visit.

We had early morning tickets for Nasrid Palaces, and then spent time in Generalife. We spent a total of three hours, and that was plenty for us.

There are restaurants on site, but our Air BNB host had suggested we head down to Realejo - the old Jewish Quarter, and seek out lunch at one of the many restaurants around the Campo de Principe.

You can stay as long as you wish until closing. A long time ago (can't recall how many years) the Alhambra visit was divided into morning and afternoon sessions, and you needed to choose, but no longer.

If you wish, you can stay the entire day (some folks do, others find tht 3-4 hours is enough), but you can only enter once in the sections where your ticket will be scanned: for your timed entrance to the Nasrid Palace, at the Alcazaba fortress, at the entrance to the Generalife.

For example, after visiting the Nasrid Palace at your selected time slot (where once inside, you can stay as long as you wish) and then walking up to visit the Generalife gardens, if you want to take a break and have lunch in the charming indoor terrace of the Hotel América or the elegant dining room or casual cafeteria of the Parador de San Francisco, which are both on the Alhambra grounds, after lunch, you can then return and visit the rest of the complex, the Alcazaba and the Palacio de Carlos V. For the latter, your ticked will not be scanned, and it has an excellent Hispano-Arab art museum, well worth your time.
There is no restaurant in the complex itself, just a refreshment stand outside of the Alcazaba and vending machines. This is why we go up to the Hotel América or the Parador for a lunch break. There is another eatery, La Mimbre, with an outdoor terrace, that I don´t recommend, as it´s nothing special.

As for picnic eating within the grounds, here are the areas where it´s allowed according to the web site, www.alhambra-patronato.org

• Partal Gardens
• New Gardens

Additionally, there are other rest areas where eating is allowed

• Plaza de los Aljibes
• Gardens facing the cannons
• Plaza de la Alhambra (Entrance Pavilion)