Private Alhambra Including the Ruins of the Medina, Three Hours

Three hours at the Alhambra, privately, with an official guide who is also a heritage interpreter. The distinction matters: one qualification gets you through the door, the other decides whether the building makes sense once you are inside.

The route covers the Nasrid Palaces, the Alcazaba and the Generalife. It also walks the remains of the medina, the town that filled the space between them, where the people who serviced the court actually lived. Most visits cross that ground without looking down at it. A guide who stops there turns the Alhambra from three monuments into one working city.

The Nasrid Palaces were the official house of the kingdom of Granada. The Alcazaba was the military quarter, and the views from its walls run out over the whole city. The Generalife was the summer residence, with fountains and cypresses and a quiet that the rest of the hill does not have.

The day suits visitors staying in Granada and those coming across from Málaga.

The group meets at the main gate, by the ticket offices, in front of the map of the Alhambra.