Nasrid Palaces at the Alhambra: tickets, time slot and visit

Which ticket includes the Nasrid Palaces?

This is the most common mistake: several Alhambra tickets do not give access to the palaces, and others only offer them as an option, if slots are left on your date. The prices and dates below come from Tiqets and are refreshed while you read.

The official ticket office follows the same rule: the “Alhambra General” ticket (€22.27) and the Dobla de Oro include the palaces; the “Jardines, Generalife y Alcazaba” ticket (€12.73) does not. Watch out for “Alhambra Experiencias”: it gives you the palaces at night only, and the rest of the monument the following day.

Nothing left on your date? There are still options: we have gathered them in what to do when Alhambra tickets are sold out.

Can you buy a ticket for the Nasrid Palaces only?

Not during the day: the palaces are part of the general Alhambra ticket and are not sold separately. The only exception is the night visit, which covers the palaces only.

How the time slot works

To protect the decoration, the Patronato limits entry to the palaces to 300 people per half hour. Your ticket therefore carries a time: it is your entry time for the Nasrid Palaces, not your arrival time at the Alhambra.

• The rest of the monument is flexible. You can visit the Alcazaba, the Partal and the Generalife whenever you like between opening and closing time, before or after the palaces. The old distinction between morning and afternoon tickets no longer exists.
• One entry per area. Each part of the Alhambra can be visited only once during the day. You can, however, leave for lunch and come back.
• The time sets when you go in, not when you leave. Once inside, you move at your own pace.

Where and when to turn up

The entrance to the Nasrid Palaces is in the middle of the grounds, next to the Palace of Charles V – a long way from the main entrance. This is the classic trap: you arrive on time at the entrance pavilion, and late at the palaces.

1. 30 minutes before: be inside the groundsFrom the main entrance (the entrance pavilion, near the Generalife), allow about twenty minutes' walk to the palaces. For the 8.30 am slot, be at the gate before opening time.
2. With a ticket on your phone, use the Puerta de la JusticiaThis gate, at the top of the Cuesta de Gomérez, is five minutes from the palaces: it is the recommended way in if you already hold a ticket with a QR code. Keep your ID to hand. If you need to collect a ticket or claim a reduced rate, go to the ticket office at the entrance pavilion, at least an hour before your slot.
3. 10 to 15 minutes before: join the palace queueIt forms in front of the entrance, next to the Palace of Charles V. While you wait, its circular courtyard is a few steps away, and free to enter.
4. At your entry time: ticket and ID in handThe name on the ticket is checked against your passport or ID card, from the age of 12.

Getting up to the Alhambra, and which ticket to have in hand

Bus C30 leaves from Plaza Isabel la Católica and stops at the main entrance. On foot, allow 15 to 20 minutes uphill from Plaza Nueva along the Cuesta de Gomérez, which leads straight to the Puerta de la Justicia. Use the toilets before joining the palace queue: there are some at the entrance pavilion and near the Puerta del Vino.

With Tiqets, the ticket arrives by email and you show it on your phone. When booking, enter each visitor's name exactly as it appears on their passport or ID card: that is what is checked at the palace entrance.

Which slot to choose, and in what order to visit

If you have the choice, take the first slot of the day. Otherwise, plan the visit around your time: each area can be visited only once, and the Generalife is at the far end of the site.

The visit, room by room

The “Nasrid Palaces” are in fact three adjoining palaces, built in the 14th century by the sultans of the Nasrid dynasty (1238–1492). The route takes you through them in a fixed order, from the entrance near the Palace of Charles V to the exit in the Partal gardens. Allow 45 minutes to an hour.

1. The MexuarThe oldest part: the hall where the sultan dispensed justice, and a small oratory looking out over the Albaicín. Here you first read the Nasrid motto, repeated on every wall: “There is no victor but God”.
2. The Cuarto Dorado and its courtyardA tiny courtyard and, facing you, the façade of the Comares Palace, entirely covered in plasterwork: the threshold between the public area and the sultan's residence.
3. The Comares PalaceThe official palace. The long pool of the Court of the Myrtles reflects the Comares Tower; beyond the Sala de la Barca lies the Hall of the Ambassadors, the throne room, crowned by a cedar ceiling representing the seven heavens. Begun by Ismail I, the palace was enlarged by Yusuf I and completed by Muhammad V.
4. The Palace of the LionsMuhammad V's private palace, and the image everyone is waiting for: 124 marble columns around the fountain with its twelve lions, whose restoration was completed in 2012. Look up in the Hall of the Abencerrajes and the Hall of the Two Sisters for their muqarnas domes, then walk on to the Mirador de Lindaraja.
5. The Emperor's ChambersRooms added for Charles V from 1528 onwards. The writer Washington Irving stayed here in 1829, a stay that inspired his Tales of the Alhambra.
6. The exit through the PartalThe route leads out to the Patio de Lindaraja and then to the Partal gardens, with their pool and portico. From there you walk on to the Generalife.

A room is occasionally closed for restoration. Guides are not allowed to address their groups in the Cuarto Dorado, the Hall of the Two Sisters or the Hall of the Abencerrajes, which is why they describe them before going in.

By day or by night?

The palaces also open in the evening: Tuesday to Saturday, 10 pm to 11.30 pm, from 1 April to 14 October, and Fridays and Saturdays, 8 pm to 9.30 pm, for the rest of the year. The night visit covers the palaces only – no Alcazaba, no Generalife – and costs €12.73 from the official ticket office.

• By day, you see the colours of the tiles, the ceilings, the views over the Albaicín, and the rest of the Alhambra on the same ticket. This is the choice for a first visit.
• By night, the lit courtyards are almost empty and the atmosphere is entirely different. It is an extra, or a fallback when daytime tickets are sold out.

On Tiqets there is a guided night tour lasting an hour and a half, in Spanish only.

With or without a guide?

There are almost no information panels in the palaces: without an explanation, you walk through beautiful rooms without knowing what you are looking at. There are three ways to go about it.

• Guided tour in English, palaces included. The most comfortable option: the guide handles the entry time and explains what the walls are saying. Group of up to 30 (from €49), group of up to 20 (from €59) or small group of up to 15 (from €69).
• Guided tour with optional palaces. The tour from €45 covers the Alcazaba, the Generalife and the Palace of Charles V, in English, Spanish, French or Arabic; the palaces can be added at checkout when there are slots left (around €79 in total).
• Self-guided visit. The ticket with Nasrid Palaces includes neither a guide nor an audio guide: read the room-by-room route above before you go in.

Bags, photos, children, accessibility

• ID. Tickets are issued in the visitor's name: bring your original passport or ID card, from the age of 12.
• Bags. Bags and rucksacks larger than 40 × 40 cm are not allowed. There are free lockers at the entrance pavilion and near the Puerta del Vino.
• Photos. Allowed without flash or tripod; selfie sticks are banned indoors.
• Do not touch. That goes for the plasterwork, the tiles and the columns. No eating or drinking inside the palaces.
• Children. Free for under-12s, with a ticket in their name booked at the same time as the others. Pushchairs are not allowed inside the palaces: free storage and baby carriers on loan (up to 12 kg) near the Puerta del Vino.
• Accessibility. The palace route is only partly wheelchair accessible. The Patronato lends wheelchairs at the entrance pavilion and publishes a map of the accessible route (PDF).
• Animals. Only guide and assistance dogs are admitted.

Official opening hours and prices 2026

Official tickets go on sale up to a year in advance through the Patronato's ticket office, limited to ten per buyer per month; in high season the palace slots sell out weeks, sometimes months, in advance. Platforms such as Tiqets cost a few euros more, but often still have places when the official ticket office has none, and handle booking and support in English.

We are an independent website and do not sell the official tickets. We give their prices so that you can compare.

Discounts, free entry, refunds, the Granada Card: full details are on our Alhambra ticket prices page.

Frequently asked questions