Alhambra sold out: what to do when there are no tickets left

Your options at a glance

The prices and dates in this table come from Tiqets and are refreshed while you read. “Next date” is the first day on which the option still has places.

1. Book a guided tour with entry included

This is the option that works most often, by far. Agencies buy their places months ahead, as soon as they go on sale: when the official ticket office has nothing left, those places still exist, sold together with the guide. The entry ticket is included, so there is nothing else to buy.

There are two alternatives if this tour is full on your date: the same tour in a group of up to 20 (from €59), and a small-group tour of up to 15 (from €69). On some days only a much more expensive premium slot is left: the dates quoted here are the first at the standard price, and the calendar shows the actual price for each day before you click.

2. Go in without the Nasrid Palaces

The Nasrid Palaces are what sells out first: entry is by half-hour slot, and slots are limited. The rest of the Alhambra usually fills up more slowly – but do check the next date below, because in high season these tickets go too. A ticket without the palaces covers the Alcazaba and the view from the Torre de la Vela, the Generalife gardens and palace, the Partal and the Palace of Charles V – a good three hours of visiting.

Another option along the same lines: the Generalife gardens ticket with audio guide (from €29.90), which covers the Generalife, the Alcazaba and the Palace of Charles V, with an English audio guide that you collect on site and return at the end of the visit (bring your own earphones). It can be neither refunded nor changed.

3. Use the Granada City Pass

The Granada City Pass (from €28.50) bundles entry to the Alhambra, with the Nasrid Palaces as an option, subject to availability, the tourist train or a flamenco show, and an audio guide to the city. Its calendar is not the same as the standalone ticket's: it sometimes has dates when entry alone has none. Next date: Saturday 24 October.

4. Try a night visit

The Nasrid Palaces also open in the evening, with an allocation of places separate from the daytime one: Tuesday to Saturday, 10 pm to 11.30 pm, from April to mid-October, and Fridays and Saturdays, 8 pm to 9.30 pm, in winter. The night visit includes neither the Alcazaba nor the Generalife, but the palaces lit up and almost empty are worth the trip on their own.

• The official night ticket costs €12.73 and is booked through the Patronato's ticket office. It sells out very quickly too.
• A guided night tour is available on Tiqets (an hour and a half, price varies by date). Note that it runs in Spanish only.

5. Pick a combined tour

Tours that combine the Alhambra with another part of Granada have their own calendar, separate from that of the standard tours. The most complete is the Alhambra, Albaicín and Sacromonte day tour (five and a half hours in all, price varies widely by date): the Alhambra with a guide, Nasrid Palaces included, then, at a second meeting point in the late afternoon, the white lanes of the Albaicín and the caves of Sacromonte. It is a long day on your feet and rarely the cheapest option, but it is a way in when everything else has gone.

6. Watch for official re-releases

The official “Alhambra General” ticket costs €22.27 online and remains the cheapest way to see everything. Once it has sold out, places sometimes come back on sale, at unannounced times, when the Patronato releases places that were set aside and not used, and with each new batch put on sale – three months, then one month before the date: check the official ticket office several times, including the day before and on the morning itself.

Look at the Dobla de Oro too (€30.48), an official ticket that adds several Andalusi monuments, most of them in the Albaicín, to the Alhambra: it is sold separately, with its own availability, and is sometimes still on sale when the general ticket is not.

We are an independent website and do not sell these official tickets. We mention them because, when any are left, they are the cheapest option.

Reduced rates, free entry and sale release dates: see our Alhambra ticket prices page.

7. As a last resort, see the free areas

Part of the Alhambra hill can be visited without a ticket. You can walk up the Cuesta de Gomérez, pass under the Puerta de la Justicia, stroll along the Calle Real and the Plaza de los Aljibes, and freely enter the Palace of Charles V, its circular courtyard and the Alhambra Museum inside it (closed on Mondays). You will not see the Nasrid Palaces, the Alcazaba or the Generalife, but you will have set foot in the Alhambra – and the view from the Mirador de San Nicolás, across the valley, is free too.

Why the Alhambra sells out so fast

The Patronato de la Alhambra caps visitor numbers every day to protect the monument, and entry to the Nasrid Palaces is by half-hour slot, with few places in each. From March to October, and over long weekends and school holidays, tickets go weeks in advance. Two rules also catch visitors out:

• The palace slot is strict. Once the time printed on your ticket has passed, you lose access to the Nasrid Palaces, with no refund; the rest of the ticket remains valid. Arrive a quarter of an hour early.
• Tickets are issued by name. Every visitor aged 12 and over must show the passport or ID card matching the name on the ticket. Children under 12 also need a ticket, booked at the same time as the others.

How the time slot works, when to turn up and the route through the rooms are covered in our guide to the Nasrid Palaces.

Frequently asked questions