Haven Nº 017 — Europe › Spain › Granada · Stays
Parador de Granada
The Alhambra empties at six. On winter weekends its palaces reopen at eight, and your room is inside the walls.
The Parador de Granada sleeps inside the Alhambra, in a fourteenth-century Nasrid palace that became the convent of San Francisco. At six the day visitors leave; on Friday and Saturday nights in winter, the Nasrid Palaces open again at eight.
The house's own photographs are on their way.
6 p.m. · Closing time
The day crowd goes down; you stay
The Parador de Granada is a hotel inside the Alhambra, the walled palace city on the hill above Granada. Among the buildings added to the Alhambra in the first half of the fourteenth century, its own history lists the Palacio de San Francisco, along with the mosque and the Rauda; among the later Christian ones, the convent of San Francisco. The Parador calls the building the Palace of Los Infantes, and says the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand, made it the first Christian monastery of the conquered Alhambra. You come to sleep inside the walls.
From October 15 to March 31, the Alhambra closes to day visitors at 6 p.m.; from April 1 to October 14, at 8. That is the hour to arrive. The day visitors go down the hill, and your room is inside the walls. In winter, two hours separate the closing at six from the night visit at eight; in summer, the day ends at eight and the palaces reopen at ten.
The cloister
A queen’s first tomb
The Parador says the convent kept the heart of the palace: the old patio, now the cloister, an Arabic room and a qubba, a domed hall. From the cloister, it says, you look across to the Generalife.
The Catholic Monarchs chose this convent for their tomb, the Parador says, and their provisional tombs can still be seen here, under the Cúpula de Mocárabes, the honeycomb dome. Isabella of Castile died in 1504. In 1520 her grandson, Charles I, ordered the remains moved, and in 1521 the Catholic Monarchs were brought down to the Royal Chapel in the city.
The Parador also dates the discovery of the palace’s Arab baths to 1949.
When the Alhambra closes at six, the Parador’s guests stay inside the walls.
The room
The view of the Generalife
The Parador lists three kinds of room: the Standard Double, the Superior Double and the Junior Suite. Its booking calendar for November 2026 showed rates without breakfast from €384 to €616 a night.
The view to want is the one the Parador gives its cloister: the Generalife. When you book, ask which rooms look that way, and ask again when you check in.
Book the room before you fix the rest of the trip, then the tickets. The Alhambra sells its timed entries ahead, it does not hold a ticket without payment, and the date and time cannot be changed once bought.
8 p.m. · The Nasrid Palaces
Book the night ticket
This is the reason to sleep here. From October 15 to March 31, the Nasrid Palaces open again at night on Fridays and Saturdays, from 8 to 9:30 p.m., with the night ticket office open from 7 to 8:45. From April 1 to October 14, they open Tuesday to Saturday, from 10 to 11:30 p.m. The night ticket is €12.73. The route starts at the Patio de Machuca and runs through the Mexuar and the Golden Room, lit for the night.
Come in winter if you can: the visit then starts at 8 p.m., not 10.
Better, buy the ticket made for a night up here: the Alhambra Experiences visit, which joins the night visit to the lit Nasrid Palaces to a day visit of the Alcazaba, the gardens and the Generalife palace, on two consecutive days, for the same €22.27 as a general day ticket. Buy it on the Alhambra’s official site when you book the room. Entry is timed: 300 people every half hour, and if you are not at the door at your time, you do not go in. Tickets are personal and checked against your ID, so take your passport. Children under twelve go free, but they still need a ticket.
For the gardens, the Generalife has its own night visit: from October 15 to November 14 on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and from April 1 to May 31, Tuesday to Saturday, at 10 p.m., for €8.48.
8:30 a.m. · Opening time
Before the hill fills up
The Alhambra opens to visitors at 8:30 a.m., with the ticket office open from 8. Take the first entry of the day. With the Alhambra Experiences ticket, the morning is its second half: the Alcazaba, the gardens and the Generalife palace. With a general day ticket, go to the Nasrid Palaces at your timed entry, and walk the gardens of the Generalife before the day crowd arrives.
The general day ticket is €22.27. The Gardens ticket, €12.73, covers the gardens, the Generalife and the Jardines de San Francisco. The Alhambra is closed only on December 25 and January 1.
Before you leave Granada, go down into the city to the Royal Chapel. The Catholic Monarchs have lain there since 1521, when they were brought down from the hill where you slept.
The key
- Book a night, not a visit: the Parador is inside the Alhambra's walls.
- Choose a Friday or a Saturday between mid-October and March: the Nasrid Palaces open again at 8 p.m.
- Buy the Alhambra Experiences ticket when you book the room: the Nasrid Palaces at night, then the Alcazaba, the gardens and the Generalife the next day, for €22.27.
- Ask which rooms look toward the Generalife, as the cloister does, when you book and again at the desk.
- Take the 8:30 a.m. entry the next morning, and carry your passport: tickets are checked against ID.
The dossier · Haven Nº 017
- Where
- Inside the Alhambra, Granada, Spain
- Rooms
- Standard Double · Superior Double · Junior Suite (the Parador)
- Price
- €384–€616 a night, room only · Nov 2026 (the Parador's calendar)
- The building
- 14th-century Nasrid palace · later the convent of San Francisco
- Alhambra hours
- 8:30 a.m.–6 p.m. Oct 15–Mar 31 · to 8 p.m. Apr 1–Oct 14
- Nasrid Palaces at night
- Winter Fri–Sat 8–9:30 p.m. · summer Tue–Sat 10–11:30 p.m. · €12.73
- Two-day ticket
- Alhambra Experiences · night palaces + next day · €22.27
- Entry
- Timed · 300 people every half hour · ID checked
- Closed
- The Alhambra: Dec 25 and Jan 1
Our verdict
Sleep here once, on a Friday or a Saturday in winter. You get the Nasrid Palaces at night and the first entry of the morning, with the night in between inside the walls. A day visit gives you neither.
Not for you if you want the city at your door, its bars and its streets: the Parador is up the hill, inside the Alhambra's walls.
Before you go
Can you sleep inside the Alhambra?
Yes. The Parador de Granada stands inside the Alhambra's precinct, in the building the Alhambra lists as the convent of San Francisco, raised on a fourteenth-century Nasrid palace.
How much is a room at the Parador de Granada?
The Parador's booking calendar for November 2026 showed room-only rates from €384 to €616 a night, across its Standard Double, Superior Double and Junior Suite.
Does a stay include tickets to the Nasrid Palaces?
The Alhambra's official site says nothing about hotel guests. Buy your tickets there when you book the room: entry is timed, tickets are personal and checked against ID, and they cannot be held without paying.
When can you visit the Nasrid Palaces at night?
From October 15 to March 31, on Fridays and Saturdays from 8 to 9:30 p.m.; from April 1 to October 14, Tuesday to Saturday from 10 to 11:30 p.m. The night ticket is €12.73.
Was Queen Isabella buried at the Parador de Granada?
The Parador says the Catholic Monarchs chose the convent for their tomb and that their provisional tombs can still be seen under its honeycomb dome. The Royal Chapel in the city records that their remains were brought there in 1521.
Parador de Granada, official site. We earn nothing on this link. Hotel images: courtesy of Paradores (to come).
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