The Alhambra is one of the most visited and most fascinating sights in Spain. A visit to the impressive palace is an absolute must for anyone traveling to the south of Spain. Since the amount of daily visitors is strictly limited, tickets to the Alhambra sell out months in advance. But you haven’t planned your trip that far in advance, or forgot to buy Alhambra tickets right away and now you start freaking out? What to do if all Alhambra tickets are sold out? Do not panic. We have been in the same situation before. In this guide, we will show you how to get last minute Alhambra tickets in 2020.
How to get last minute Alhambra tickets in 2020 – step by step
Let me guess. You are you traveling to Granada soon and on the official website, all you see are blacked out dates – all official Alhambra tickets sold out online! If this is you, you are in the same situation as I was. But don’t worry, there are several ways to buy Alhambra tickets, even if they are sold out on the official website.
The table of content gives you a quick overview of the options how to buy last minute Alhambra tickets in 2020. I would recommend following all options step by step. This will maximize your chance to get some last minute Alhambra tickets.
Contents:
Check for various ticket categories on the Alhambra tickets official site
Buy a Granada Card including an Alhambra entrance ticket
All Alhambra tickets sold out online? Ask your hotel for tickets
Best Last Minute Alhambra Ticket Availability: Book a guided tour to the Alhambra
Still didn’t get a ticket to the Alhambra? What now?
Tips before visiting the Alhambra
Check for various ticket categories on the Alhambra tickets official site
You’ve probably already checked the Alhambra ticket availability on the official site. So far without success? The good news is that two ticket categories allow a visit to all three areas of the Alhambra. Also, whenever someone cancels their Alhambra ticket, these tickets become available online again. Older guides recommend visiting the official website at midnight and refreshing the page multiple time to check for newly available tickets. According to my experiences and from what I read in more recent posts this is no longer true. Now, tickets come back into the inventory at any time throughout the day.
So before trying one of the next, more expensive options how to get Alhambra tickets when sold out, you should head back to the official website and check your dates and different ticket categories again. Two ticket categories allow you to visit all three main parts of the Alhambra: the Alhambra General ticket and the Alhambra Experiences ticket.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Head to the official Alhambra website by clicking here.
- First, select the Alhambra General ticket and then click on “Purchase Tickets”. The Alhambra General ticket costs 14 Euro and allows a daytime visit of all three sections of the Alhambra.
- Now you have to select how many tickets you need. After the selection, click on “Go to step 2”
- You’ll now see a calendar overview that indicated the ticket availability. The color red means that there are no more tickets left on that day. Orange and green means you struck gold. If you can see availability for your day, don’t hesitate, select your time slot for the Nasrid Palace visit and book your Alhambra ticket.
- If you didn’t find any availability, go back to the main page and select Alhambra Experiences as your ticket category. With this ticket, you can experience the Nasrid Palace and night and visit the Gardens of Generalife and the Alcazaba the next day. The Alhambra Experiences ticket has better availability than the Alhambra General ticket. Since we only had one day in Granada, this ticket wasn’t a viable option for us.
- Come back to re-check for ticket availability every now and then, if you still have some time before your visit to the Alhambra. You may be lucky and see some availability opening up. But since that is rather unlikely, I would recommend you to try the next step.
Buy a Granada Card including an Alhambra entrance ticket
This is one of the best ways to buy tickets to the royal Alhambra palace last minute. The Granada Card is distributed by the tourism office of Granada and includes all public transport in Granada for five days, access to most of the touristic sites in Granada as well as a ticket to the Alhambra including a visit to the Nasrid Palaces. The price for the Granada Card in 2020 is 40 Euro. Which is a great deal if you are staying in Granada for several days. But the best thing is that the Granada Card has much better availability for Alhambra tickets than the official website.
Here is what you need to do to check the availability of last minute Alhambra tickets for your day:
- Go to the official Granada Card Website.
- Select the Granada Card for 40 Euro and click on „Buy“
- You will now see a calendar overview that shows availability for the Alhambra visit. If there is availability on your dates, you are in luck. You will have to select your time slot for the visit to the Nasrid Palaces in the next step.
- If you can’t see availability, keep your hopes up and follow the next step
All Alhambra tickets sold out online? Ask your hotel for tickets
If you found all Alhambra tickets sold out online in the last two steps, asking your hotel for Alhambra tickets may also be an option. Some upscale hotels in Granada have access to a special ticket system that has better availability than the official sales channels. If you are already in Granada, trying to get very last minute Alhambra tickets, ask your concierge for tickets. If your trip is still ahead of you, call your hotel or write an e-mail asking for tickets.
Best Last Minute Alhambra Ticket Availability: Book a guided tour to the Alhambra
If none of the previous tips at getting last minute Alhambra tickets has helped you, you can again find better availability with guided tours through distribution partners of the Alhambra. GetYourGuide is one of the official partners and was actually the way we managed to score our Alhambra tickets last minute since all other options were already sold out. Several guided tour options visit the three areas of the Alhambra. You can check the various options for your dates by clicking here.
Most of the cheaper tours, however, will only reflect the ticket availability of the official website. Which won’t really help you since all Alhambra tickets are sold out online for your dates. But there are also tours with much better availability.
The best option to get last minute Alhambra tickets in 2020
In fact, we managed to get tickets to this tour just two days before the tour where the official tickets have been sold out months in advance. While the prices for guided tours are higher than the normal entrance ticket, I really enjoyed the 3-hour tour. Our guide spoke a very fluent English and we learned a lot about the fascinating history of the Alhambra and Granada. One of the best things of the guided tour was that we didn’t have to worry about missing our time slot to the Nasrid Palaces. Our guide made sure we would be there on time.
Check the availability for your dates here.
Still didn’t get a ticket to the Alhambra? What now?
If none of the above options of getting a last minute ticket to the Alhambra have helped you, don’t try to go to the Alhambra in the early morning. Some other website or blogs may say that you can still get tickets on the spot every day. However, buying Alhambra same day tickets at the main entrance hasn’t been possible anymore since 2017. And since all tickets to the Alhambra are personalized, you will not have any luck to buy someone else’s ticket either.
Luckily, several areas of the Alhambra complex and its surroundings can also be visited for free without a ticket. Check out this post for places to visit around the Alhambra if you didn’t get a ticket. If you still want to learn about the history of the Alhambra, you can take a guided tour of the surroundings of the Alhambra. Check the availability here.
Tips before visiting the Alhambra
If you did manage to score a last minute ticket to the Alhambra with one of our options, great! Let us know in the comment section what tip has worked for you. Here are a few tips to keep in mind before visiting the Alhambra:
- Bring your passport or ID. All tickets to the Alhambra are personalized and are often checked upon entrance to the different parts of the Alhambra to prevent ticket fraud by reselling.
- Here you can find a map of the entire Alhambra complex
- Schedule around three hours to see all three parts of the Alhambra
- The entrance to the Nasrid Palaces are always set for a certain time slot. Plan to be at the entrance around 15 minutes before your scheduled time slot to allow for some queues.
- Here are some rough estimates for walking distances from the Alhambra general entrance:
Alcazaba: Up to 20 minutes
Nasrid Palace: Up to 17 minutes
Generalife: Up to 15 minutes - If you have the option, I would recommend you to visit the Alhambra in the morning and to make the Nasrid Palaces the first stop of your visit. They are the only area where you need to pre-book your time slot. If you visit them first, you can afterwards enjoy the Gardens of Generalife and the Alcazaba without looking at the time.
- Alhambra Opening Hours:
Daytime visit: 15 March – 14 October: 8:30am–8pm (daily), 15 October – 14 March: 8:30–6pm (daily).
Evening Visit to Nasrid Palaces: 15 March – 14 October: 10pm-11:30pm (Tuesday–Saturday), 15 October- 14 March: 8pm-9:30pm (Friday & Saturday)
I really hope that you managed to book Alhambra tickets last minute with one of our methods. I am so glad that for us it worked out and that we booked the guided Alhambra tour. The Alhambra is really one of the most exciting monuments in the world and a visit is an absolute must if you are traveling in the Andalusia region in Southern Spain. Next, check out our guide about things to do and see in Granada here. Another must visit place on every Andalusia itinerary is the fascinating city of Seville.
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