Granada is a city everyone should visit at least once. The city offers an abundance of history and culture and its character is unique in the world. Nerja may be the favorite of investors and vacationers, but Granada is the great jewel of historians.

Granada, which is the capital of the province of the same name, located in the region of Andalusia, has around 240,000 inhabitants, of which nearly 60,000 study at the prestigious university. The young population together with the old heritage creates a vibrant city full of dynamics and contrasts.

In this travel guide, we go through attractions, tapas, tips on what you should think about in general, where to avoid booking hotels, flights and rental cars, the weather and an overview of the housing market, as well as a few other things that might be good to know.

Entertainment and tapas in Granada

Granada's entertainment is a nice combination of the relaxed and the hectic. It's a good idea to start a night out with a trip around the bar streets for tapas and then continue with a pub crawl. Many round off the evening after that, while others end with a visit to one of the city's many nightclubs. The range of entertainment venues is, thanks in large part to the large number of students, very large.

Granada is widely known for its tapas . In the city, it is still customary to receive a small plate of food for every glass of wine or beer you order. This could be, for example, a bowl of salted almonds, olives, Serrano ham, garlic prawns or a small portion of Paella. Often you get them even without ordering anything to drink, but Granada is one of the few places in Spain where you always get free tapas with the drink.

Lunch in the city is served between 13:00 and 16:00. Dinner from 20:00 until after midnight. The tastiest and cheapest will be to go on a tapas tour. We mainly recommend that you have Calle Navas, at Plaza del Carmen, as your starting point. If you are brave and in an adventurous mood, try the local specialty Tortilla Sacromonte, which is a spicy omelet with pig's brain and other organs. More appealing specialties include Berenjenas fritas (fried eggplant), and habas con jamón (green fava beans with pickled ham).

Here you can find all kinds of cheeses, sausages, meat dishes and food from the sea. Other culinary delights to discover are the city's teterías , that is, tea bars, which are somewhat unique to Granada. Don't miss out on the many delicious Moroccan-style treats!

Tip: 

Festivals and concerts are organized all year round. The best is the international dance and music festival organized from the end of June to the beginning of July. Concerts with classical music, flamenco, ballet, and opera are organized every night in various historical monuments (such as the Alhambra).

The best way to experience the city is on foot. We recommend "Cicerone" who organizes walks of about 2 hours. Found in Plaza de Bib-Rambla. The tourist office is otherwise found at Calle Virgen Blanca, 9, 18071.

Watch out for the women hanging around the cathedral and Alcaicería. They bring a twig, which is free, but then they grab your hand and want to tip you. They then want at least 5 euros for this. In general, be aware of pickpockets around the large monuments.

Attractions Granada

The Alhambra Palace, the gardens of Fuente Nueva, Carmen de los Mártires and Zaidin, the old city (Albaicín) and the cathedral are just some of the sights that Granada can boast.

The Alhambra is the main attraction. The palace, located on a hill above the city, was built in the 14th century and is perhaps the most well-preserved building from this period in the world. In fact, a couple of years ago, the Alhambra came close to entering the list of new wonders of the world. The palace is also Spain's most visited monument.

After the Alhambra, Albaicín , the old Moorish city, is the main attraction. You can't miss the cathedral either. Ferdinand and Isabella, the ones who united Spain, are buried here.

The shopping in Granada is excellent and you can choose between strolling around the quiet pedestrian streets or visiting one of the larger shopping centres. Puerta Real is the area for the best shopping in Granada.

The city has Spain's best selection of goods from Morocco and other parts of Africa, among other things. Here you will find good prices on goods such as tea sets, leather, clothes and carpets. Sale periods fall in January, July and August. Look for the sale signs "Rebajas".

History of Granada

The area of ​​today's Granada has been inhabited since around 600 BC. Until the arrival of the Moors in AD 711. the Phoenicians, the Iberians, the Romans and the Visigoths, in turn, were the ones who ruled the area. Under the rule of the Moors, Granada grew into a flourishing city like no other, and the city was the center of Moorish power in Spain. The city was the Moorish city that resisted the Reconquista (the Christian reconquest of Spain) the longest. This had to do with its strong fortifications and natural protection from the mountains. By 1492, however, the time of the Moors was over and Ferdinand II of Castile incorporated the city into the central power.

Communications and flights to Granada

• Granada has its own airport, Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén. It is quite small and the only international connection is to London. Most visitors to the area have landed in Malaga. Read about how you can get cheap flights to, for example, Malaga.
• Communications in and around Granada are excellent with motorways in all directions. Granada is also well connected by train to other cities. From 2022, the high-speed train between Malaga and Granada takes just one hour and 10 minutes. About 2 departures per day. Granada also has a newly built subway system, which is unique for a city of Granada's relatively small size.
• It is easy and convenient to get from, for example, Nerja or Malaga on the Costa del Sol to Granada. The journey from Nerja to Granada by car takes about an hour via the A-7 and A-44. There are also buses if you prefer that. Tips on cheap rental cars in Spain (as well as traffic rules etc.)

Hotels in Granada

You will have time to see the most important sights in one day, if you plan really well. However, at least 2 days and 2 nights are recommended to really take in everything the city has to offer.

Hotel prices are at their most expensive (hotel prices go up by 10-20%) in April, May, September and October. But aside from Easter week, the prices are still good. During July-August, when the city is so hot that the sun makes you sweat, hotel prices drop.

Tip: Avoid hotels around Alambra and Albayzín as these cost unnecessarily much per night. It is admittedly difficult (read impossible) to drive in the historic parts of the city. Getting there and looking for hotels at random is not something we recommend. Book a hotel that has a parking garage (or ask the hotel to recommend the nearest parking garage) in advance. To book hotels, we always recommend hotels.com because of their wide range and low prices . They also have villas and apartments for Long Stay.

The weather in Granada

Granada has a dry and warm climate with an average annual temperature of around 15 degrees. During the summer months, the city is bathed in sun and it usually gets really hot in both July and August. The best time to visit is April-May and September-October when the weather is most pleasant.

The housing market in Granada and the surrounding area

The charm of the city and the area attracts many visitors every year, but it is still not that common for foreigners to invest in a residence in this part of Spain. However, there are a lot (not least bank properties) of cheap apartments and houses in central Granada as well as in the nearby mountain villages of the Sierra Nevada. Often the prices of housing here are significantly cheaper than on, for example, the Costa del Sol.

If you are primarily looking for a rental investment, Granada is not recommended. On the other hand, it is a very good province to look in if you are looking for cheap renovation properties (fincas) in slightly secluded, rural environments.

Write to info@spanskafastigheter.se and tell us if you are looking for a house or apartment, and where.