Albaicín walk: from Plaza Nueva along the Carrera del Darro to the Mirador de San Nicolás, with what is open each day

One of 2 self-guided walks in Granada. See every walk.

In this guide

💡 The Short Version: Start in Plaza Nueva and finish at the Mirador de San Nicolás: 2.8 km, about 1 hour 10 minutes of walking and a day with the visits, 70 m uphill. Start at 10:00 on a Tuesday to Sunday. The Bañuelo, the Casa Horno de Oro and Dar al-Horra close at 17:00 and are free on Sundays; Casa de Zafra and the Casa de Castril are shut on Mondays; the San Nicolás tower is shut from 12:30 to 17:00. The streets, the mirador and the mosque garden are free; the Bañuelo is €2, Casa de Zafra €3 and the tower €3. The Albaicín has no metro, so the walk ends at the C31 and C32 minibus stop in the Plaza de San Nicolás, and the C31 can carry you up instead. Or book a tour: the Albaicín and Sacromonte sunset walkad is from €15 (GetYourGuide).

The route

Map of the walk numbered stops in walking order

Open the whole route in Google Maps - all the stops in walking order, set to walking directions, which is the version to put on your phone.

The route follows the Carrera del Darro to the Paseo de los Tristes, climbs through the lanes to Plaza Larga and ends on the plaza of the Mirador de San Nicolás, so the last climb is the one the minibus can take. The Andalusian monuments shut at 17:00, so they come first and the tower and the mirador come last, when the tower reopens. The Albaicín has the quarter’s viewpoints and prices in one table; this page puts them in walking order with the days they are open. Prices are the adult rate in euros from each operator, and hours are the winter ones.

The Albaicín hillside seen from the Alhambra. Photo: José Luiz, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Walk it with a guide

A guide adds the history and a route that does not backtrack, and none of these listings includes tickets for the monuments on this page. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” prices, per person.

• Granada: Albaicín and Sacromonte Guided Sunset Walking Tourad: from €15, 4.9 stars from 3,651 reviews, 2 hours, from Plaza Nueva.
• Granada: Albaicín and Sacromonte Walking Tourad: from €15.14, 4.5 stars from 825 reviews, 2 to 2.5 hours, from Plaza Isabel la Católica.
• Granada: Albaicín-Sacromonte Walk with Museum of Caves Entryad: from €30, 4.9 stars from 330 reviews, 2 hours 30 minutes, with entry to the Museo Cuevas del Sacromonte, which is €6 on its own.
• Walk in Granada runs a free, tips-based Albaicín and Sacromonte walk from the fountain in Plaza Nueva at 16:00 from October to March. Granada walking tours compares the free and paid walks.

1. Plaza Nueva

Free · always open · Plaza Nueva

The C31 and C34 minibuses start here, and the C32 stops here. Los Diamantes has a bar at No. 13, open every day from 12:00 to 23:30 without reservations. Leave by Calle Santa Ana, past the Mudéjar church of San Gil and Santa Ana, onto the Carrera del Darro. The city centre walk starts 190 m away in Plaza Isabel la Católica and ends here.

Walk to the Bañuelo: 430 m along the Carrera del Darro.

2. The Bañuelo

€2 · free on Sundays · daily 10:00 to 17:00 until 30 April · Carrera del Darro 31

The Bañuelo is the Hammam al-Yawza, called the Bañuelo since the end of the 19th century because it is smaller than the Alhambra’s royal baths. The Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife dates it to the 11th century, the Zirid period, though other researchers place it in the 12th, and calls it one of the best-preserved public Arab baths of the Peninsula. It is a monument, not a bath you can use: Arab baths in Granada covers the hammams.

• Tickets: €2 for one monument on the Patronato’s price order. The €8.48 Andalusian monuments ticket covers the Bañuelo, the Casa Horno de Oro, Dar al-Horra and the Corral del Carbón, on the date on the ticket. Sundays are free. Buy online until 23:59 the day before, by phone on +34 858 889 002 or at the machines at the Bañuelo, Dar al-Horra and the Corral del Carbón.
• Hours: from 1 May to 14 September, 9:00 to 14:30 and 17:00 to 20:30. Shut on 25 December and 1 January.

Walk to Casa de Zafra: 80 m up the steps of Calle Bañuelo.

3. Casa de Zafra

€3 · free on Sundays · Tuesday to Saturday 10:00 to 14:00 and 16:00 to 19:00, Sunday 10:00 to 14:00 · shut Mondays · Calle Portería de la Concepción 8

A Nasrid house of the 14th and 15th centuries, with its wall paintings and a view of the Alhambra, and the Albaicín visitor centre. The City of Granada’s tourism site suggests starting an Albaicín visit here, and the centre explains the quarter with panels, displays, QR codes and video screenings. After the conquest, Isabella gave the land to her secretary Hernando de Zafra, whose family also owned the Casa de Castril, the next stop.

• Tickets: €3, or €1 for students, pensioners, the unemployed and children from 6 to 16. Free on Sundays, and free with the Granada Card and the Dobla de Oro ticket.
• Hours: the hours above run from 15 October to 14 March. From 15 March to 14 October it is open Tuesday to Saturday 9:30 to 13:30 and 17:00 to 20:00, and Sunday 9:30 to 13:30. Shut on 25 December, 1 January and 6 January, and in the afternoons of 24 and 31 December.

Walk to the Casa de Castril: 110 m back to the Carrera del Darro.

4. Casa de Castril

Free for EU citizens, €1.50 for others · Tuesday to Saturday 9:00 to 21:00, Sunday 9:00 to 15:00 · shut Mondays · Carrera del Darro 41-43

The Museo Arqueológico y Etnológico de Granada is in the Casa de Castril, a Renaissance palace that the museum bought in 1917 and that belonged to the family of Hernando de Zafra. The façade carries the Zafra arms with the Comares Tower, and a corner window high up has the motto “Esperándola del Cielo”. The collections run from Prehistory to the end of the Middle Ages.

The carved Plateresque doorway of the Casa de Castril. Photo: Jebulon, Wikimedia Commons, CC0.

• Tickets: free for accredited citizens of the European Union, so carry your passport or ID card; €1.50 for visitors from other countries.
• Hours: the hours above run from 16 September to 15 June, with the last entry at 20:30. From 16 June to 15 September it is open Tuesday to Sunday 9:00 to 15:00. A Monday that falls on the eve of a holiday opens on holiday hours. Shut on 1 and 6 January, 1 May and 24, 25 and 31 December.

Walk to the Paseo de los Tristes: 260 m.

5. Paseo de los Tristes

Free · always open · Paseo del Padre Manjón

The road follows the Darro under the walls of the Alhambra. Of the Darro’s old bridges, five survive, along the Carrera del Darro and here on the Paseo de los Tristes, according to the Agencia Albaicín, the City’s body for the quarter’s heritage. The climb into the Albaicín starts at the far end.

Walk to the Casa Horno de Oro: 250 m along the Paseo and up Calle Horno del Oro.

6. Casa Horno de Oro

€2 · free on Sundays · daily 10:00 to 17:00 until 30 April · Calle Horno del Oro

A small Nasrid house of one floor, to which a second was added in the 16th century, on the alley that runs down from San Juan de los Reyes to the Paseo de los Tristes. Rooms and windows face a rectangular patio with a small pool and two porticoes on Nasrid columns. The old arched door is no longer used: you enter by a newer one lower down. It is part of the Andalusian monuments ticket (see stop 2).

The upper gallery of the Casa Horno de Oro’s patio. Photo: José Luis Filpo Cabana, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Walk to Plaza Larga: 650 m, the steepest stretch of the walk, up Calle Valenzuela, the Cuesta de San Agustín, the Carril de San Agustín and Calle Panaderos. It rises about 50 m on cobbles.

7. Plaza Larga

Free · always open · Plaza Larga

Plaza Larga became the centre of the Albaicín at the end of the 16th century, when the quarter was repopulated after the war of the Moriscos and the square was given its own butchers’ and public buildings. Beside it stands the Puerta de las Pesas, a gate of the wall round the old Alcazaba, built in the 12th century. It is thought to be one of the first bent-entrance gates in Hispano-Muslim architecture, and it takes its popular name from the faulty weights that were deposited there.

Plaza Larga, with its pebble-mosaic paving and café tables. Photo: Øyvind Holmstad, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Walk to Dar al-Horra: 380 m through the Puerta de las Pesas and along Calle Aljibe de la Gitana, past the Aljibe del Rey, the city’s largest Moorish cistern, which holds 300 cubic metres.

8. Palacio de Dar al-Horra

€2 · free on Sundays · daily 10:00 to 17:00 until 30 April · Callejón de las Monjas

“Home of the Honest” was the residence of Aixa la-Horra, the wife of Muley Hacén and mother of Boabdil, the last emir of Granada. Since 1507 nuns of the order of St Clare have lived in it, so it is still a cloistered convent, and its Islamic plan and part of its Nasrid plaster decoration survive. A rectangular patio with a small pool is flanked by porticoes, and the upper floor looks over the quarter.

• Tickets: €2, or the Andalusian monuments ticket (see stop 2). Free on Sundays.
• Last chance: it closes at 17:00 with the Bañuelo, which is when the tower opens, so reach it by 16:30.

Walk to the mosque garden: 530 m by Calle Pilar Seco, the Camino Nuevo de San Nicolás and Calle San Nicolás, past the C31 and C32 stop on the Camino Nuevo.

9. The Mezquita Mayor garden

Free · garden daily 11:00 to 14:00 and from the afternoon prayer to the evening prayer · Plaza de San Nicolás

The Mezquita Mayor de Granada opened in the summer of 2003 and was the first mosque built in Granada in 500 years. It is not the Alhambra’s mosque. Its garden is open all year to everyone and looks across the Darro valley to the Alhambra with the Sierra Nevada behind, with a quieter terrace than the mirador next door. It is a mosque in use: the prayer hall is for prayer only, and groups can visit it by arranging a time with the mosque by email.

The fountain court of the Mezquita Mayor. Photo: Alberto-g-rovi, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.

• Hours: the afternoon opening runs from the ‘Asr prayer to the Maghrib prayer, which move with the sun, so the mosque posts the day’s times on its site.
• Avoid: Fridays around the 14:30 prayer, and the minutes of each of the five daily prayers. Keep silent near the prayer hall while people pray.

Walk to the Mirador: 60 m across the square.

10. The Mirador de San Nicolás

Free · always open · church interior free · tower €3 · Plaza de San Nicolás

The square faces the Alhambra with the Sierra Nevada beyond it. The church of San Nicolás beside it is Gothic-Mudéjar, with its main works finished in 1525 and its tower in 1543. The Archdiocese calls the tower, about 40 m high, the highest viewpoint in the Albaicín. It has no lift. The church interior is free to enter outside services, and the €3 ticket for the tower includes an audio guide.

• Tickets: €3 for the tower, from the Archdiocese’s shop at ticketsgranadacristiana.com. It is in the €33 six-monument ticket: see the Cathedral and Royal Chapel.
• Rules: no tourists inside during services, no eating or drinking, photos without flash, silence and decorous dress.
• The end: the C31 and C32 minibuses stop in the Plaza de San Nicolás, and the C31 goes down to Plaza Nueva.

Where to eat

Los Diamantes

Plaza Nueva 13 · every day 12:00 to 23:30 · no reservations

At the start. A fried-fish bar that takes no reservations, so expect to stand and queue. Best tapas in Granada has what to order.

Bodegas Castañeda

Calle Almireceros 1-3, at the corner of Calle Elvira

A tavern 90 m from Plaza Nueva, named by 32 of the 52 publishers counted for where to eat in Granada. Free tapas in Granada explains how the free tapa with a drink works.

The best day to go

The timing that works, Tuesday to Saturday in winter: Plaza Nueva at 10:00, the Bañuelo when it opens, Casa de Zafra by 10:40, the Casa de Castril at 11:30 and the Casa Horno de Oro by 12:30. Lunch in the Albaicín, Plaza Larga by 15:00, Dar al-Horra by 16:00, the mosque garden in the afternoon and the tower when it opens at 17:00. Sunday works the same way and costs less, but Casa de Zafra stops at 14:00.

To do it downhill, take the C31 from Plaza Nueva to the Plaza de San Nicolás for 11:00, climb the tower before it shuts at 12:30, visit the mosque garden, then follow stops 9 to 1 in reverse: Dar al-Horra, Plaza Larga, the Casa Horno de Oro, the Paseo de los Tristes, the Casa de Castril, Casa de Zafra and the Bañuelo before 17:00.

What closes:

• Mondays: Casa de Zafra and the Casa de Castril.
• Every day: the church and tower from 12:30 to 17:00, the mosque garden from 14:00 until the afternoon prayer, and the Bañuelo, the Casa Horno de Oro and Dar al-Horra after 17:00.
• 25 December and 1 January: the Andalusian monuments. 25 December, 1 January and 6 January: Casa de Zafra and the Casa de Castril.

What does not close: the streets, Plaza Nueva, the Paseo de los Tristes, Plaza Larga and the Mirador de San Nicolás.

Getting there and back

• To the start: Plaza Nueva has city-bus stops, and the C31 and C34 minibuses start there. Granada public transport has the fares, and Granada airport to the city has the way in from the airports.
• From the end: the C31 runs from the Plaza de San Nicolás by the Callejón de las Tomasas, the Placeta del Abad, the Cuesta del Chapiz and the Paseo del Padre Manjón to the stop at the Bañuelo and on to Plaza Nueva. Its timetable runs from about 07:00 to 23:00 Monday to Thursday and to 01:00 from Friday to Sunday, with a bus every 8 to 10 minutes in the day. The C32, every 11 minutes or so until 23:00, takes the same loop and goes on to the Alhambra. Both take a city-bus ticket.
• Surfaces: the lanes are cobbled and steep, and the operator of the free Albaicín walks says neither pushchairs nor wheelchairs can do its route.
• On to the Alhambra: how to get to the Alhambra has the footpaths and the minibuses.

What to do with the rest of the day

• The centre: the Granada city centre walk starts 190 m from Plaza Nueva, in Plaza Isabel la Católica, and covers the Cathedral, the Royal Chapel, the Corral del Carbón and the Realejo.
• Sacromonte: Sacromonte is the next hill, with the cave museum and the abbey, and flamenco in Granada compares the cave shows.
• Inside the sights: the Albaicín and Arab baths in Granada have the prices side by side, and free things to do in Granada lists what is free on Sundays.
• The days: 3 days in Granada fits these sights onto the days they are open, and what to book before you go to Granada has the closed days for every sight.
• Guided walks: Granada walking tours sets the free walks against the paid ones.
• Where to sleep: where to stay in Granada compares the areas.

Common questions

How long is the Albaicín walk?

2.8 km from Plaza Nueva to the Mirador de San Nicolás, measured along the streets: about 1 hour 10 minutes of walking. With the Bañuelo, Casa de Zafra, the Casa de Castril and the mosque garden, allow a day from 10:00 to the end of the afternoon.

Which day is best for the Albaicín walk?

Tuesday to Sunday, starting at 10:00. Casa de Zafra and the Casa de Castril are shut on Mondays. The Bañuelo, the Casa Horno de Oro and Dar al-Horra are open daily from 10:00 to 17:00 until 30 April and free on Sundays, and the San Nicolás tower is shut from 12:30 to 17:00 every day.

Is the Albaicín walk free?

The streets, the Mirador de San Nicolás, the mosque garden and the church interior are free. The Bañuelo, the Casa Horno de Oro and Dar al-Horra are €2 each, or free on Sundays; Casa de Zafra is €3, free on Sundays; the San Nicolás tower is €3; the Casa de Castril is free for citizens of the European Union and €1.50 for everyone else.

How do I get up the Albaicín without climbing?

Take the C31 minibus from Plaza Nueva to the Plaza de San Nicolás and walk the route downhill, stops 10 to 1. The walk climbs about 70 m from Plaza Nueva to the Mirador, about 50 m of it in the 650 m between the Casa Horno de Oro and Plaza Larga.

Where does the Albaicín walk start and finish?

It starts in Plaza Nueva and finishes in the Plaza de San Nicolás, where the C31 and C32 minibuses stop. The Albaicín has no metro station, so the way back is the C31, which runs down by the Cuesta del Chapiz and the Carrera del Darro to Plaza Nueva.

Do I need to book anything?

Nothing has a timed slot. The Andalusian monuments sell tickets online until 23:59 the day before, by phone and at machines at the Bañuelo and Dar al-Horra, the San Nicolás tower is sold in the Archdiocese's shop, and the streets, the mirador and the mosque garden need no ticket.