Granada

The Nasrid Palaces are the heart of the visit: the Mexuar, the Comares Palace around the Court of the Myrtles, and the Palace of the Lions, with carved stucco, tiled walls and honeycomb ceilings of extraordinary delicacy. Around them lie the Alcazaba fortress, whose watchtower gives the best views of the city, the Renaissance Palace of Charles V, and the Partal gardens. The palaces admit a limited number of people every half hour, and you can only enter at the time printed on your ticket; miss it and you lose the palaces. A general visit takes around three hours.

TipBuy only from the official Alhambra ticket website (tickets.alhambra-patronato.es), its phone line or the ticket office. Tickets are personal, carry the visitor's name and ID number, and staff check your passport or ID card at entry, so tickets bought through resellers or with the wrong name can be refused.

The summer palace and gardens of the sultans, on the hillside above the Alhambra, included in the general ticket. Its long Patio de la Acequia, with a water channel framed by fountains and flowerbeds, and the cypress-lined walks are at their best in spring. Gardens-only and night tickets are also sold.

From Plaza Nueva, a cobbled lane follows the Darro past stone bridges, Renaissance mansions and churches, with the walls of the Alhambra rising above. On the way is El Bañuelo, eleventh-century Arab baths with star-shaped skylights. The lane opens out at the Paseo de los Tristes, officially Paseo del Padre Manjón, named for the funeral processions that once passed this way; today its terraces are a lovely place for a drink as the Alhambra lights up.

Climb from the Darro into the old Moorish quarter, with its steep lanes, cármenes (walled houses with gardens), hidden squares and churches built over mosques. The terrace in front of the church of San Nicolás has the classic view across to the Alhambra with the Sierra Nevada behind. It's crowded at sunset; the higher Mirador de San Cristóbal and San Miguel Alto are quieter alternatives.

TipKeep a close eye on your bag at the viewpoint, and take a taxi or minibus back if the lanes feel deserted late at night.

Beyond the Albaicín, cave houses are carved into the hillside, long home to Granada's Roma community. It's the place for zambra, a local style of flamenco performed in whitewashed caves, where the audience sits close enough to feel the footwork. The Sacromonte Caves Museum explains cave life and traditional trades, and the Abbey of Sacromonte crowns the hill.

Modern baths in the style of the old Arab hammams, near Plaza Nueva, with warm, hot and cold pools in candlelit vaulted rooms and optional massages. Sessions are timed and small, so book ahead and bring swimwear.

Begun in the sixteenth century on the site of the main mosque and largely designed by Diego de Siloé, it's one of the great Renaissance churches of Spain, with a dazzling white interior, a domed main chapel and a facade by the painter and sculptor Alonso Cano.

A late Gothic chapel built between 1505 and 1517 as the burial place of the Catholic Monarchs. Their marble tombs lie beside those of their daughter Juana and her husband Philip the Handsome; the lead coffins are in the crypt below. The sacristy holds Isabella's own collection of Flemish paintings, her crown and Ferdinand's sword.

Once the Nasrid silk market, with some two hundred shops in the sixteenth century, it burned down in 1843 and was rebuilt in a romantic neo-Moorish style. Its narrow alleys now sell lanterns, ceramics, slippers and spices; browse, but compare prices.

A fourteenth-century Nasrid inn and grain exchange, the al-fundaq al-yadida, with a beautifully carved horseshoe gateway leading into a galleried courtyard. Merchants stored their wheat and slept here; today it's one of the Alhambra's Andalusian Monuments, a quiet stop between the shops.

A Hieronymite monastery founded by the Catholic Monarchs, with two cloisters and a church largely by Diego de Siloé. Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, the "Great Captain" who fought in the conquest of Granada, is buried beneath the crossing, under a richly painted and gilded interior.

North of the centre, this Carthusian monastery looks plain from outside, but its sacristy, finished in 1764, is one of the most extravagant works of the late Spanish Baroque, a riot of white stucco, marble and mirror-like inlaid wood. It's a short bus or taxi ride from the centre.

The mountains behind the Alhambra rise to Mulhacén, at nearly 3,500 metres the highest peak on the Spanish mainland, and are protected as a national park. The ski station at Pradollano is less than an hour by road, with a season usually running from December into spring; in summer the same slopes are good for walking, with cooler air than the city below.

TipWeather changes quickly at altitude; carry layers and sun protection even in summer.