Ole Spain Blog - Spain Tours

To experience this top 10 list and much, much more, take one of our exclusive Spain Tours this summer.

1. Go for tapas at a hole in the wall called “Bar Arco Iris.” Antonio is the owner and has a tattoo on his arm that says, “your name here.” With each round of drinks comes a free tapa (all seafood). The first round is grilled shrimp. It’s located just inside the Elvira gate at the bottom of the Cuesta de Abarqueros. No phone.

2. Eat fondue at a place called El Aguas. The views of the Alhambra at night are breathtaking. Be sure to get a table on the patio. Cheese, meat and chocolate. Phone is 957-224-356, and reservations are a good idea. Located on Aljibe de Trillo in the Albaicin neighborhood.

3. Go see a concert in the Alhambra Palace or else the Manuel de Falla concert hall. The Music and Dance Festival of Granada happens every summer, usually between the last week of June through mid-July. http://www.granadafestival.org/index.asp. You can get tickets by going to the Corral de Carbon near the Plaza Nueva.

4. Take a night walk through the grounds of the Alhambra (around Carlos V’s Palace). Open for free Thursdays 10-12 p.m.

5. Meander the Moorish shuk on the Calderería Vieja Street, just half a minute from the Plaza Nueva. Don’t let the riffraff deter you. Dozens of tea and pastry shops for sweets, coffees, pipes, you name it. Open various hours.

6. Visit the Casa-Museo Federico García Lorca. This is the one-time summer home of Spain’s greatest poet, now turned museum. The place is run by his niece, Laura García Lorca, and has artifacts from his life. Located on Parque García Lorca, Calle Arabial. Phone: 958-258-466. About $2 to enter. Open Tuesday-Sunday from 10-1 and 5-8 p.m. Guided tours are every half hour until 30 minutes before closing.

7. Go see a flamenco show in an actual gypsy cave! Your best bet is Cuevas Los Tarantos, located in the Sacromonte. Phone is: 958-224-525. Cost is about 30 euros a person and includes the show and a drink. They’ll even pick you up in a car at your hotel if you ask.

8. This recommendation is in all of the guidebooks, because it is a MUST! Walk through the Albaicin (old Moorish Quarter) up to the Plaza de San Nicolas and take in the view of the Alhambra Palace and the snow-capped Sierra Nevadas in the distance. Go during the day and return at night. If you’re nervous about getting lost, take a taxi for a few euros. Take your camera!

9. Eat an ice cream in the Plaza Bibarrambla, located just a few steps from the cathedral. This Plaza is full of flower stands and busy Spaniards. Go during festiva time and the Plaza is lit up with glowing pomegranates.

10. Read Washington Irving’s Tales of the Alhambra before you go. Irving put Granada on the map in 1832 after he spent months living in the palace among thieves and destitutes. Full of anecdotes and stories about princesses and sultans, the book captures the essence of this famed city.

Want to experience this top 10 list and much much more? Take one of our exclusive Spain Tours this summer.

For centuries, Granada, Spain has been a mecca for poets, playwrights, philosophers, artists and hopeless romantics. Such is its beauty that the entire city has been declared a national landmark by the Spanish government. There is a dreamlike, mystical quality to Granada, a medieval elegance that seeps into you and slowly seduces.

You’ll see these words written on ceramic tiles all over Granada: “Dale Limosna, mujer, que no hay en la vida nada como la pena de ser ciego en Granada.” Written by the Spanish poet Francisco de Icaza, the words describe an old gentleman and his wife who are walking down a street in the Zacatín marketplace. They stroll pleasantly along, taking in the sights and sounds of Granada in the early evening, and they come upon a blind beggar. The gentleman, clearly moved, turns to his wife and says, “Give him alms, my wife, for there is no pain in life greater than that of being a blind man in Granada.”

Everywhere you look, you’ll see the reflections of Granada’s glorious past where, for 800 years, Moorish sultans presided over a tiny but rich and powerful mountain kingdom. So powerful, in fact, that Granada became the last bastion of Islamic rule before its cataclysmic fall at the hands of King Ferdinand, Queen Isabel and the Catholic Reconquest in 1492. Still, the majestic Alhambra palace, perched high above the city on the Sabika hill, serves as a testament to the lyrical elegance and enduring influence of Moorish culture in Spain to this day.

The Alhambra is the largest, best preserved, and most beautiful medieval fortress on the European continent: an artistic and architectural wonder which stemmed directly from the greatest Moorish sultans, architects, artists and visionaries. The first wave of Moors who swept into Spain in 711 AD. had been nomadic tribes of the desert, and they looked upon Granada as their oasis. As the Alhambra was being built, water became the dominant theme, and everywhere you look there are still fountains, pools, and man-made water channels that follow you wherever you go. There’s a story for every tower and room in the palace, most of which will be offered by a bartender once you’ve stuck around for a while.

Beneath the Alhambra, in the city itself, there are the “secondary” monuments, the Cathedral and Royal Chapel (where the Catholic Kings Ferdinand and Isabel are buried), the Alcaicería (the old market place), and the Plaza Bib-Rambla. The soul of this city, however, is the Albaicín (the old Moorish quarter). Replete with private courtyards, hidden lookouts, immaculate gardens and tapas bars well off the beaten path, the Albaicín fills a day without ever moving a finger. Spend a week in the Albaicín and you’re bitten. You’ll move through the cobble-stoned walkways among the ghosts of Christians and Moors, magicians, princesses, soldiers and saints.

And you may get the sense that a part of you, too, will be left behind.

Written by Joshua Wolf, owner and guide of Olé Spain Cultural Walking Tours. Tour with Olé Spain this summer and uncover unique secrets and special events hidden from typical tourists. Take a Spain Tour you’ll never forget.