Actually it's neither necessary nor compulsory to get advance tickets to the Alhambra y Generalife. However, there are a couple of risks in not having one. First, the queue may be long and you may have to stand in line for half-an-hour to an hour. Secondly, they do limit the number of tickets sold per day, and once that limit is reached, you're out of luck.

Having said that, I was in Granada around Jan 3, 2002 and did not have advance tickets. I arrived at the Alhambra at about 10am and had to wait about 30 minutes to buy my tickets. At that time, part of the slowdown was that the Euro had just been introduced and there was some confusion because both pesetas and euros were being used, but whatever you used, you got change only in Euros.

Also, as far as I remember, there was only 1 place inside the premises that had some sort of "controlled entry" and that was the Nazari palace and this was necessitated by the tight spaces in some of the rooms. Anyway, the ticket to this palace had a time on it and you could only enter the palace at that time.

Babs, did you go? How was it? Did you get the tickets online in advance? With those tickets, did you still have to wait in long lines? Any first-hand information/feedback is much appreciated. Thanks!

Saludos, MadridMan

We had a wonderful time in Spain. I have been waiting for some free time to post a meaningful reply. It is necessary to make reservations in advance for entrance to Alhambra and Palace. It is essential to be on time to tour the Palace and don't leave the building unless you are prepared to stay out because they won't let you back in. One of our kids wondered out not realizing he was actually exiting and he couldn't get back in to rejoin us.

The food issue was tricky for us because we keep kosher and some of us don't eat fish -- better knowledge of Spainish would have been nice since we were in a number of places where people didn't speak English. French and Latin helped us and you can certainly manage and have a great time without Spainish.

The museums for the most part only have information signs in Spainish so it is particularly valuable to get the audio tour earphones. We also got a guide (extremely reasonable) to tour the Mezquita in Cordova (which was fascinating). We formed a group with some other people making a total of eight in the group and we split the cost of 30 Eur.
We stayed at the Hotel Maestra in Cordova which was a real bargain as well as being quite beautiful. We wished that we had allotted more time in Cordova.

Granada was also a great place to be. We were able to get rooms in a very comfortable Hostal Princessa upon arrival in the city in the early afternoon and stayed a couple of nights before returning to Madrid by way of Toledo.

In Madrid we stayed at the Hostal Cervantes which was a comfortable place to be in a great location. The couple that manages the place are very accommodating. Highly recommend the place -

It was unfortunate that we didn't have more time. There were so many more places we would have liked to see...but we really wanted to relax. The driving was great. The Spainiards are fast drivers but the roads are very good and it was quite easy to find our way around. Parking wasn't a major problem for us though during the summer it is probably much more of an issue.

Thanks for all the information.

Just realized I didn't totally answer. We called for tickets when we got to Granada but were unable to get until the next day in the afternoon. I had a friend who went in the summer and was unable to get a group she was leading in two weeks in advance.

We ordered our tickets a few weeks in advance by internet. It was very easy. Remember to take your reservation number with you because without it, you cannot get your tickets. We took the bus to the Alhambra. When you get off the bus, go DOWN the hill to the ticket window. Those with reservations are ushered to the front of the LONG line. The clerk gives you your ticket with your specific palace entrance time. We allowed ourselves an hour to tour the grounds before we entered the palace. DON'T BE LATE!!! The Alhambra is an incredible place and the Generalife gardens are wonderful as well. The Parador on the grounds has a wonderful, high-quality restaurant where we ate and rested before continuing our exploration. We were there 8 hours, including our peaceful dinner. I would love to go again!!!