Private Tour: Alhambra and Generalife

At the top of our bucket list when we visited Spain in May was to see Alhambra (and Generalife). In reading some of the on-line comments from others who had visited those sites, it became clear that to maximize our time and the quality of the experience that a private tour was the way to go. In our entire two weeks in Spain, this was clearly the best spent money and experience we had. Our tour guide, Eduardo, was absolutely fantastic. In fact, ask for him when you book the private tour, because he was amazing. His English was flawless, his knowledge of the history, architecture, religions, cultures, plant-life was amazing. He is a professor when he isn't giving tours and it shows. He was patient, funny, and insightful. Having a private tour was ideal, because the Alhambra is massive and having someone who could answer every question and provide insights and information as we made our way around the site was almost essentiall. In fact, I can't imagine that the experience would have been remotely comparable without a private tour and without Eduardo. I would strongly encourage anyone going to the Alhambra to avoid the limitations of those pre-recorded headsets and the frustration of large tour groups, pay a few more dollars/euros, and do the private tour. And I would use Viator (their communication was outstanding) and Eduardo, because their tour and this experience was the highlight of our visit!

This is an amazing place and our tour guide was excellent!

Fantastic tour of the Alhambra and Generalife gardens. Our guide was Guillermo Lopez and he was an interesting and knowledgeable guide, making the whole place come alive for our group of two adults and an 11year old.

We had an excellent tour through Viator. It would be virtually impossible for us to have gotten the same information on our own. The tour guide was exceptionally knowledgeable, friendly, and his command of English was excellent. I will highly recommend to others.

Very informative. Our great guide Melanie explained the history of Spain and the Alhambra very well, which made the experience so much more meaningful. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and came out of our half-day tour richer and more appreciative of the Alhambra, it's history and its beauty.

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We had a lovely tour guide called Conchi who made the tour interesting and fun. The Alhambra and Generlife is a must see and we are so glad we booked a private tour because as a party of 4 we were able to hear and see what was going on and it felt more personal. It is one of the few tours I would actually do again, the Alhambra itself is breath-taking.

Antonio provided insightful historic commentary for a delightful 4 hour tour. We learned so much while being mesmerized by one spectacular scene after another. He took photos of the four of us and we enjoyed seeing the shots he took himself. We appreciated visiting the Generalife in the cool morning and we enjoyed bypassing the lines as we moved from the gardens into the Alhambra. We all appreciated learning about the ingenuity of the design of the Alhambra and the significance of all of the water features. We all highly recommend taking the private tour as it gave us a very special memory of one of the most beautiful places in the world. We booked the tour over a month in advance we had heard that tickets sold out for any of the tours and it was true.

To really appreciate the history and symbolism of this remarkable place, the extravagance of a private tour with your own guide is truly justified. Our guide, Beatriz Arenas, met us at the office just outside the Alhambra and whisked us through into the Generalife and thence to the Alhambra complex. Bea told us it had been her childhood dream to work there and now she is living that dream and, through her passion for and knowledge of Spain's Moorish past, brings history to life for her visitors. She was very patient with our non-stop questions and had an answer for everything. A delightful companion on our tour, which was over all too soon.

We enjoyed an excellent guided tour of the Alhambra with Marie-Pax. She showed us every aspect of the Palace and explained every
detail of the decoration of each building. The tour took 5 hours and we covered 6 kms during that time. Our guide was very knowledgeable and willingly provided all the answers to our questions. We had booked a private tour for 4 people and with this there was no queue or waiting, we went straight in with our guide who was waiting for us at the visitor's entrance. Otherwise the queue waiting to buy entrance tickets was very long. The gardens which are part of the Alhambra grounds are kept well tended by 600 gardeners. There are many gardens to visit, some with fountains and long lengths of water reflecting the blooms on either side.
We had a memorable visit and are so glad to have had the opportunity to experience the Alhambra for ourselves.