Granada Spain 3 Day Itinerary (Day Trips)
Three days out of Granada, none of it spent chasing the Alhambra. This plan takes the 2 day version , keeps Córdoba and the Sierra Nevada exactly where they were, and adds a third day in the Alpujarras, the white villages stacked up the mountains south of the city. It needs a car or a tour for that third day; there is no honest way around that.
Book these before you go: a Renfe AVE seat and the Mezquita entry ticket for Córdoba, a guided Alpujarra day trip if you are not renting a car, and your Granada hotel .
| Day | Day trip | Travel time from Granada |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Córdoba (the Mezquita) | ~1h20-2h by AVE/Avant train |
| 2 | Sierra Nevada | ~45 min by car or bus |
| 3 | The Alpujarras | ~1-1.5h by car or tour |
Day 1: Córdoba and the Mezquita
Take an early AVE or Avant train; the fastest run is about 1h20, with slower media distancia services closer to 2 hours, so check renfe.com before you commit to a departure time. The Mezquita, a Renaissance cathedral built inside a former Great Mosque’s forest of horseshoe-arch columns, is worth the full morning. Standard entry runs about EUR 13, with a limited free window Monday to Saturday roughly 8:30 to 9:30am that excludes the nave and choir. Walk the Judería afterward, check current hours on the official Córdoba tourism site before you fix a return train, then eat in the Realejo, where a drink still comes with a free tapa.
Day 2: Sierra Nevada
The Sierra Nevada resort is about 45 minutes and 31km out, by car or an ALSA bus from the Estación de Autobuses. Ski season runs roughly late November through April, snow-dependent, with day passes from around EUR 47 to EUR 66 depending on the date, cheaper bought online through sierranevada.es . Outside ski season, hike from the Borreguiles plateau toward Mulhacén, the Iberian mainland’s highest peak. Check the forecast that morning rather than committing the night before, since conditions above 2,000m turn fast.
Day 3: The Alpujarras
Pampaneira, Bubión, and Capileira sit stacked up the Sierra Nevada’s southern slopes, roughly 1 to 1.5 hours by car. The flat-roofed, launa-covered houses come from Berber building tradition, and the villages are the source of jamón de Trevélez and the plato alpujarreño. Public ALSA buses run, but infrequently enough that reaching more than one village and getting back the same day by public transport is a real risk. A rental car or a guided day trip covering all three villages plus Lanjarón is the realistic plan. Save your last dinner in Granada for the Alpujarras produce you picked up on the way down, cured ham and local cheese from a village shop rather than a supermarket version.
Do the Alpujarras on your last full day, not your first. You will want the mountain views as a closing note, not a jet-lagged blur before Córdoba and the Sierra Nevada.