Granada Spain 4 Day Itinerary (Day Trips)
Four days out of Granada, four different landscapes. This plan keeps the 3 day route intact, Córdoba, the Sierra Nevada, the Alpujarras, and adds a cheap, easy fourth day at Guadix, the cave-house town an hour east by train. Total transit cost across the four days is under EUR 100 per person if you book the AVE early.
Book these before you go: a Renfe AVE seat and the Mezquita entry ticket for Córdoba, a guided Alpujarra day trip if you skip the rental 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 |
| 4 | Guadix | ~1h by train or bus |
Day 1: Córdoba and the Mezquita
Take an early train; the fastest AVE run is about 1h20, slower media distancia services closer to 2 hours, so check renfe.com before booking. The Mezquita’s forest of horseshoe-arch columns, with a Renaissance cathedral built directly inside it, earns the full morning. Standard entry is 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, 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 resort sits about 45 minutes and 31km from central Granada, by car or an ALSA bus from the Estación de Autobuses. Ski season runs roughly late November through April, day passes from around EUR 47 to EUR 66 depending on the date, cheaper booked online through sierranevada.es . Outside ski season, hike from the Borreguiles plateau toward Mulhacén, the Iberian mainland’s highest peak, and check the forecast that morning since conditions above 2,000m shift 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. ALSA buses run but too infrequently to cover more than one village and get back the same day, so a rental car or a guided day trip is the realistic plan.
Day 4: Guadix
Guadix is about an hour from Granada by train, roughly EUR 6, or bus. The draw is the barrio de las cuevas, a neighborhood of troglodyte cave houses that are still lived in today, not a preserved ruin. This is a residential tradition, distinct from Sacromonte’s cave-flamenco venues back in the city, and it deserves a cheap, easy half-day rather than a rushed hour off a train platform. Spend the rest of the day back in Granada on whatever the city itself did not fit, and use it as your last look at the Albaicín before departure.
Put Guadix last. It is the shortest and cheapest of the four trips, and it leaves you a genuine half-day back in Granada rather than ending the trip on a train platform.