Granada's Genil and Ronda districts on foot

The farmhouse where Federico García Lorca wrote, and where he was arrested in 1936, still stands in a surviving fragment of orchard inside a public park off Calle Arabial. The park is free and open in daylight hours; the house costs €3, and you go through it with a guide.

The park and the Lorca house

Parque Federico García Lorca (Calle Arabial) covers 71,000 square metres of flat gravel avenues lined with tall washingtonia palms and clipped hedges. Long rectangular channels hold still water along them, and the snow-topped Sierra Nevada closes the skyline. The land was carved out of Lorca's family orchard. You need no ticket and no booking, and coaches drop on Arabial.

Walk the main avenue to the far end, where a low whitewashed farmhouse shuts the view. That is Huerta de San Vicente, the Casa-Museo Federico García Lorca: two squat storeys, green shutters, a veranda on the first floor. Inside are the poet's upright piano, his small writing desk and the original family furniture.

You cannot wander in on your own. Visits are guided and leave every 45 minutes, and each slot holds a limited number, so ring 958 849 112 ahead if you are more than a handful of people. Admission is €3, or €1 reduced, and free on Tuesdays that are not holidays. The house opens 10:00 to 17:00 in winter and 09:00 to 15:00 in summer, and it closes on Mondays.

Take the first slot of the day and the rest of the morning is still yours for the avenues and the channels.

Science Park and Memoria de Andalucía

Parque de las Ciencias spreads glass-and-steel pavilions across 70,000 square metres under a tall white observation tower. A Foucault pendulum swings in a full-height hall. The domed BioDomo holds a rainforest with free-flying birds, and a tropical butterfly house and an outdoor astronomy garden sit alongside it. It is Andalusia's biggest interactive museum, and on a 40°C afternoon or a wet morning it is the sensible place to be.

The museum is €10, or €11 with the BioDomo, and €8 reduced and for parties of 15 or more. The planetarium adds €2.50, and its slots need booking in advance. It opens Tuesday to Saturday 10:00 to 19:00 and Sunday 10:00 to 15:00, and closes on Mondays. A school or education party books through its own desk.

Five minutes' walk away stands Museo CajaGranada Memoria de Andalucía, Alberto Campo Baeza's near-blank pale concrete block, almost 60 m tall, wrapped around a great circular open courtyard. The galleries run in rings around that void, carrying huge curved projection walls that tell the history of Andalusia. The building is worth the visit as much as the exhibits are.

Entry is €4, or €3 reduced, and a lift reaches every floor. It opens mornings only, closes on Mondays and closes through August, so check the calendar before you walk over from the Science Park. If you want both in one go, the Memoria has to come first.

Paseo del Salón and the Genil

Kiosko Las Titas (Paseo del Salón at Paseo de la Bomba) is a modernist green-and-cream kiosk pavilion with 250 covers on the terrace, under plane trees, looking at the Fuente de los Cuatro Leones and the river. The awnings adjust for sun or shade. Kiosks on this spot once sold roast potatoes.

It opens every day from 09:00, which makes it the coffee stop at the start of the riverside walk. Reservations are taken, and prices sit at €€.

Puente Verde (Paseo de la Bomba) is a low single-span masonry bridge with green-painted iron railings, reflected in the shallow Genil between crowded poplars, with the Sierra Nevada foothills rising straight behind it. The French built it during the occupation of 1810 to 1812, to the design of the engineer Rafael Bausá, and it is listed as a monument. It is free and open at all hours.

The Genil riverside walk and cycle route starts at the bridge and runs upstream to Pinos Genil, wide enough to walk or ride side by side.

Restaurante Chikito (Plaza del Campillo) stands at the head of Paseo del Salón, on the site of the Café Alameda where Lorca's Rinconcillo circle met in the 1920s. The dining rooms are dark wood hung with old photographs and Lorca memorabilia, with long tables under white cloths, and the pavement terrace sits shaded among the trees on the square. Prices are €€€, and you should book ahead. It closes one day a week, and it is worth knowing which day before you build a Lorca lunch around it.

Nuestra Señora de Gracia

Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Gracia sits on the seam where Ronda meets the centre, and it is the one piece of serious old architecture in these two districts. The first stone went down in 1620. In 1636 it was made a Royal Patronage, with the Chancery's burial chapel inside, and it now houses Granada's minor seminary.

The front is a tall, sober 17th-century Trinitarian composition in brick and grey stone, with a single saint's niche and a bell gable, facing a small square with an old stone cross. Entry is free during Mass times, and since this is a working parish and seminary, voices stay down.

Tasting menus above the Genil

Arriaga sits 55 m up, on the top floor of the Memoria de Andalucía block, reached by lift, behind a continuous floor-to-ceiling glass wall over Granada's rooftops, the Vega and the Sierra Nevada. No dining room in the city has a better view. Álvaro Arriaga's kitchen is in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide.

Six courses cost €80 and nine cost €100. Tasting menus are the only service, and private-room and dietary arrangements are made in advance. Lunch and dinner run Tuesday to Saturday, and Sunday is lunch only. See the galleries in the morning, then ride the same lift up to lunch.

María de la O (Carretera de la Sierra) fills a 19th-century Granada mansion with high ceilings, an open kitchen in view from high counter seats and a planted terrace out in the garden. The house was a vinegar works, and the sauces lean acidic. The MICHELIN-listed menu works through Granada stews, pickles and prawns.

The tasting menu is €105, and à la carte is served too. A private room takes celebrations, and the kitchen will shorten the menu by two courses if you ask when you book.

Tapas on Camino de Ronda and Calle Arabial

La Gramola (Camino de Ronda 99, on the Arabial roundabout) is a small bright neighbourhood bar where hot tapas come over a crowded zinc counter and the regulars drink out on the pavement. Each drink brings a free tapa, the Granada custom kept properly, and a session runs €10 to €20 a head. Four or five people fit inside; a larger party will not get in, and there is no door policy to argue with, only the size of the room.

Los Diamantes (Calle Arabial 45, by the Neptuno centre) has been frying fish since 1942. Paper-lined trays of boquerones, prawns and squid come over a long counter, with standing drinkers two deep. Prices are €€. One operator runs several addresses in the city, and this is the one in these districts, a short walk from Parque Federico García Lorca. It takes reservations on 958 842 824.

Concerts at the Palacio de Congresos

Palacio de Congresos de Granada (Paseo del Violón) is a long low modernist block in warm pinkish stone facing the Genil, with a deep glazed foyer, broad forecourt steps and the Sierra Nevada filling the view behind. Its 28 halls and auditoria take the area's big-name concerts, flamenco and ballet, and it has coach access and block ticketing. Tickets run €20 to €60. Look at pcgr.org before you fix your other evenings.

Where to stay

Hotel Saray (Paseo Profesor Tierno Galván 4) stands on the Genil's south bank, 200 m from the Palacio de Congresos. Paseo de la Bomba is a five-minute walk over the river, and the Alhambra is 2 km off. The lobby runs to Andalusian pastiche, horseshoe arches and mosaic tilework, with Nasrid-style fountains in the garden and a seasonal outdoor pool.

Rooms run €70 to €120 a night. The four-star block keeps event rooms and block bookings, and it stores skis for Sierra Nevada trips.

Days and closures

Mondays shut the Lorca house, the Science Park and the Memoria de Andalucía, and the Memoria closes for the whole of August. Book the guided Lorca slot, any planetarium time and your tables at Chikito, Arriaga and María de la O before you travel.

See the Granada guide and the Granada hotel search.