Granada Spain in 6 Days on a Budget (Day Trips)
Six days out of Granada: all six real day trips
This plan takes the 5-day version , keeps Sierra Nevada, Cordoba, Guadix, the Alpujarras, and the coast exactly where they were, and closes the list with Antequera, the one genuinely free day trip in this family. Six days is the first version to run through everything covered in the Granada as a base guide ; a seventh day, for whoever wants a buffer rather than a seventh destination, waits in the 7-day plan .
| Day | Day trip | Travel time from Granada | Rough spend (per person) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Sierra Nevada | About 45 min | EUR 20 in hiking season; EUR 65-90 with a winter ski pass |
| Day 2 | Cordoba (the Mezquita) | 1h20-2h by AVE | About EUR 55 (train, ticket, lunch) |
| Day 3 | Guadix | About 1 h | About EUR 20 (train, lunch) |
| Day 4 | The Alpujarras | 1-1.5 h | About EUR 85 (guided tour, tastings) |
| Day 5 | Nerja or the Costa Tropical | 1-1.5 h by bus | About EUR 30 (bus, optional Nerja Caves ticket) |
| Day 6 | Antequera | About 1 h via the A-92 | About EUR 20 (tour or car share; dolmens free) |
Book these before you go:
- A guided Sierra Nevada trip on GetYourGuide : worth the fee if you would rather not manage bus timetables and lift-ticket lines yourself.
- A guided Alpujarras day tour on GetYourGuide : the realistic way to see Pampaneira, Bubion, and Capileira without a thin bus schedule.
- A rental car or a bundled Antequera-and-El Torcal tour: only 2-3 direct buses a day make the trip, so check current Granada tourism listings for whichever operator is running that month.
Day 1: Sierra Nevada
Catch an early ALSA bus from the Estacion de Autobuses (or drive), about 45 minutes and 31km out, to Europe’s southernmost ski resort. In winter (roughly mid-December through April, snow-dependent) a day pass runs from about EUR 47 at its cheapest to around EUR 66 over the Christmas holidays; buy it online through sierranevada.es rather than at the ticket window. Outside ski season the same ride buys a genuinely free day: hike from the Borreguiles plateau toward Mulhacen, mainland Spain’s highest peak, paying nothing beyond the bus fare. Check the mountain forecast that morning either way; conditions above 2,000m close roads and lifts on short notice.
Day 2: Cordoba and the Mezquita
Book an early AVE or Avant seat on renfe.com a few days ahead, not months ahead like the Alhambra back in Granada. The fastest run covers Cordoba in about 1h20, slower services closer to 2 hours. The Mezquita, a working cathedral built inside a former Great Mosque’s forest of horseshoe-arch columns, costs about EUR 13 for adults, or nothing at all Monday to Saturday roughly 8:30-9:30am (that free window skips the nave and choir, so treat it as a bonus rather than the full visit). Spend the rest of the morning in the Juderia, check current hours at turismodecordoba.org , and catch an afternoon train back.
Day 3: Guadix
Guadix is the cheapest full day on this list: about an hour away by train for roughly EUR 6, or a similarly priced bus. The cave houses here are still lived in today, not a museum piece, carved into the soft rock on the edge of town and free to walk past on your own. A short paid tour of one furnished cave-house museum runs a few euros if the free wander leaves questions unanswered. It is a genuinely different cave tradition from Sacromonte’s flamenco caves back in Granada, and cheap enough to pair with a lighter-spend day after Cordoba’s bigger outlay the day before.
Day 4: The Alpujarras
ALSA buses reach Pampaneira, but only a couple of times a day, thin enough that reaching more than one village and getting back the same day by public transport is a real risk. A guided day tour, from about EUR 70 to 90 per person, covers Pampaneira, Bubion, and Capileira in one run and usually beats a solo car rental once fuel and parking are counted for one or two travelers. Trevelez, the region’s highest village, is the place to buy jamon de Trevelez by the gram rather than a full leg, and a plato alpujarreno lunch (ham, chorizo, morcilla, egg, potatoes) runs about EUR 12-15 in any village bar.
Day 5: Nerja or Granada’s own Costa Tropical
Granada’s own coastline is the Costa Tropical (Almunecar, Salobrena, Motril), about 1 to 1.5 hours by ALSA bus and free once you are there, dark volcanic-sand beaches instead of an entry fee. Nerja itself sits further on, in Malaga province, and its main draw is the Nerja Caves, a large show-cave system costing about EUR 16 to enter. Doing both towns in one day works only with an early start or a booked tour that handles the timing; picking one over the other is the cheaper, saner plan for a single day. Salobrena’s whitewashed old town under its Moorish castle is the better pick for a genuinely free mountains-to-sea contrast day.
Day 6: Antequera
Antequera is the free day on this list. The Menga, Viera, and El Romeral dolmens, Neolithic monuments dating to roughly 3750-3650 BC, are UNESCO-listed and cost nothing to enter, and the El Torcal karst park next door is a similarly low-cost add-on. The catch is transport: only 2-3 direct buses a day make the roughly 1-hour run via the A-92, so a rental car or a bundled tour (many combine the dolmens, Antequera’s historic center, and El Torcal in one day) is the realistic way in without burning half the day on timetables. Either way, it closes this six-day plan on the cheapest full day it has to offer.
Do you need six full days to see all six day trips?
Yes, at one destination a day, though Sierra Nevada and Guadix are both short enough to combine with a slower morning in Granada if a rest half-day matters more than a strict six-for-six count. The 7-day plan adds exactly that kind of buffer day rather than inventing a seventh destination.
Is 6 days enough for Granada’s day trips?
Six days runs through all six real day trips in this family: Sierra Nevada, Cordoba, Guadix, the Alpujarras, the coast, and Antequera. Nothing genuine is left over for a seventh unless the goal is a rest day or a repeat of whichever trip was the best value. The Alhambra and the Albaicin sit outside this family, in the 6-day Granada city plan instead.
Book the Alpujarras tour and the Antequera transport first, since both are the two days genuinely constrained by thin bus timetables rather than money; everything else on this list runs on a normal train or bus schedule.