Sierra Nevada

Sierra Nevada: 110 km of slopes, 21 lifts, a freestyle and snow park, a ski mountaineering circuit, a cross-country circuit… Everything you need for an unbeatable day’s skiing. Let’s take it one step at a time.

How to get there

The way up to Sierra Nevada is the A-395 road, which goes right up to the resort itself, about 33 km from Granada.

By car

If you drive up, there are several car parks with different features and prices:

KM31 Parking – Located 1,100 metres from Pradollano square, so you’ll have to walk for about 15 minutes. It has 100 spaces and costs €5/day.

Parking Los Peñones – 3 km from the square, next to the Inturjoven youth hostel. It costs €5/day and holds 750 vehicles. Open-air. It has direct access to the slopes via the Virgen de las Nieves chairlift, but if you don’t have a ski pass you’ll first have to go down to Pradollano, and there’s a bus for that (€1.90 per person).

Parking Plaza de Andalucía – The only covered car park, but the most expensive of them all. It has more than 2,600 spaces and costs €21/day. From inside the car park a lift takes you up to Plaza de Andalucía, 100 metres from Pradollano.

Las Sabinas Parking – Open-air car park next to the High Performance Centre (CAR). It has 513 spaces and costs €5/day.

By bus

If you go up by bus, the company Tocina runs the service between Granada and Sierra Nevada. The journey takes about 45 minutes and costs €5 one way or €9 return (as long as both journeys are on the same day). Buses leave from Granada bus station (bay 3) and arrive at the Pradollano bus park (and the other way round if you want to come back to Granada). You can buy tickets at the ticket office or online.

Outside the ski season, the bus goes up to Sierra Nevada at 09:00 and comes down at 17:00. During the ski season, buses go up at 08:00, 10:00 and 17:00 (also at 15:00 on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays) and come down at 09:00, 16:00 and 18:30 (also at 13:00 on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays). You can check these times and buy tickets in advance here.

Equipment

If you have your own gear, no problem, but what if you don’t? There are a few places in Sierra Nevada where you can hire equipment, but as you can imagine it’s on the pricey side. In Granada and in the villages along the way you can also hire it more cheaply. On the map below you can see some of the hire shops.

To give you an idea, in Sierra Nevada hire costs from around €20 for the basic range up to €46 for the top range (adult skis, poles and boots).

In Granada, prices start from €12 for the same equipment, €10 for sledges and so on. You usually need to book your hire at least 48 hours in advance.

Ski passes

You can buy them directly on the Sierra Nevada website or at the ticket offices, and prices start from €51 a day per adult in high season or €37.80 in spring.

There are discounts by age, for consecutive days and so on. We also recommend taking out the extra insurance, for just €2.50 a day, so you can enjoy yourselves with peace of mind.

On top of these standard prices, there are offers that make the ski pass cheaper, such as skier’s day (Wednesdays), deals for university students, an agreement with the Guardia Civil, and more.

You can find out about all of this here.

Beyond skiing

As well as ski slopes, Sierra Nevada has places to eat, shops and more…

There’s a wide choice of restaurants, both on the slopes and in the square. Here’s this link and this one so you can have a look, since going through them all would take us quite a while.

Besides restaurants there are cafés, shops, a supermarket, a church, a spa, a nursery, taxis, a local bus and more…