Where to park in Granada

Parking in Granada is not hard for want of spaces: it is hard because three different regimes overlap on top of the centre and each one looks at something different about your car. We are writing this from our doorway on Plaza de Cuchilleros, with the pages of the Centro de Gestión Integral de Movilidad and the municipal ordinance open in front of us. Anything we could not verify in an official source is not here.

How do I know whether my car can enter Granada city centre?

Your car has to get through two filters that have nothing to do with each other: one looks at the emissions sticker and the other looks at the number plate. You can pass the first and fail the second.

The sticker one is the Low Emission Zone (ZBE), enforceable with fines since 1 October 2025 and active 24 hours a day, every day of the year. It worries people more than it should: the only vehicles banned from entering are those meeting two conditions at the same time, having no tax address in Granada and having no emissions sticker. With a B, C, ECO or Zero sticker you drive in, wherever the owner lives. As a general rule, the ones without a sticker are petrol cars from before 2001 and diesels from before 2006.

The number plate one is the Restricted Access Zone (ZAR), with its bollards and its cameras. Here it does not matter what car you bring, but whether your plate is in the council database on the day you drive through. The council puts it like this: “a tourist is treated as a resident at the same place where their hotel is located, so their number plate will be authorised to pass through the corresponding access controls”. With one condition: that the accommodation appears on the council list of establishments with an agreement and has sent your details.

The four regimes that filter a car in central Granada, with the hours each one is active.

Regime	What it looks at	When it is active	Who can pass
Low Emission Zone	The DGT emissions sticker	24 hours, every day of the year	Everyone, except those who at the same time have no sticker and no tax address in Granada
ZAR with bollard (Elvira 27 and Reyes Católicos 42, towards Plaza Nueva; the other two, Pagés and San Luis, have their own hours)	The number plate, at a physical barrier	24 h on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays and their eves; from 0:00 to 2:00 and from 7:30 to 24:00 on the other days	Only plates authorised in advance: the bollard stays up if yours is not
ZAR with camera (San Matías; Recogidas, going up towards Puerta Real)	The number plate, with no barrier	Every day from 7:30 to 22:00	Only authorised plates. You get through either way: the fine arrives later
Bus lane (Gran Vía, Reyes Católicos, Avenida de la Constitución, Acera del Darro and others)	The number plate, by camera	Every day from 7:30 to 22:00	Neither residents nor tourists staying in the city, according to the council website
Carrera del Darro (pedestrian priority)	The number plate, by camera	Every day, 24 hours	Authorised vehicles only: garages on the block, taxis with their own hours, city buses and emergency services

Where can you not drive in Granada?

In 136 hectares of the old town. The council puts the area under access control at 1,357,708.86 square metres: 43.7 hectares of the Realejo, 78.3 of the Albayzín and the Sacromonte and 9 of the Centro district, the last of these corresponding to the calle Tablas and calle Recogidas control points.

Inside that perimeter it is worth separating two things that get confused all the time. The bollard is a physical barrier: if your plate is not authorised it does not go down, and you are left sitting in a narrow street. The camera stops nothing: you drive through, and the fine turns up weeks later. The two bollards that affect us — calle Elvira, where our official entry itinerary runs, and the access to Plaza Nueva from Reyes Católicos, some 54 metres from the front door in a straight line — are physical barriers, and that is why the plate is sent before you travel. The San Matías camera control point is 207 metres away, also in a straight line.

Then there are the bus lanes, the real risk and the one fewest people see coming. The cameras protecting them issue fines from 7:30 to 22:00 every day, and the council website is blunt: “remember that bus lanes may not be used (whether by residents or by tourists staying in authorised hotel establishments)”.

And there is a third regime: the Carrera del Darro is not a ZAR but a pedestrian priority area restricted by camera 24 hours a day, every day, since the decree of 1 December 2017. Not even motorcycles may ride down it without authorisation, and it is the street most people drive down without realising, following the sat nav.

When is the blue zone free in Granada?

Outside service hours, and those hours only cover Monday to Saturday. Annex XI of the Integrated Sustainable Mobility Ordinance sets them in two seasons:

Hours of the regulated on-street parking scheme (ORA) in Granada, under Annex XI of the municipal ordinance in force.

Season	Monday to Friday	Saturdays	Sundays
Winter: 15 September to 15 June	9:00 to 14:00 and 16:30 to 20:30	9:00 to 14:00	Do not appear in the service hours
Summer: 16 June to 14 September	9:00 to 14:00 and 17:00 to 21:00	9:00 to 14:00	Do not appear in the service hours

At night you do not pay, nor during the midday break, and Sundays do not appear in those hours. Beyond the clock, the ordinance exempts motorcycles, mopeds, bicycles and personal mobility vehicles from the charge, and vehicles of people with disabilities displaying their permit. Also stays of up to 10 minutes, with a catch that causes trouble: they are still required to take a ticket and are still subject to the time limit.

Tariffs, maximum stay and post-payment ticket of the regulated parking scheme in Granada for non-residents, by street type.

Street type	Maximum stay	Tariff for non-residents	Post-payment: overstay under 30 min · no ticket or longer overstay	Spaces in the city
Blue street	2 hours	€0.55 / 30 min · €0.90 / 1 h · €1.80 / 2 h	€3.10 · €6.30	4,003
Green street	5 hours	€0.70 / 1 h · €1.45 / 5 h	€3.15 · €6.30	303
Red street	1 hour	€0.55 / 30 min · €0.90 / 1 h	€3.10 · €6.15	195
Special scheme (Paseo de los Mártires)	Not published	Not published	Not published	36

If you overstay, the fine is cancelled by paying a post-payment ticket, and the amount depends on the street type: €3.10 or €3.15 for an overstay of less than half an hour, and €6.15 or €6.30 if you had no ticket or the overstay is longer. The scheme is run by EYSA and the ticket is bought at a meter or through an app, always with the number plate.

Now the part nobody likes: none of this is any use for parking next to Plaza Nueva. The official list of ORA streets, 4,537 spaces across the whole of Granada, does not include a single old town street around Plaza Nueva, Gran Vía or Reyes Católicos.

Where to park in Granada without an emissions sticker

In a car park, and not on the street. The ordinance includes among the ZBE exceptions “vehicles entering, for at least one hour, car parks connected to the council control system”, and the council distinguishes two categories worth keeping apart:

• Edge car parks. They sit on the boundary of the ZBE and you drive in with no restriction and no prior authorisation. The council list names eight: Méndez Núñez (GR-30, Méndez Núñez exit, next to Hipercor), CC Neptuno, Torres Neptuno, CC Serrallo Plaza, Estadio Nuevo Los Cármenes and three in the PTS: PK2, Hospital Clínico San Cecilio and the Menéndez Pelayo building.
• Connected car parks. Spread around the city, they report the vehicle entering automatically. They take any car, whatever its sticker, as long as it stays more than an hour. The council warns that this “does not entitle vehicles not permitted in the Low Emission Zone to park on the public road”.

A separate case: if the Alhambra is your destination, the monument has its own car park, guarded and open 24 hours, with room for 360 vehicles and separate areas for coaches, caravans, cars and adapted vehicles. You get there on the ring road heading south (Motril) and the Ronda Sur, without going through the centre.

And if I am staying in the old town? What we do

Six of our ten apartments have a garage space and four do not. Suite Medina, Suite Generalife, Suite Comares, Suite Plaza Nueva, Suite Mulhacén and Laurel have one; Plaza Nueva Studio, Hermosa 7, Colcha Suite and Colcha Penthouse do not. It is in the comparison table of the ten apartments and on every page of the full listing.

The space is an optional service: subject to availability, at extra cost, and it has to be requested in advance. It is not assigned automatically when you book, so if you definitely need one, confirm it before you fix your dates by writing to us from the contact page.

With the number plate we follow the procedure in the ordinance. We appear on the official list of accommodation with an agreement, and the council publishes an entry itinerary and an exit itinerary for each establishment. Ours enters through the calle Elvira bollard, and that sets the timing: at a bollard the plate is sent before you drive; at a camera it is enough to give it on arrival. If an accommodation is not authorised, the council website says so plainly: you will not be able to enter by private vehicle.

Another detail nobody mentions, visible once you measure that official itinerary: the entry route ends some 15 metres from the front door in a straight line. For the suitcases, Plaza Nueva has a loading bay for goods and passengers from 8:00 to 11:00 and from 15:00 to 18:00.

And the uncomfortable part: if you are coming to use the flat as a base and drive out every day to the Alpujarra, the coast or Sierra Nevada, the old town is not your best option. Here the car is parked on the first day and forgotten until the last. If your plan is the opposite, you want somewhere with quick access to the ring road, even if it is not us. How to drive in without taking the wrong street is covered in the guide to driving to Granada city centre.

What to sort out before driving here

1. Check your emissions sticker. With a B, C, ECO or Zero the ZBE stops being a problem. With none, and no tax address in Granada, your destination has to be a car park.
2. Ask your accommodation whether it can send your number plate and which control point it authorises you for. Not all of them have an agreement, and each one is assigned specific control points.
3. If access is through a bollard, send the plate before you leave home. In front of a raised bollard there is no negotiating.
4. Stay out of the bus lanes from 7:30 to 22:00. It is the easiest offence to commit while following the sat nav and the only one you cannot plead as a registered guest.
5. If a fine arrives from an access control point, do not simply pay it. File the application pleading your status as a registered guest.

If you are missing a detail that is not here — and some are: the council does not publish which control points each accommodation is assigned — the answer is not in a blog. It is with the CGIM ([email protected], or 958 24 82 13 from 9:00 to 13:30), or with us, who will ask on your behalf.