Almeria Spain Alhambra & Mini Hollywood help needed!

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We are looking to visit Almeria in late August for a beach holiday possibly in Mojacar or Roquetas de Mar but would like to visit Granada (Alhambra) and Mini Hollywood in Tabernas. Have heard that it is necessary to book these trips in advance as they don't run frequently and are very busy but can't find anywhere to book them! Probably won't have a car so will need an excursion kind of trip with travel included. Anyone got any ideas of where I can book this? Also if you have been there and done these trips from Mojacar or Roquetas would be interested in any tips you may have!!

How old are your kids? Mine are 9 and 7, and when we went to the Alhambra, we left them with Granny and Grandpa, and I was SO glad we did. It was ludicrously hot, ludicrously busy, and not really v interesting for kids. Mine are absolutely fine at NT places and the like, but would not have enjoyed the Alhambra, and it was v expensive. There are lots of water fountains but might be worth taking bottles of water too, so that you don't have to queue, and have something to pour over yourselves.

If you do take kids I would imagine a good guidebook would help - perhaps buy a story about the Alhambra before you go to help it mean a bit more to them.

Mini Hollywood was really good, but we hired a car when we went so don't really know where you would book it - hopefully someone else with experience will be along to help out there.

Thanks for that - useful to know. DS is 11 - hoping he can manage 3 or 4 hours there but will take stuff to be prepared and thanks for the tip about water. Don't really want to drive but it's possible we may hire a car if some friends visit at the same time. Did you book the Mini Hollywood beforehand? Also have read that the shows are only on on days when they have pre-booked trips so do you know how you know if there are shows on when you plan to visit??

No, we didn't pre-book. There were shows on - I would imagine that there are shows on every day at that time of year tbh. The shows were good, but it would have been worth going even without them tbh. I really wished we'd shown the kids a couple of spaghetti westerns before we went though - def worth doing so that your ds can contextualise the sets a little better. DCs have watched stuff since which has been filmed there, and been really excited by it.

Re the Alhambra, BIL downloaded an iphone app there which had some interesting info. Sadly he nearly destroyed said iphone whilst pouring copious amounts of water on himself, but he doesn't deal well with the heat, God bless him!

Ok I personally hated the Alhambra and Granada was a bit on the meh side for me. Mind we spend weeks touring Spain so perhaps we were comparing with other things we had seen elsewhere.

I can't even imagine what it must be visiting in the height of summer in heat with children in tow. Many people will disagree of course. I did a review on TA here
www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g187441-d191078-r125417418-The_Alhambra-Granada_Province_of_Granada_Andalucia.html

My daughter made her take on her blog here
myuniqueworld.com/palace-in-granada/

and if you decide on the science museum more here;
myuniqueworld.com/on-top-of-the-world-in-granada/

I have been to Almeria quite a few times and always hired a car, I have never noticed anywhere doing excursions to be honest as its not really a touristy area. Personally I prefer the roquetas side to mojacar. We normally stay in Almerimar, which is a pretty quiet place and about 20 mins drive into Roquetas if you want nice beach and a bit of tourism. I have only been to mini Hollywood once, which was the beginning of July. It was very quiet and not too much happening there, a show of some sort happened but it felt more like a rehearsal to me. It doesn't have the same authenticity as mini Hollywood if you want to see a real western set but I would say oasys just down the road from mini Hollywood is a better value family day out. They always have had shows there whenever we have been, they also have a lovely zoo to keep the kids entertained ( but make sure you bring a bit bottle of water with you to walk around it as its on a loop and not too many pitstops along the way) and they have a decent enough sized swimming pool with a few small water slides to cool off in.

Thanks both - useful info. Loved your daughter's blog Munashe!

Hi I found this by googling www.almeriaholidays.com/excursions.html looks to be what you need.
A good place to get more detailed advice is trip advisor forums, post up there and I am sure you will get some responses. However do check out the cost of car hire - trips are generally expensive whereas car hire is usually cheap, in some tourist places it's cheaper if you hire for a few days when there, rather than from the airport rentals.

The Alhambra has special significance for me as DH asked me to marry him there ( I thought he asked if I wanted an ice cream so said yes very quickly ). However we went in June and it was unbelievably hot, there is lots of walking to do and apart from the buildings, very little shaded area.

Thanks for that theoriginal....... I think I may have already seen this site - and that is the only one that seems to offer excursions from that area. They only do each excursion once a week so have just emailed them to ask if it is possible to book them before arrival there. I would not want to drive there and DH doesn't drive so that's probably not an option although we may go with some friends who will be happy to drive and that will make it easier but we'll see what happens! Thank you anyway.

Wow you do have special memories of the Alhambra! DH proposed to me outside a Chinese restaurant - not quite as romantic but still special!!