Sierra Nevada: the back story

About Sierra Nevada: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Ski Resorts Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Sierra Nevada is the skiing nobody expects in Andalucía: a high, sunny resort with 112.5 km of runs and Spain’s longest skiable vertical, forty kilometres above Granada. It hosted the 1996 Alpine World Ski Championships, and a winter here can mean a morning on the snow and an evening in the Albaicín.

A mountain above Granada

Sierra Nevada is Andalucía’s ski resort, on the slopes of the Veleta forty kilometres from Granada. The resort village, Pradollano, is built in tiers on the mountainside, and from the top of the lifts you look out over a landscape that ranges from snowfields to the plain of Granada, often under a sea of cloud.

The 1996 World Championships

In 1996 Sierra Nevada hosted the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, an event the lift company says transformed it into one of the most important resorts in southern Europe. In autumn 2025 it marked the thirtieth anniversary with discounts on long-duration passes, and announced investments of around €17 million in lifts, snowmaking, restaurants, car parks and services, while the regional government improves the A-395 access road.

Snow in the morning, the Alhambra by evening.

The resort today

The operator, Cetursa, counts 112.5 skiable kilometres on 134 slopes, with the highest skiable vertical in Spain, 1,200 metres. Most of the restaurants are in Borreguiles, the sunny bowl at the top of the gondolas, where the beginner slopes and the family areas begin. The Sulayr snowpark spreads across the Loma de Dílar, the Laguna de las Yeguas sector draws expert skiers, and on Saturdays in season the El Río slope is lit for night skiing. In 2024/25 the resort closed with 1,250,000 visits, 12% more than the year before.

Every budget

This is a resort for every pocket. The 2026/27 ticket-office calendar prices an adult day from €56 in mid-April to €72 over Christmas and February, a coach from Granada costs €10 return, and all the car parks are currently free. Families have Mirlo Blanco, a snow-play area that needs no skis, and kindergartens and ski clubs for children from four months. At the top end, El Lodge offers ski-in, ski-out suites and the resort’s only heated outdoor pool.

Our advice: stay in Pradollano for the gondola, or in Granada for the city and drive or take the bus up for the day; avoid Spanish holidays if you can, and keep an evening for flamenco and tapas in the Albaicín.

Sierra Nevada in brief

From sierranevada.es (October 2026).

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Sierra Nevada: the back story before you go.