Having stayed at least twice before - the first time in the 60's, we again visited for two nights, principally to see the Alhambra for, I think, the eleventh time. I am afraid that the enchantment of those earlier visits has not survived- either for the Alhambra or the Parador Nacional de San Francisco. The hotel was in the midst of 'refurbishment', and consequently, access to much of the buildings and most of the gardens was not possible. Our room did have facilities and was well maintained- however, it had suffered the touches of an interior designer with no concept of the needs for the traveller (the very reason the network of Paradores was founded in 1928). The lighting system, for example, was not only non-intuitive, but it had a mind of its own; on our last night it decided to flood the room with light no fewer than nine times! Having a stone horse-trough in the bathroom with twin taps is neither ideal for ablutions nor is it water efficient!
Breakfast was plentiful, but the dinner menu was extremely limited, unimaginative and overall very poor value for money.
With reference to other reviews, it must be pointed out that there are only TWO hotels within the precincts of the Alhambra, the Parador being one, the other the adjacent Hotel America.
Having read the articles in the Paradores own magazine, I would be very wary of ANY of the network's buildings which have had recent 'modernisation.

We stayed at the Parador de Granada for our honeymoon, and it was a great experience. I booked a suite, with courtyard views (though not the Generalife, mind you), and an upstairs and downstairs loft. It is very stylish, includes little openings in the shutters for the morning sun to filter in, and had a jacuzzi tub in the bathroom. Other amenities include bathrobes and slippers with the parador logo on them, as typical of other paradores, and GREAT room service. It makes you truly feel like a Moorish prince (or princess), very romantic.

It was a bit spendy, but what do you expect when staying at the Alhambra in the most popular parador in Spain? All in all we had a wonderful time.

The Parador provides very nice accommodations at a very steep price. Even with the Golden Days discount we were paying 250 Euros per night plus breakfast, by far the most that we paid for accommodations in Spain. For this, we got an extremely nice room with the most complicated bed-side light switches I have ever seen, a nice large bathroom, free parking, and easy access to Alhambra. For a two day stay, however, I would recommend staying in the old city and spending one day up on the Alhambra, with dinner at the Paradore. It is easy to get up and down by bus.

We had to make a reservation for this hotel some six months ahead of our visit to Granada as it is usually fully booked. The reason for choosing the Parador was simply that it was the best and most historic hotel for visiting the Alhambra.

Check-in was less than straight forward despite having made the reservation so far in advance. My email confirmation from the Parador site showed that a twin room had been reserved (and paid for at the time of booking!). However, the front desk had a double reserved and it took some persuasion to convince them that the twin was required. A poor start.

Our room had recently been refurbished and was stylish and very comfortable. As it should have been given that it was costing 260 Euro for the night.

A quick lunch was taken in the courtyard. The freshly prepared sandwiches were of poor quality considering their price. Dinner was taken in the restaurant that evening and that meal was good. After a comfortable night the buffet breakfast was more than adequate. On each occasion the service provided at these meals was just about adequate. Given that the Parador claims to be the premier hotel in Granada it is perhaps surprising that at times it appeared a little amateurish and not particularly friendly.

At the time of our stay the Parador was undergoing extensive building work that had closed the terrace overlooking the gardens. This had not been made apparent at the time of our reservation or later. Perhaps the business the Parador gains means that they really think they don’t need to try too hard in terms of the overall service provided.