After centuries of rural and secluded tranquility, today Granada has emerged as a premier Spanish destination who unveils its precious hoard of exquisite Moorish quarters, stunning Gothic palaces, and a breathtaking natural scenery to the world. There is even a saying that if you have only a day to spare in Spain, that time will be most rewarding if spent in Granada. Sandwiched between the Sierra Nevada and the Mediterranean Sea, this means visitors are also blessed with a prospect to go ski and sunbath on the same day. Needless to say, there are not many places on earth that can rival Granada's beauty and mood that is beyond time and space, and there is hardly anywhere else in Spain that can evoke such a vivid memory of a charming Spanish countryside.

The province of Granada had for centuries been settled in by the Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Greeks prior to the Roman occupation around the fifth century. From 713-1492 A.D., the Moors commandeered the peninsula and made this city they named "Granada" an important outpost of the new Western Islamic Empire. Granada was among the last cities to fall to the Christian monarchs in the late 15th century. Starting in 1499, the forced conversion and expulsion of the Muslims had tragically destroyed or turned a large number of mosques into monasteries. Granada had kept a low profile from the late 17th century on until relatively recently when the UNESCO named some of its historic sites World Heritage, and a boom in exchange student programs have opened up this gem of the Andalucía to the world again.

Granada is the capital city of the province that belongs to the autonomous community of Andalucía. The city is located between the foot of Sierra Nevada, the highest mountain range of the Iberian peninsula and the shores of the Mediterranean. Such diverse geographical makeup has resulted in an enormous climactic contrasts in a relatively small area of Granada. In summer the temperatures can soar above 40º C whereas it can plunge below zero in winter. The province does not receive much rainfalls in general, and summer in Granada is practically rain-free.