We will be spending time in Madrid, Granada, and Seville in March/April timeframe. We already purchased our tickets for the Alhambra and Caminito del Rey but was wondering if we need to get advance tickets for some of the other famous sites in these places. My preference would be to wait till we are there to go to some of the sites like the Royal Palace of Madrid, the Cathedral of Seville and the Prado in Madrid. But I am wondering if we will have issues getting in to these places if we don't have advanced tickets. Looking for input.
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
7601 posts
You should get advance tickets for the Sevilla alcazar
Posted by
Washington DC
29570 posts
I agree about the Alcazar in Seville. In addition, the Cathedral in Seville doesn't sell out, as far as I know, but the ticket line--which is outdoors--was very long in April 2019.
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
7601 posts
It's been about 6-7 years since I've been to Sevilla, but a "hack" for getting the ticket to the Cathedral at that time, was to go to Church of the Savior, buy the ticket which is combined and then go to the cathedral and skip the line. We got to Church of the Savior about 10 minutes before it opened.
Posted by
8 posts
Which tickets did you get for Alhambra? I see there are multiple to choose from. Thx we are also going in March :)
Posted by
Washington DC
29570 posts
The Alhambra General ticket is the daytime ticket that covers the entire complex. The Gardens, Generalife and Alcazaba ticket doesn't include the Nasrid Palaces, which are the most beautiful part of the complex, by far. The Dobla de Oro ticket includes everything the Alhambra General tickets covers plus some additional sights in Granada; it might be worthwhile for folks spending a bit more time there, but those additional sights are not very expensive, so the Dobla de Oro ticket won't save a lot of money. It's a handy option for folks who don't look for a ticket early enough and find the Alhambra General tickets sold out.
Posted by
OP
144 posts
General tickets here is the link I used for purchasing the tickets https://tickets.alhambra-patronato.es/en/.
I also contacted http://alhambratours.com to schedule a private tour guide based on recommendations from this forum (not cheap a bit of a splurge)
Posted by
OP
144 posts
Thanks for the replies. I think I will also monitor the ticket availability for some of these sights and if it seems they have limited availability I'll go ahead and purchase them. Though at this time some of the tickets haven't opened up yet for March or April.
Posted by
near San Francisco
6062 posts
Both the Royal Palace of Madrid and the Cathedral of Seville had very long lines for ticket buyers when I was at each in November. But the tickets must have been available. At the very least, I would buy them online, rather than standing in the line to buy them.
At Seville Cathedral, it seemed you had to stand in the long line even if you had bought a ticket online.
I had a ticket for the Seville Cathedral Rooftop Tour, which gave me an untimed entrance to the cathedral and Giralda with skip the line access. I walked past the long line, up to the guards at the front, who reviewed my ticket and showed me in.
You have to buy that Rooftop Tour ticket in advance as there are only 20 spaces on each English tour. In November, there was only 1 English tour each day, though I'd seen two each day for October.
The tour was fabulous - walking across the top of the naves, squeezing across little catwalks and ducking under the flying buttresses. The coolest Cathedral tour I've ever taken.
ETA,: in November, tickets for the Rooftop Tour were available sooner than general admission tickets for the same date.
Posted by
Brooklyn, NY
4781 posts
We did not pre purchase tickets to the Palace in Madrid when we were there in October 2023. The lines were long. So, one night I went online, purchased tickets for 2 days later and walked past the long line to enter.
The Prado had a long line too but we had a private guide set up. Ditto for Seville.
If you really want to see these sites, prebook.
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
7601 posts
Yes, there are two lines for the cathedral. One to purchase tickets and one is to enter the cathedral. Explained in the RS guide.
I just looked at the website for the cathedral. It still does have a combined ticket with El Salvador (Church of the Savior). So, IMO, in lieu of purchasing the cathedral ticket in advance on the website, the easiest way to get cathedral tickets is to first go to El Salvador and buy the ticket. Either way, the price is the same. The churches are on a combined ticket. We got to El Salvador (Church of the Savior) a bit before opening.
The RS guide explains this under the cathedral information. He says the lines to El Salvador can get long as the day goes on.
Church of the Savior is a smaller church. When we were there we saw a bunch of the processional floats. It is not far from the cathedral in a interesting neighborhood.
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
7601 posts
@ORDTraveler, My friends were just in Sevilla. (September of 2024) They reported two lines. One side of the building had a long line for ticket purchases and the other side was a short line for entrance. Perhaps somewhere there was a group line, or perhaps there are only groups at certain times of the day. I planned their trip. They purchased their tickets for the cathedral at El Salvador.
In any case, I believe we are saying the same thing. There is a long line to purchase tickets. If you have a ticket, you should not stand in it.
It is always the case that procedures can change. If forum participants want the actual, current information, they can check the website. However, websites have been known to be out of date as well. And even sometimes, day of, the venue has some special event or something that causes the whole day to be altered. If the desire is to provide the actual, current information and nothing historical, then the forum probably loses its purpose.