Advance ticket purchases

You should get advance tickets for the Sevilla alcazar

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.

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.

I was in Madrid late March 2024. I booked an online ticket to the Prado while walking across the plaza to the entrance. My stop was a last minute whim - I was maybe lucky.

Can you monitor the availability of the Palace and the Prado online? I think sometimes the Palace time slots fill. I didn't visit on my last trip.

I had an advance ticket to the Cathedral of Seville, but wouldn't have needed it. There was a long line and the advance ticket short-circuited that. However, I was there early and they wouldn't allow me in until my time. Alcazar - definitely.

Which tickets did you get for Alhambra? I see there are multiple to choose from. Thx we are also going in March :)

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.

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)

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.

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.

Re the lines at Seville's Cathedral - when I was there earlier this year, there were two entry lines, one for groups and one for single ticket holders. However, it was not obvious that this was the case. Luckily, an official saw me and a small family group join the long line and asked us if we had tickets already. As we did, we were shown to a spot where out tickets were scanned and we both entered immediately, no line. The long line was for groups.

So, if you are holding an advance ticket, but things look bleak, it may well be worth asking where the appropriate queue is!

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.

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.

There were not two lines, one for purchase and one for entering, when I was there 9 months ago.

There was a ticket purchase line on one side of the building. There were separate entrance lines on the opposite side of the building. There were two entrance lines there - the long one for groups and a hidden short one for those with individual tickets. So, three lines that I encountered including the one I could not see.

That does not mean that the situation will be the same for the OP as when I visited in March 2024. That is why taking anyone's instructions - Rick Steve's or mine or any one else's - too literally can be problematic. Things can and do change.

@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.

Got it, Jules.

My point that was that something didn't seem right to me when I arrived to what I thought was one huge line. I should have politely asked. Luckily, officials were on the look out for such unobservant travelers as me and the family group in front of me and showed us the correct queue.

I know I sometimes join a queue and discover later that I could have taken a shorter entry line. Perhaps the OP didn't need my hint that sometimes what seems unbelievable is truly unbelievable.

I will refrain from offering such personal experience in the future as it seems to cause confusion.