Advance tickets

Caveat: My recent travels to Spain were in 2016 and 2019, pre-pandemic. Visitor levels will be lower this year, but if there are places still operating with reduced capacity, that could affect ticket availability. I have no idea whether the areas you're visiting have lifted all their capacity controls.

Casa Mila, Casa Batlio, Parc Guell, Palau de Musica (guided tour and perhaps a concert): Yes. This may not need to be done way ahead of time, but walking up without a ticket may put you in a very, very long line, and you might encounter a sellout. (Both the houses were totally packed at the time of my visits; they were letting people in only as others left.) There are no Parc Guell tickets sold at the park itself. These are not cheap tickets, so I wouldn't be in a rush to buy them, given COVID uncertainty. I'd do fake ticket purchases online every few days to be sure my preferred dates were not selling out. You may well be able to wait until just before you leave home. However, I don't know what sort of tourist spike Barcelona sees around Easter. Is that when you're traveling?

Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau: I assume No. I've simply walked up and bought my ticket twice, most recently in May 2019. I've read nothing to suggest that has changed.

Barcelona Cathedral: I assume No. Not a problem for me in May 2016. Check your guidebook; I think the cathedral is free for part of the day. Check for info on dress code.

Monserrat: Don't know.

Sevilla Cathedral: Very long ticket line stretches across the uncovered plaza. It's at least as bad as the situation at the Alcazar, I think. Rick explains how to avoid the cathedral line by buying a combo ticket at the Church of El Salvador. Worked for me in 2019: Bought ticket, saw church and walked right over to cathedral. Line-minder at cathedral waved me straight over to the entry door.

Seville flamenco show: No experience with this, but I'd expect to buy performance tickets at least a bit ahead of time.

La Mezquita: Don't remember buying this ticket early but may have done so a day or so in advance. I believe the site takes a mid-day break. It's another for which I'd monitor ticket availability online (if available) to be sure the time of day I wanted wasn't close to selling out.

Toledo: Cathedral: Not sure. I wasn't able to get a ticket for immediate entry here in May 2016; I had to return an hour or so later. However, it was a holiday weekend; I suspect the cathedral isn't always that busy. But if your visit is around Easter, that might make quite a difference.

Madrid Royal Palace: Not sure. The palace was crowded at the time of my May 2016 visit, but I don't remember much of a delay at the ticket window. There's heavy visitation by Spaniards, so holidays are probably busier than average.

Prado/Thyssen/Reina Sofia: I assume No. I basically walked right in at all of those during May 2016. The Prado seems to get a lot more visitors than the others, but it is huge, so people are spread out. I saw clumps of people in front of only two pictures: Las Meninas and Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights. It seems that the only thing people want to see at the Reina Sofia is Guernica. I think there may be a combo ticket that save a bit of money if you want to see all three; I haven't verified that, however.

Sorolla Museum: No experience here, but I'd be very surprised if advance tickets are necessary unless there's some sort of high-demand special exhibition running.

Madrid flamenco show: No experience, but I'd expect to prebook this performance.

I would like to jump in here and hope it's ok!

We are actually excited to visit almost all the same places mentioned but in less than 2 weeks. FEBRUARY 19 - 28.

Wonderful Locals or fellow travelers now: What are the crowds like and is Covid holding people back? Pre- buy tickets?

Gracias!!

acraven: Thank you so much for your detailed response. You’ve given me great tips and suggestions based on your experience. We’ll start our trip in Barcelona the second week of March for a week, and end in Madrid the first week of April, just before Semana Santa.

Melany: No worries! You’ll be back by the time we leave. Perhaps, if you don’t mind you can share your experience? It’ll be much appreciated!

Yes Melany: I hope you will come back and update us when you get back! We will also be there the third week in March and I had the same question.

Palau de la Musica tour - probably only need to buy a day or two in advance. Concerts sell out. If there's one you really want to see, buy it! Otherwise, just take the tour. Also look on the official TI site for other concerts, especially guitar. Sant Pau is probably fine as a walk-in. It's convenient to visit after Sagrada Familia, it's a nice walk with lots of cafe options along the way for lunch or a drink.

La Casa de Flamenco in Sevilla is great. The venue is small so it often sells out but you probably can get tickets quite close to the day.

The only time I've bought an advance ticket for the Mezquita was for a special night visit. I haven't seen long lines for tickets.

My only advice for flamenco is to NOT go to a dinner show. They are all touristy. And flamenco is Andalucian, so you might see a better show in Cordoba - or go to more than one in Sevilla. Check out the Royal Stables in Cordoba, they have (or at least used to have) horse shows in the early evenings.

Chani: Thanks for the additional info and tips. I’ll rearrange our plan so we can do Sagrada Familia and Sant Pau on the same day. We are in Barcelona for 7nts, so we have the luxury of not over scheduling our days. Good point about flamenco. I’ll check out La Casa de Flamenco in Sevilla and perhaps a second one in Cordoba. I almost booked a rather pricey (75€ pp!) flamenco show at Palau de Musica.

Glad to help. Flamenco is best when it's up close and personal. I was told that there are restaurants that have flamenco performers in Cordoba - sometimes just music and singing - but they are probably very late at night. I went to one that other tourists knew about, but left before the music began. Bear in mind that dinner for locals doesn't start till after 9 and arriving at 10 is not at all unusual.

Hello -
Looks like RS tours visit Sagrada Familia, La Pedrera (Casa Mila) and Casa Batilo in one morning.

IS THAT ENOUGH TIME? and could we taxi out to see PARK GUELL ALSO that day - if we started at 11:00am? (we arrive by air in Barcelona from Sevilla, so no jetlag, on Friday at 9:30am) We are able to leave bag early at Airbnb.

I am buying tickets ahead - HOW MUCH TIME IN BETWEEN SITES?

Does anyone STRONGLY recommend visiting SF on FRIDAY AFTERNOON over SATURDAY MORNING?

Thanks,
Melany

Which RS tour? I bet the tours don't go inside all three. They may well just walk past Casa Mila and Casa Batllo (or go inside just one of them) to appreciate their exteriors (which are definitely worth seeing). Even if they do visit, I must say that every tour group I've observed in action (none of them being RS tours) has moved through sites far faster than I wanted to. Travelers are different in how much time they want to spend at indoor sights. I am an all-or-nothing traveler: I either skip a place entirely (you'd be shocked at the places I have ignored for lack of interest) or I want to have plenty of time so I can get the best out of a place. If there's an audio guide, I nearly always rent it. The most commitments I'd want to make for one full day (which you do not have) would be La Sagrada Familia, Casa Batllo and Casa Mila. Any extra time could be spent walking around the Eixample (looking at other modernista buildings) or going to the Sant Paul modernista site if it's open late enough (doubtful, but I haven't checked).

Establishing a Barcelona itinerary is tough because those Gaudi-sight tickets are timed. If you don't allow enough time at the first one, you'll have to leave early to get to the second one on time. And those tickets aren't cheap, so you wouldn't want to have to rush.

Keep in mind that all three of those sights will probably be very crowded. The only way to reduce the crowding for part of your visit is to buy tickets for the first time slot of the day, which you cannot do in this case if you want to see all three on the day you arrive in Barcelona. The crowding will probably slow your progress through Casa Mila and Casa Batllo. It may also mean you do not get in on time; when I visited Barcelona in 2015, there was a staffer at the door of both houses, keeping track of how many people exited and admitting an equal number. If folks are slow coming out, you may be a bit late getting in. It's risky to plan back-to-back visits to timed sights.

La Sagrada Familia is a larger space, so the large number of other visitors may not impact you so much unless you want to take photos.

I don't think anyone else can predict how much time you'll want at each of those sights, but I'd think 90 minutes is the absolute minimum to allow for each of the houses, and 2 hours is the minimum for La Sagrada Familia if you want to visit the very interesting museum explaining Gaudi's design methods. However, my visit was back in 2015--the city only got more crowded after that, up until the pandemic hit--and I had opening-time tickets to two of the three sites; you might need more time. Those times don't include travel time, and they don't allow for being held up significantly at the door.

You can use Google Maps to see exactly how far apart the three sights are and get estimated walking times. I don't know how reliable the public transit time estimates are; I'd certainly add some padding to those. You also need to ask yourself whether you want to allow time to wander off the direct route if you see something interesting along the way. And of course there's lunch to consider. Meal times in Spain are very, very late by American standards. If you don't like the idea of sitting down to dinner at 9:30 or 10 PM, you may want to allow time for a real meal at lunch time (roughly between 2 and 4 PM).

Edited to add: Although there is no reason to expect a signficant delay on a flight from Seville, you could encounter one. And you'll need to get to your hotel to drop off your luggage. As for whether La Sagrada Familia is better (visually) in the afternoon or the morning, I don't know. You might find some opinions on that by Googling if no one responds in this thread. As far as I'm concerned, it's a very good idea to buy an entry ticket to one of the usually-crowded sights every morning you'll be in Barcelona. That's your best chance of non-mosh-pit experiences.

I've been to Barcelona - but not for 20 years. We plan to go back this year.

That schedule is why I don't do organized tours - absolutely nuts.

Case Batilo - rec 1 hour (from their website)
Casa Mila - 90min or so from personal experience
Sagrada Familiar at least a couple of hours

So I'm more than " a morning" before I factor in travel time (use google maps for that ) .

ETA - I started this reply and got distracted so posted without seeing acraven's comments above - sounds like we agree LOL

We were in Spain last month (Toledo, Granada, Cadiz, and Cordoba), and my advice is to check the websites for each of the sites you plan to visit; some that didn’t used to have requirements for advance purchase have put them in place because of covid.

For our trip, I prepurchased tickets for the Alhambra and la Mezquita (I am fairly sure tickets to the Mezquita must be purchased ahead of time now; check the website).

We purchased tickets for the cathedral in Toledo the day of our visit. It was a fairly short line (5 minutes).

I’ve been to all the places you mentioned in Sevilla and Madrid on previous trips and did not need to prepurchase tickets, but, again, I’d suggest checking each website in case things have changed.

I’ve never been to Barcelona, so I can’t help you with those sights.

Best group of helpful people!! Thank you!

RS tour itinerary I was looking at was “Barcelona and Madrid in 8 days”.

Yes, those 3 Gaudi’’s on a morning sounds very ambitious to me as well AND risky/stressful because of the time assignments etc. Also, wouldn’t want to cheat ourselves! I was actually thinking at least 3 hours even, just at Sagrada Familia! So thank you for backing up my thoughts!

Ok - so we will get first tickets for SF on SATURDAY am and spread the other two sites out accordingly that day. Too bad sun set is so early (park) but really nice some of the sites are open later. Not much interest in shopping, but RS L’eixample walk points out some interesting things and good eats!

It will be much better to walk around Barri Gotic, have lunch at Santa Caterina or La Boqueria market, and visit the Picasso Museum on Friday. (Late afternoon ticket to Picasso Museum).

Sunday - our Airbnb is just off LaRamblas - if the weather is nice, walk down to Harbor/beach. Maybe ride the cable car up to Montjuic. OR any sites we didn’t get to see. We really want to see park guell.

In summery - the consensus is that 1st time slot on Saturday am will be better (in our situation especially) than Friday afternoon even though Saturday could be more crowded in general. Right?
I’m going on a ticket buying spree tomorrow when my brain is fresh!

Thanks again!
Melany.

Melany, I've just thought of something:

What is the first available time slot at La Sagrada Familia? Will the sun be high enough for you to fully enjoy the beautiful stained-glass windows? I didn't think about that before, because I was in Barcelona in early July. Days are shorter in March. Sunrise is at 7:49 AM tomorrow in Barcelona. I suggest Googling for info on the time of sunrise in your nearest large city and see how that compares. Then look out the window at the appropriate time (depending on when tickets are available for LSF) to see what you think.

Here’s another note: I did those three sites in one day. I had pre-purchased tickets for each one. Sagrada Familia would not let us enter early - we happened to be about 45 minutes early. We had to wait for our actual entry time.

We were early to Casa Mila and Casa Batllo as well and were allowed in.

This was about 4 years ago so not sure if things have changed. But they were definitely very firm on timing at Sagrada Familia.

We are going back in a few weeks to see all of those sites again and we’re doing them in one day again. I am starting with Sagrada Familia and then moving over to the other two sites.