Barcelona Card

Here's the list of the discounts offered by the Barcelona Card. There's a link for buying the card online.

The "airport train" is listed as completely covered. A lot of the government-run museums are free with the card, but the modernista sights are just discounted, giving you only 1 to 5 euros off entry fees that tend to be over 20 euros each. I don't see the cable car, tram, or funicular listed, but I may have overlooked them.

I think getting 50% of on the walking tours run by the tourist office is a worthwhile benefit. I especially recommend the Barri Gotic tour, which I think would be about 8 euros after the discount.

But are you sure that you will get close to 45 euros' value from the card? You can buy one or more Zone 1 T-10 cards (they can be shared) for travel on the buses and subway. The T-10 costs 9.95 euros for 10 rides, so you're just paying 1 euro for each ride. Therefore, I don't think the transportation benefits of the Barcelona Card are all that significant. Nor are the skip-the-line benefits at a few museums a big deal. You might encounter a modest line at the MNAC or the Miro (both good), but it's unlikely to be terrible. I think I had just a few people in front of me during my August 2016 visit. The places with the horrific lines are the modernista sites and the Picasso Museum, and you won't be skipping any lines there unless you take the tourist office's Picasso tour (about 11 euros discounted), which gets you into the museum.

If you plan on hitting lots of museums then consider the Articket (6 museums for 30€) and get a T-10 (10 rides for 9.95€) for the metro.
http://articketbcn.org

Three important points:

• The Articket ONLY covers SIX very specific museums, the six most important art museums in the city... for info, there are 67 museums in the city... and Casa Batlló, Casa Rocamora, Casa Milà, etc. are NOT art museums, or have the consideration of "museums" for that matter :))

• In general terms, the Barcelona card is not considered value-for-money in most cases. A careful study of its "advantages" will show that there are minimum discounts for the most popular venues (namely Sagrada Família, etc) which does not off-set its cost and also note that the majority of the other "advantages" and discounts are unlikely to be of use to most visitors. Only in certain cases the BarcelonaCard is worth purchasing: make a list of your itinerary, confront the applicable discounts and advantages to it and off-set it with the cost of the card... that'll show whether in your particular case can be worthwhile. Btw, it's not shareable, one card per person!

• If transportation is the only goal, there's another card, HolaBCN, which is better and cheaper! Alternatively, even cheaper is the T-10 travelcard, but for convenience I would probably stick to the HolaBCN -unless you're prepared to delve into the ins&outs of the Barcelona Transportation Network and learn what is covered, what is not, which alternatives can you take from A to B that would be covered by the T-10, etc. It's not "that" complicated, but honestly, for a few extra euros I would prefer peace of mind knowing the HolaBCN gives me unlimited rides during the period of validity, wouldn't you? Also, note that escapades to say Montserrat or to Costa Brava are NOT covered by any of these cards as the journeys go beyond the scope of the Zone 1 in the Metropolitan Area.

Articket indeed only covers 6 important art museums, and you would still need to purchase entry for ...
Sagrada Familia
Casa Mila
Casa Batllo
Hospital Sant Pau
Park Guell
Palau Guell
Palau de la Musica Catalana

So much to see in fair Barcelona !!

When Modernista architecture is beginning to get a little too much, make a visit to Pedralbes Monastery for a nice change.

Hi Jon,
We used T10 cards (10 trips plus free transfer within a certain timeframe) for metro and bus. It can be shared by multiple people. 2017 price of T10 metro ticket is €9.95, and a single ticket for the metro is € 2.15. We also used it for the train to the airport -- a single ticket costs €4.50. T10 card is truly a great value! But the transit bus to the international terminal took about 10 minutes, plus bus waiting time. So do include extra time for this airport transportation.

We purchased separate tickets to Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila, Casa Batllo and Palau de la Musica Catalana, and went to Palau Guell on Sunday for free entrance (personally I wouldn't pay to see it).

We entered Park Guell ~7:30am, so tickets were not required (they started checking ticket at 8am, but Gaudís house was closed before 8am). After seeing the ticketed area by 8am, I walked around and enjoyed the rest of the park (free all day) a lot.

We purchased the 4:45pm ticket for Sagrada Familia and stayed till 7:30pm. It was a sunny day and the mosaic color on the western wall was amazing! We were very lucky (I purchased the tickets weeks ahead and saw long lines outside every day--I stayed nearby)! Wish you could see it on a sunny day, too. Gaudís is a genius!

IMPORTANT: you can use T-10 travelcard for the TRAIN to the airport, or the regular bus #46 to the airport; but not for the METRO to the airport neither for the Aerobus (express bus) also to the airport.

Thanks for all who responded. We can now make an informed decision.

Jon