My wife and I will be in Barcelona for a week at the end of September. Tours we are most interested in are the Sagrada Familia and the Barcelona soccer stadium (Camp Nou Stadium). Wondering if we should be securing tickets for these before we leave the states; or get them when we are in Barcelona.
What other tours might be highly recommended?
Posted by
Washington DC
28084 posts
Camp Nou may well need to be booked now. I know it's popular but don't know how early it gets booked up.
You do not want to walk up to any of the following sights without a pre-purchased entry ticket, lest you spend an hour or more in the ticket line (or don't even get in):
Camp Nou
Picasso Museum (massively crowded; skip it if you're not Picasso fans)
La Sagrada Familia
Parc Guell
Casa Batllo
Casa Mila/La Pedrera
Palau de la Musica Catalana (tour required)
I don't know how Camp Nou works. Of the others, the only one requiring that you take a tour is the Palau de la Musica Catalana. Most of fhe modernista architecture sights have audio guides, as do many of the museums. You don't necessarily need tours.
The first time slot of the day is rather popular at La Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell; it might need to be booked more than a day ahead, but if you have some time flexibility, you probably can wait till you get to Barcelona for everything except Camp Nou. This assumes, of course, that your week in Barcelona doesn't coincide with some sort of massive event or convention that brings even more people than usual into the city.
Figuring out how to schedule the second or third sight of the day is a challenge, so I'd probably try to book one of the advance-ticket places for my first activity each day. There are plenty of other activities that don't require advance planning; they can be Activity 2 and Activity 3 each day.
Among my favorite sights not usually subject to significant ticket lines are:
Sant Pau Modernista site (fabulous former hospital with multiple stunnung buildings)
Barri Gotic (the Tourist Office offers walking tours)
Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (huge)
Fundacio Joan Miro (if you like Miro)
Side trip to the lovely city of Girona
Barcelona has many more top-flight sights, including lots of museums; it depends on what you're interested in. If you fall in love with the modernista architecture, there are dozens of buildings scattered around the city that can at least be seen from the outside.
Posted by
Brisbane, Australia
7175 posts
I maintain that just 4 bookings are absolutely necessary, one on each of four days. Because they open into the evening, I still think you can arrive at Casa Batllo/Casa Mila in the late afternoon and enter without much delay.
Day 1
BOOK a first up visit to ...
•Sagrada Familia
Then head to ...
•Hospital Sant Pau
•Eixample (Passeig de Gracia, Casa Mila & Casa Batllo)
Day 2
BOOK a first up visit to ...
•Palau de la Musica Catalana
Then head to ...
•Bari Gotico (Cathedral)
•Las Ramblas (La Boqueria & Placa Real)
Day 3
BOOK a first up visit to ...
•Picasso Museum
Then head to ...
•El Born (Basilica Santa Maria del Mar)
•Parc de la Ciutadella
•Barceloneta
Day 4
BOOK a first up visit to ...
•Park Guell
Then head to ...
•Montjuic (MNAC & Miro Museum)